The hydrological and pedological field exercise offers Bachelor students the opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge of hydrology and the associated measurements and soil investigations learned in the Environmental Monitoring lecture in practice. 

Since 2020, the exercise has taken place at the forest climate station of the State Forestry Institute (LWF) near Freising. Flow measurements were carried out in the English Garden. For the future, the relocation to an experimental area owned by the Lehrstuhl is in planning, where all essential elements of the water cycle can be observed and measured at one location. A close relation to ongoing research projects will then also be given.

Regardless of the location, the following main topics will be covered: 

• Introduction to the geology, geomorphology and pedology of the measurement area. 
• Carrying out discharge measurements with different methods 
• Introduction to field soil science, addressing soil parameters, developing soil profiles 
• Measurement of hydrological state variables in the soil (soil moisture, hydraulic conductivity, suction tension and soil temperature) 
• Methods of precipitation and climate measurement (temperature, humidity, relief- and vegetation-related terrain climatological effects) 
• Summary of all measurement data and interpretation 

After introduction to the measuring area, 6 working groups go through 6 thematic stations each with specific measuring methods (meteorology, soil response, infiltration measurement, soil moisture determination, runoff measurement using different methods).

The students prepare reports (15 - 20 pages) in small groups, each on one of the above-mentioned thematic stations. For this purpose, they evaluate the data of all groups for the entire internship period for the respective measurement methodology. Each group presents its report in a 20-minute presentation and is questioned in a subsequent colloquium on all topics covered in the measurement practical. 

More detailed information is available in the course description on TUMonline.