Hydraulic Engineering and River Basin Development

Start next run: October 2010
Duration: 18 Months
Location: UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands

The need for food, energy, flood risk management and domestic and industrial water supply requires that water will be used and managed more efficiently than in the past. Traditional river engineering has had serious consequences for riverine ecosystems and land use, causing damage to flora and fauna and sometimes exacerbating floods and droughts.

The Hydraulic Engineering and River Basin Development specialisation educates engineers involved in design and implementation of projects for sustainable use of river systems and their resources (fresh water, floodplain space and even sediments). Emphasis is laid on different scales of water projects (catchments, river stretches and floodplains).

Participant Profile

Participants typically have a BSc degree in civil engineering with a hydraulic engineering background, and have worked for at least three years after graduation in professional practice or in a university or research environment in the field of river engineering and river basin development.

Future careers may be in government services, consultancy, or education and research institutes. Knowledge in mathematics, statistics and physics is a prerequisite. Computer literacy is a valuable asset.

Learning Objectives

After successfully completing the specialisation, graduates will be equipped to:

• Uderstand physical processes and natural phenomena in river basin systems, the effect of human interference in river basins, such as river structures and training works, and the management of floods and droughts.
• Master the major hydraulic methodologies and applications for the design of (large) river structures and river modelling techniques with regard to data collection, processing and analysis.
• Evaluate and analyse river basin systems and processes at a wide range of scales for the purpose of water resources, including morphological assessments, impact analysis of hydraulic structures and natural hazards assessment and mitigation taking into account relevant aspects of environmental, economical and social planning and management.
• Design and conduct hydraulic research, experiments and tests for both practical and scientific purposes.
• Have knowledge of contemporary research (questions) and relevant literature in the field of hydraulic engineering and river basin development.
• Have the skills to apply and integrate relevant concepts and methodologies in the area of hydraulic, hydrological and geotechnical engineering and research as well as applying computational principles within the context of hydraulic engineering.

Course Contents

The focus of the specialisation is on the following main fields of interest:

• River Structures mainly directed to the design of hydraulic structures, by defining sites and designs of reservoirs, dams, intakes, hydropower plants, conveyance systems, etc. Emphasis is given not only to technical aspects but also, in a broader context to managerial, social and environmental questions associated with these engineering works.
• River Intakes and River Training mainly directed to modelling of the river flow regime, sediment transport, and channel morphology in relation to engineering projects for river training, bank protection, channel flow, navigation, etc.
• Flood Management, mainly concerned with the engineering issues, planning, policies and structural/non-structural measures and approaches to cope with floods and mitigate their impacts and consequences.

The specialisation modules deal with the following subjects:

• Geosciences covers geo-engineering, shallow foundations, irrigation and drainage design and irrigation methods.
• River systems and river dynamics includes rivers systems; riverine, hydraulic and morphological impacts of anthropogenic interventions, and covers the relation between riverine ecosystems and environmental factors in floodplains.
• River modelling covering computational hydraulics which links physical processes and mathematical descriptions and comparison of traditional methods with modern mathematical modelling techniques, practical experience with mathematical models and physical models, reproducing hydraulic phenomena like 2D and 3D flows in rivers, over and trough structures, sediment transport and morphology.
• River basin development and management covers principles of integrated management of riverine systems, including the role of monitoring and modelling forecasting and the use of decision support systems, and potentials and uses of water resources and factors affecting these, including the scope and role of hydraulic engineering in water resources development and management projects.
• Storage & hydropower covers principles and practices used in the analysis and hydraulic design of dams and other structures for storage, level regulation and hydropower development, surface and underground storage for water harvesting in arid and semi-arid zones.
• River structures provide understanding of the principles and practices in the analysis and design of major hydraulic structures in rivers, and of the interaction between rivers and river structures.

In addition, participants choose one of the following modules:

• Water and climate variability,
• River basins and environment
• or Integrated Flood Risk Management

The list below shows all course modules of the specialisation within the framework of the International Master Programme in Water Science and Engineering (participants can choose between modules that have the same module-number). This is followed by a six month research and thesis phase. In total, the programme covers a period of 18 months and graduates will be awarded 106 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits.