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This paper explains and analyses a virtual gamification experience developed by a teaching group from the University of Catania (Italy) and the University of Cordoba (Spain). A competition based on professional tasks about hydrological planning was implemented in two subjects on Hydrological Sciences. The teaching experience was designed to improve the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills needed for hydrological studies, promote the management of ICT and increase international cooperation between different universities; all aimed at making students more employable. The experience is transferable to different academic levels. Following the philosophy of soccer leagues, the students solved and presented the exercise by teams of two students. Through videoconference, the presentation and the explanation were done so the fans in each country supported their teams. The students found it a very challenging experience but at the same time, some of them were aware of their needs of improving technical knowledge, particularly Geographical Information Systems, and English language skills. Updating of tools and the schedule within the different academic calendar were their main organization handicaps. The main outcome of the presented experience is that social energy and enthusiasm associated to popular activities such as soccer led to improve the interest and the motivation of the students in challenging technical contents as well as teamwork and language transversal competences.

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets), as well as their relationship with the activities which make up the work and the schedule. The design criteria we considered were: its online applications and their compatibility with Moodle; the inclusion of different learning approaches, such as exploratory learning and inquiry-based learning; its interactivity, and the use of multimedia elements for visualisation and direct analysis on material common to Engineering subjects. The students' perceptions of the improvements brought by the virtual lab were analysed statistically through a series of questions over two academic years. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most of those who had used the e-learning tool valued positively its overall suitability for reaching the objectives in their subject as well as the way it improved the working methodology. The practical knowledge acquired by the students was also highly valued. In addition, the lack of constraints commonly related to field trips (expenses, time and complexity) illustrates the utility of self-access learning tools in key transversal disciplines such as Engineering projects.

Vegetal covers protect the soil against erosion in agricultural systems. In marginal olive farms, spontaneous grass covers are preferred due to their low cost, despite their high spatial and temporal heterogeneity which limits their efficiency. Although the impact of different managements, soil conditions or cover crops species has been evaluated and compared, there is currently insufficient information available on the spatial and temporal patterns of spontaneous grass covers in olive groves. This work focuses on the analysis of the spatial distribution patterns, temporal stability and protection capacity of spontaneous grass covers in olive orchards. First, the temporal variability of spontaneous grass cover was explored in relation to the meteorological conditions and the management system. Second, spatial analysis by distance indices (SADIE) was applied to explore the spatial patterns and persistence of the spontaneous cover. Finally, a descriptive analysis of events was made to illustrate the degree of influence of the cover on the hydrological response of the catchment. A total 12 surveys were carried out on a seasonal scale over 3 years (2011 − 2013) to measure the cover percentage of spontaneous grass through surface photograph analyses. A regular, permanent grid of 37 points (6 samples/ha) was used to define each sample-location. In order to evaluate the relations between the cover percentage and meteorological variables, multiple linear regressions were adjusted while the SADIE approach and correlation analysis were used to describe possible spatial aggregation patterns and its dependence on topographical and soil attributes such as aspect, slope, drainage area, height, richness of grass species and apparent electrical conductivity. The average annual percentage of cover ranged from 23% to 36%, with a coefficient of variation of 57% and 6%, respectively. On the seasonal scale, the cover varied between 0.2% and 50%. Accumulated precipitation during the precedent 15 days, the average of minimum temperature of the previous 60 days and the cumulated potential evapotranspiration of the same period showed a significant correlation with the mean cover percentage in the catchment. A simple multiple linear regression adjustment between the cumulated precipitation for the 15 previous days and the number of months since the vegetation was removed using herbicide or by summer conditions gave a determination coefficient of 77%. Moreover, a permanent spatial pattern was observed for periods characterized by abundant preceding rainfall. Only the apparent electrical conductivity of the topsoil (50 cm in depth) showed significant correlations with the spatial patterns of spontaneous grass. Finally, similar rainfall events taking place with different degrees of soil cover presented very different hydrological responses, which allowed us to quantify the contribution of spontaneous vegetation to sediment dynamics during humid periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a virtual lab for the contents of an Engineering project, for designing an agro-industrial building, which is also useful for a range of different transversal courses in Engineering sciences. The aims of this tool are to analyse the most important contents of a project-document (calculation, regulations, drawings and budgets), as well as their relationship with the activities which make up the work and the schedule. The design criteria we considered were: its online applications and their compatibility with Moodle; the inclusion of different learning approaches, such as exploratory learning and inquiry-based learning; its interactivity, and the use of multimedia elements for visualisation and direct analysis on material common to Engineering subjects. The students’ perceptions of the improvements brought by the virtual lab were analysed statistically through a series of questions over two academic years. