AIH Professional Hydrologist - Groundwater Examination study plan
AIH Professional Hydrologist - Groundwater Examination · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Fundamentals of Hydrology
Derive and apply the water-balance equation to closed and open basins, including sign conventions for storage change
Compute residence times for atmosphere, soil, and aquifer reservoirs from given flux and volume data
Explain the hydrologic cycle components and rank them by global water volume and by annual flux
Convert between unit systems (SI, US customary, acre-feet, cfs, Mgal/d) without reference aids
Your checkpoint
A one-page unit-conversion and water-balance reference sheet plus 20 solved practice problems with worked steps
Fundamentals of Hydrology
Calculate potential evapotranspiration using Penman-Monteith inputs and interpret each term
Distinguish actual from potential ET and select appropriate estimation methods for data-limited settings
Compute infiltration using Horton and Green-Ampt models for given soil parameters
Interpret soil moisture characteristic curves and define field capacity, wilting point, and available water
Your checkpoint
A solved ET and infiltration problem set (15 problems) with a decision flowchart for choosing an ET method
Surface Water Hydrology
Compute rainfall intensity-duration-frequency relationships and apply them to design storms
Derive unit hydrographs from excess rainfall and streamflow data and convolve them for a multi-period storm
Apply the rational method and NRCS curve number method and state their assumptions and limits
Route a flood hydrograph through a reservoir using the level-pool method
Your checkpoint
A hydrograph analysis packet: one worked unit hydrograph derivation, one convolution, one curve-number runoff calculation, and one level-pool routing table
Surface Water Hydrology
Delineate a watershed and compute time of concentration using at least two methods
Estimate peak discharge with a frequency analysis using log-Pearson Type III concepts
Explain streamflow measurement methods (weir, flume, velocity-area, rating curve) and their uncertainty sources
Describe baseflow separation techniques and their effect on direct runoff volume
Your checkpoint
A closed-book, timed 40-question surface-water practice test scored at 75% or better with a written error log
Groundwater Hydrology
Define porosity, specific yield, specific retention, hydraulic conductivity, transmissivity, and storativity and relate them algebraically
Apply Darcy's law in one and three dimensions, including anisotropic and layered (equivalent K) systems
Compute hydraulic head, gradient, and flow direction from a three-point problem
Interpret pumping-test drawdown data with the Theis and Cooper-Jacob methods to obtain T and S
Your checkpoint
A groundwater fundamentals formula sheet plus 15 solved problems covering Darcy flow, layered media, and aquifer parameter estimation
Groundwater Hydrology
Construct and interpret flow nets, including anisotropy-transformed sections and boundary conditions
Calculate steady radial flow to a well and predict drawdown at observation wells
Apply superposition and image-well theory to well fields and boundary effects
Explain the differences among confined, unconfined, and leaky aquifer responses to pumping
Your checkpoint
Two hand-drawn flow nets with computed fluxes plus a well-field superposition problem solved and checked against a mass-balance estimate
Groundwater Hydrology & Fundamentals of Hydrology
Assemble a basin groundwater budget combining recharge, discharge, storage change, and boundary flux
Estimate recharge using water-table fluctuation and baseflow-recession methods and compare results
Explain contaminant transport fundamentals: advection, dispersion, retardation, and the retardation factor
Describe well construction, screen selection, and safe-yield concepts in the context of aquifer sustainability
Your checkpoint
A written groundwater budget for a hypothetical basin with two independent recharge estimates and a discussion of discrepancies
Fundamentals of Hydrology & Surface Water Hydrology & Groundwater Hydrology
Complete two full-length timed mock exams under exam conditions and score each
Categorize every missed item by domain and root cause (knowledge gap, misread, calculation error)
Re-derive the ten formulas most frequently missed from memory
Review weak-domain notes and confirm each domain scores at or above 70%
Your checkpoint
A mock-exam score report by domain with a remediation checklist, and a final one-page condensed review sheet covering all three domains
Milestones
Week 2: Score 75% or better on a 25-question Fundamentals self-quiz covering water balance, ET, and infiltration, with all missed items reworked in writing
Week 4: Score 75% or better on the timed 40-question Surface Water practice test; unit hydrograph derivation completed without notes
Week 6: Correctly estimate T and S from a pumping-test data set and produce a flow net whose computed flux agrees within 10% of a mass-balance check
Week 8: Both full-length mock exams scored, each domain at or above 70%, and every missed item logged with a root cause and corrective action