Hydraulic engineering is primarily concerned with water-related infrastructure in rivers, river basins and coastal zones that is needed to enhance the beneficial and sustainable use of water and/or to control water-related problems. In this field of activity there are multiple stakeholders representing all sections of society – government agencies, public and private sector owners, planners, designers and implementers, professional associations, the users of water and the public in general.
The activities of the River Basin Development (HERBD) core group include education and training, applied research and development, and advisory services. It also implements cooperation projects to strengthen the capacities of partner organizations in developing countries. The group aims to contribute to improving the ways to identify and deal with a number of key issues in river basins, including:
* Appropriate solutions for ‘living with floods’ and providing sufficient room for rivers to maintain their natural dynamics.
* Effective ways to plan, design, implement, operate and maintain water-related infrastructure.
* The social, economic and other environmental consequences of water use and of the implementation of water related infrastructure at regional and local levels.
* Ways to increase the effectiveness of water-related infrastructure.
* Ways to adequately predict, monitor, control and mitigate the negative impacts water and water-related infrastructure
Activities
The expertise of the core group covers the following areas:
* Flood risk management: inundation prediction and real-time forecasting;
* Morphology and its interaction with ecology;
* Strategic environmental assessment;
* Hydropower design, optimisation and impact assessment;
* Environmental water allocation and reservoir operation;
* Flood vulnerability indices.
All of these activities involve interdisciplinary knowledge drawn from the physical sciences, and the various branches and specialities of engineering, environmental sciences and social sciences.