Role of Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineers

        

        Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering deals with the ground, how water flows on the ground.  There are large structures like dams that have been built over the course of history. We still build large projects which involve dams, where water is stored for irrigation, drinking water purposes and also to generate electricity. It is one of the cleanest ways to generate electricity. We have several large hydroelectric projects which provide this pressure due to the build-up of water that can be used to generate electricity. These are all massive projects because they involve making a huge reservoir that can collect water. The impact on the environment and people is tremendous, so they have to be done properly and safely. This water is often transferred to the places that we require them. 

        Sometimes disasters happen, say floods; this is an image from Chennai flood and we find that sometimes there is too much rain, there is too much of flow of rainwater and it could flood a city that is inhabited by a lot of people. Hydraulics Engineers will have to estimate when this could happen; using statistics, using the knowledge of historical data, they have to guess, what would be the maximum rainfall that is reasonable to use in design. If this rain falls, how is it going to be handled such that it does not become unsafe for the city, for the people and for the businesses in the city. There are a lot involved in storing and conveying water. On the other hand, we are worried on protecting too much water from coming into the city and destroying the city and its people. 

        The Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineers apply analytical methods, computers, fluid mechanics to the study of flow of water and controlling this water, so that we use it when we need it and it is not going to harm us during its flow. Flow and control is important and dam is a way of collecting water. We can have tanks and we can have other facilities, and then supply this water where it is required and the same can be extended to other liquids.

        There are many fluids other than water where these principles of hydraulics can be used and Civil Engineers also work in these areas. They mainly do the design of hydraulic structures and machinery that is required for controlling water and moving water. They spend a lot of time studying rainfall, especially in a country like India where we have a lot of areas where we do not have water readily available. So, we have to study when will we get rain, how much rain and how are we going to store and use it properly, so that we can control its flow, decide the flow and collect it.

        Disasters happen, and a lot of it is because of storms and floods. There are many Hydraulics Engineers who study storms, see how they move and even predict and warn people that there is a storm approaching, that there could be a flood, so that even though we have designed well, there could be something that is beyond our control. We can warn people that storm is coming, we have to evacuate, we have to be safe, we have to move to higher ground so that they are not affected by floods.

        They base a lot of the work on mathematics, lot of analytical work is needed. Physics, obviously, fluid mechanics is this special area of mechanics of Physics that deal with flow of water, flow of different fluids, pressures it creates during its flow. Hydrology is the study of flow of water on the earth and they end up designing a lot of water supply networks, our cities are growing, new cities are coming up, we need to provide water. The water supplying networks also have to be designed properly and hydraulic structures like dams and canals. These are the different areas that Hydraulics Engineers work on.

Do checkout the related articles.

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Specializations in Civil Engineering

Career Opportunities for Civil Engineers

What is Civil Engineering?

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