Hydrology teaching : an example of student learning using flood frequency analysis

![CDATA[Hydrology is one of the common subjects in engineering study. Hydrology courses often contain flood risk analysis as flood is one of the most catastrophic natural disasters globally. For example, during 2010-11, the flood damage in Australia exceeded $30 billion and costed over 30 lives. To minimise the flood damage the best approach is to predict the severity of the flood by analysing recorded flood data sets available at the location of interest. This paper presents the learning experiences of students based on a case study on flooding problem in South Australia. It examines the frequency of floods in South Australia by using two commonly used probability distributions, namely Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution and Gamma distribution. It has been found that although South Australia is a drier state in Australia, it suffers from severe flooding occasionally. Furthermore, this paper shows the difficulties in flood frequency analysis in relation to learning and applying it as methods produce significantly different results at higher return periods, which are relevant in the design of large infrastructure projects. On this regard, it compares the hydrology courses of three universities: University of Technology Sydney, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology and Western Sydney University.]]