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most of those who had used the e-learning tool valued positively its overall suitability for reaching the objectives in their subject as well as the way it improved the working methodology. The practical knowledge acquired by the students was also highly valued. In addition, the lack of constraints commonly related to field trips (expenses, time and complexity) illustrates the utility of self-access learning tools in key transversal disciplines such as Engineering projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number (CN) estimates of direct runoff from rainfall for semiarid catchments can be inaccurate. Investigation of the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) (Southeastern Arizona) and its ten nested catchments determined that the inaccuracy is due to the original SCS ratio ( λ) of 0.2 between initial abstraction and maximum potential retention. Sensitivity analyses indicate that runoff estimation can be very sensitive to the initial abstraction ratio, especially for relatively low rainfall amount and for watersheds covered by deep, coarse, and porous soil, conditions that dominate many semiarid watersheds worldwide. Changing the ratio of initial abstraction to the maximum potential retention to optimal values ranging from 0.01 to 0.53 for different Walnut Gulch catchments improved runoff estimates. The greater the channel area and the finer the soil, the smaller the initial abstraction ratio is. The variation of the initial abstraction ratio for the WGEW is due to the variation of maximum potential retention and initial abstraction, which are channel area and soil-dependent parameters. The greater the channel area, the higher the maximum potential retention S is, and the coarser the soil, the larger the initial abstraction Ia is. In addition, the effect of initial abstraction ratio on runoff estimation increases with decreasing CN. Thus, impacts of initial abstraction ratio on runoff estimation should be considered, especially for semiarid watersheds where the CN is usually low. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student responsibility is demonstrated when students take an active role in their learning and take actions to face their educational goals. It is worth noting how inquiry learning in Sciences and Engineering provides suitable contexts in which students can build knowledge to solve problems, make decisions and find solutions to challenges in today's world (García-Medina and García Fernández, 2015; William and Otrel-Cass, 2017) In this work, we describe the practical experience of presenting the features and usefulness of innovative ICTs associated to the organisation of a workshop carried out by students of the Forest Engineering degree in the University of Cordoba (Spain).The workshop was conceived as a final work in the context of the subject "Computer tools in Forest Engineering Projects". The participation as a speaker in the workshop was a voluntary activity included in the teaching guide and was assigned with academic marks. Moreover, the participation as an author of the present contribution to the EGU Assembly 2019 was also another incentive to get involved in the activity. Firstly, teachers and students agreed on the content of the talk, which had to deal with innovative technological tools. Then, the programme of the workshop was announced on the Moodle platform. Each speaker had to explore a computer tool and prepare an English presentation with a a duration between 15 and 30 minutes. The pieces of software presented were "Genially" (https://www.genial.ly/es), "Classcraft" (https://www.classcraft.com/es/) and "Some useful Apps in Forest Engineering" In the closure, a coffee time was also scheduled in order to collect feedback about the experience in an informal way. In addition to the organisation of the workshop in terms of announcement and equipment, the teachers collected the presentations and the material prepared, recorded the session and edited a video which can be viewed on Moodle. Despite the lack of quantitative indicators about the experience, the presentations resulted excellent and the teachers observed how the students were empowered when they adopted the teaching role. It was also significant how the "camera effect" was useful to take the importance of English speaking seriously, as well as to improve student responsibility and collaborative competencies.REFERENCES:R. García-Medina, J.A.García-Fernández. 2015. Cooperar para enseñar, aprender cooperativamente REIRE: revista d'innovació i recerca en educació, Vol. 8(2), 230-241.P. J. Williams, K. Otrel-Cass. 2017. Teacher and student reflections on ICT-rich science inquiry. Research in Science & Technological Education. Vol. 358(1), 88-107. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1% of the world agricultural area is dedicated to olive groves. 48% of world olive oil is produced in Spain, on an area of 2,6 Mha of which, more than 60% is located in Andalusia, in the Southern region (Vilar and Pereira, 2017). Despite the economic, social and cultural relevance of olive grove in the Mediterranean Basin, some studies have highlighted the crop's susceptibility to land degradation and loss of biodiversity, in particular when climate change is considered. In this context, the analyses and monitoring of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock changes are crucial to identify risk of desertification and to fulfill environmental protection global conventions (FAO, 2018).In this work, a sensitivity analysis of the AnnAGNPS model (Bingner et al., 2018) to characterize the impact the different groups of input parameters under real scenarios of extensive olive groves in Andalusia (Spain) is going to be presented. The main aim is to evaluate and to compare the impact on carbon dynamics in an extensive olive orchard catchment where different soil types and managements were parameterized and contrasted with varying hydrological periods through AnnAGNPS simulations.Firstly, model parameters will be evaluated and grouped by soil categories, hydrological features, and management in order to quantify their impact on the sediment carbon loads at the event, monthly and annual scales. A total of 108 scenarios will be prepared in order to describe the influence of 6 soil types, 3 managements (no-till, conventional till and no till with spontaneous grass cover), 3 different rates of fertilization and 2 contrasted organic carbon life-time. On the other hand, the variations of ground carbon content will be also studied at the annual scale. A sensitivity analysis based on the Regression method (Song et al., 2015) will allow us to observe the most significant parameters and features as well as the suitability of the results when comparing bibliographical data. REFERENCESR. L. Bingner, F. Theurer, Y. Yuan, E.V. Taguas. 2018. AnnAGNPS TECHNICAL PROCESSES Documentation Version 5.5. USDA-ARS, National Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford (MS, US). (https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/wntsc/H&H/AGNPS/downloads/AnnAGNPS%5fTechnical%5fDocumentation.pdf)FAO- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2019. Global Soil Partnership. Accessed at: January 2019. http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/resources/highlights/detail/en/c/1109389/X. Song, J. Zhang, C. Zhan, Y. Xuan, M. Ye, X. Chonggang. 2015. Global sensitivity analysis in hydrological modeling: Review of concepts,methods, theoretical framework, and applications. Journal of Hydrology 523, 739-757.J. Vilar, J.E. Pereira. 2017. Informe de la Caja Rural de Jaén sobre coyuntura para la olivicultura internacional. Campaña 2016-2017. Conference Expoliva, Jaén, May 2017. Accessed at: January 2019. http://www.expoliva.info/archivos/informe%5fcaja%5frural.pdfACKNOWLEDGMENT: This study was supported by the project CGL2015-64284-C2-2-R (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]