Motivation letter

I wish to apply for PhD positions Hydrogeological assessment of dynamic groundwater flow in
floodplains" at The University of Tbingen, Department of Geosciences, Hydrogeology, which
was recently advertised on the webpage of the institute. My name is Benjamin Olukunle and I
have studied Civil Engineering (B.Eng.) in Nigeria and a Masters in Hydrogeology and
Environmental Geosciences (M.Sc.) at the Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany. In
April 2017, I will have completed my second masters programme in Water Engineering
(M.Eng.) at the University Of Applied Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.

During my undergraduate studies and masters programmes, I became more interested in

Hydrological modeling and Ecohydrology because understanding the interaction between surface
and subsurface waters through hyporheic exchange and base flow is critical to maintaining
ecological health in streams. During warm periods, groundwatersurface water interactions have
two primary effects on stream temperature: (1) cool groundwater discharging as base flow
lowers stream temperature and (2) hyporheic exchange buffers diurnal stream temperature
variations. Therefore, understanding the processes controlling the concentration and fluxes of the
transport process is critical to quantifying and mapping watersheds vulnerable to stresses and
predicting the effects of these stresses on watershed scale. There is also a need to better
understand how groundwater discharge to streams accumulates throughout a watersheds
drainage network as base flow, which supports river flow during dry periods, maintains aquatic
ecosystems, and is critical to humans for water supply and agriculture.

My research interests lie in the fields of catchment hydrology, analysis and evaluation of
hydrological systems under uncertainty, model identification and evaluation, prediction in
ungauged catchments and prediction under environmental change (i.e. climate and land use
change). Specifically, my current visions fall under the theme diagnostic model evaluation in a
non-stationary context and focus on the identification of robust numerical solutions to better
characterize the possible evolutions of surface hydrology. In this content, I intend to better
quantify the model uncertainties and improve the capacity of hydrological models to predict
extreme flood events and their future change. My research goal strives for a better understanding
of the transport of water and chemicals between surfacewater and groundwater. The influences of
this interaction on biological processes are essential to improve management of surface and
groundwater resources and to protect the functionality of the associated ecosystems. Historically,
surfacewater and groundwater have been considered separately and essentially unconnected
components of the hydrological processes water resources managers and scientific investigators.
However, it has been recognized that hydrological exchange is critical for the sustainability of
conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water, for the maintenance of water quality, and for
the conservation of biodiversity and the ecological functions of the watersheds.

For this research topic, I intend to study and estimate connectivity between groundwater and
surface water, create a coupling model of groundwater-surface water over nested and regional
scales which are not readily accessible to observations; study the dynamics of groundwater
chemistry by intensive monitoring and the use of natural and artificial tracers to develop a
modeling framework, advance uncertainty quantification and calibrate the model using state
variables and predict future hydrogeological assessment.

Due to previous field experience, education and training, in addition to my enthusiasm for the
research topic, I am certain that I will be able make a meaningful contribution to this research
effort if given the opportunity.

Yours sincerely

Olukunle Benjamin Ekeade (M.sc)