Environmental Data Analysis BC ENV 3017

Syllabus - Environmental Data Analysis - Fall '99

Multidisciplinary approaches to environmental problem-solving. Acquisition and processing of environmental information focusing on atmospheric change and water resources. Analysis and interpretation of real- time and historical environmental data. Use of computers for analysis and display, assessment of spatial and temporal variability.

The course will focus on 4 data sets (= projects):

Atmospheric Ozone concentrations at Westpoint
Particulate matter in NYC air
Watershed hydrology - flood forecast
TBA

You will gain experience with:

tabular data
maps
graphing
histograms
simple statistical analysis
errors and noise
basic programing

Software that will be used in this course:

Excel
Word
Powerpoint
Visual Basic
FTP
WinZip

Instructor: Martin Stute, 404F Altschul, Barnard College
        phone: (212) 854 8110, (914) 365 8704
                    (from campus you can dial: 4 8110, 95 8704)
        email: martins@ldeo.columbia.edu
        office hours: Tu 6:15-7:00, Th 2:45-4:00, 6:15-7:00, 404F Altschul, Barnard College
        website: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~martins/eda.html see also Columbia Class Directory information
                    In order to look at slides you may be required to type a password which will be announced in class. The login is: eda.
Prerequisites: Calculus, one year college science or permission of the instructor
Credits: 3 points
Hours: Tue, Thu from 4:10 to 6:00 pm in 530 Altschul Hall
Format: lecture/lab
Textbook: not required
Homework:

Problemsets

Assigned readings

Lab reports

Assigned special activities

Grading:

Homework: 20%

Labreports: 30%

Midterm exam: 20%

Final exam: 30%

Note: There will be a penalty for handing in labs/homework late: 1/3 of a grade per day.

Schedule

Introduction

concept of course/examples of data sets, evaluation of background of the students
unit conversions, scientific notation
back of the envelope calculations

Warm-up examples

graphical presentation of data
e-mail, password, login, basics of Excel, warm-up examples: NYC water supply, Ice volume/sea level

Proj #1: Atmospheric Ozone at Westpoint, NY

atmospheric chemistry of ozone
basics in Excel, data entry
atmospheric transport in NYC area, average, standard deviation, median
evaluation of ozone data of a particular day for everybody
basic statistics (histogram, mean, SD), lab report format
evaluation of extended ozone data set

Proj #2 Particulate matter in NYC air

how to conduct an experiment
particulate matter in air
evaluation of particulate matter experiment
advanced statistics: normal distributions, significance tests (t-tests)
statistical analysis of data, determination of fluxes, discussion of p.m. sources

Proj #3: Surface water hydrology

hydrology of watersheds, measurement of precipitation and stream flow,
Esopus creek, precipitation and streamflow, hydrographs
100 year flood, safe yield, non-normal distributions, skewness, transformations
probability and 100 year flood, review
modeling with Visual Basic
modeling of ³H timeseries in river
review

Proj #4: TBA

1999 Schedule

Oct 28: Midterm Exam

Nov 1-2: Election Day Holidays

Nov 25-26: Thanksgiving Break

Dec 14-15: Reading Period

Dec 16-23: Final Exams