Professor, Hydrology / Atmospheric Sciences | Member of the Graduate Faculty | Professor, Civil Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
My approach to teaching the core course HWR519 is to provide the students with the physical and mathematical background to understand processes at and below the land surface that control water and energy partitioning. Unlike many other similar courses taught in other departments Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UA and other universities across the country) this course takes the scientific approach to surface hydrology rather than an engineering approach. Therefore it is a challenging course to teach as well as for the students to take. I provide the students with several homework assignments to give them the opportunity to deeply understand the material covered during lectures. I also have designed a class project that allow the students to explore real world catchment data precipitation, temperature, stream flow) in order to understand how the different processes discussed in class work together to generate hydrologic response stream flow, evapotranspiration) in different climates and in different geophysical environments geology, topography, geomorphology) This prepares them to become watershed hydrologists and is the perfect introduction to my follow-ucourses. HWR630 is designed to raise the scientific level of the students such that they know the literature in different elements of catchment hydrology: geomorphological controls on hydrology, rainfall-runoff processes and modeling approaches, the role of vegetation in the hydrological cycle, water residence time in catchments and its controls, transport of nutrients and solutes at catchment scales, and remote sensing techniques to monitor hydrological stores and fluxes. The class project involves the use of a catchment model to answer specific science questions related to the student’s research interests. The final course, HWR696F is a seminar class that focuses on an active research field in catchment hydrology. The ambition of the class is to write a review paper such that the students get familiar with the art of scientific writing, based on thorough review of recent literature.My goals in advising students at both the MSc and PhD level) are to make intellectual leaders out of them. Graduates from our department should have the intellectual power to lead in whatever situation they end uwith. Leadershicombines intelligence, self-confidence, compassion and empathy, and I try to teach them these principles through example. Troch’s research focuses on catchment hydrology, including in-situ data collection, field and laboratory experimentation, remote sensing, physically-based modeling and data assimilation. His research aims to address the following questions: i) what controls hydrological partitioning across scales, ii) what defines hydrological similarity across catchments; iii) how have catchments evolved in relation to climate and geology, and how will hydrologic response change in a changing environment. Applications of his research include improving mountain block recharge estimates in semi-arid environments, the role of ecosystems in catchment water balance, catchment classification in ungauged basins, predicting water availability at seasonal, annual and decadal time scales, and improving the physical basis of operational flash flood forecasting models.