Hydrotechnical Engineering
Hydrotechnical students during a site visit
program overview
Water plays a central role in irrigation, hydroelectric power production,
water supply, navigation, flood control, erosion control, fisheries, drainage
and land transport of pollutants. The utilization and management of water
resources must be accomplished efficiently and economically, yet with assurance
that there will be no detriment to the long-term potential of the resource
itself or to the general well being and environmental quality of the surrounding
region. Meeting these objectives requires great care in assessment, planning,
design and management of water resources development. This, in turn, demands
an understanding of many areas: the availability, distribution and quality
of water, at rest and in motion, as it relates to the analysis and design
of hydraulic components and structures; natural processes such as erosion,
sedimentation, river mechanics, and coastal processes; and methods for
planning and operating the resource system in an optimal way. Responsibility
for these activities rests largely with civil engineers.
Graduate students select their main field of interest, and their individual
programs are decided, in consultation with a faculty advisor. Since hydrotechnical
engineering is such a broad field for graduate study, students may specialize
in one phase, such as hydrology, hydraulics, environmental fluid mechanics;
or alternatively, students may choose a broad program such as water resources
management, which would include elements of hydrology, hydraulics, systems
engineering and pollution control engineering.
MEng, MASc and PhD programs are available.
Research
Examples of current research are:
- theoretical, numerical, laboratory and field investigations of the
movement of nutrients and pollutants in lakes, inland and coastal waters;
- flow instabilities, turbulence, and mixing in density stratified flows;
- sediment transport in rivers and tailings ponds;
- hydrologic modelling for flood control planning and management studies;
- river restoration;
- urban hydrology;
- application of optimization techniques and decision analysis to hydraulic
design, the operation of multi-purpose reservoirs, lake water and river
quality problems, fishery management and the design of water resource
systems;
- development of basin planning methods;
- hydrologic data gathering network design;
- wave damping and diffraction and wave induced loading of structures.
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Facilities
The Department of Civil Engineering occupies its own building and laboratory
complex. This complex includes a 900 m2 modern hydraulics laboratory with
a circulating capacity of 0.3 m3/s. The laboratory is equipped with a number
of free-surface-flow facilities, including a 25m flume and a recirculating
sediment flume. The facilities are adaptable to a wide range of research
activities. In addition, there is a well-equipped pollution control laboratory.
The department has excellent computing facilities, including numerous
networked PC's and UNIX computers, and access to other University computing
resources.
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Civil Engineering Hydrotechnical Faculty
| Michael
Isaacson |
Ocean engineering, coastal engineering and wave induced loading. |
| Bernard Laval |
Environmental fluid mechanics, physical limnology, coastal oceanography,
transport processes, hydrodynamic stability and mixing. |
| Gregory Lawrence |
Environmental fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrodynamic stability
and mixing, physical limnology, coastal engineering and water quality
management. |
| Barbara J. Lence |
Modelling and optimization of water quality and water resource systems,
environmental policy analysis, decision-making and probability analyses. |
| Robert G. Millar |
River engineering, hydraulics, hydrology and stream restoration. |
| Noboru Yonemitsu |
|
Faculty in Related Areas
| James
W. Atwater |
Solid wastes, toxic and hazardous waste management, water quality,
groundwater pollution, landfill and leachate management. |
| Loretta Li |
Soil-contaminant interaction, contaminant migration,
site remediation, clay liners and clay materials study in geo-environmental
practice and mine tailings waste. |
Active Emeritus Faculty
| Ken Hall |
Toxic materials in aquatic environments,
cycling of organics, water chemistry, trace organic analysis and eutrophication. |
| Michael C. Quick |
Mountain hydrology, forecasting of snow and glacier melt runoff,
river engineering, coastal erosion and beach forecasting. |
| Denis Russell |
Water resources engineering and management, hydrology and decision
analysis methods. |
Adjunct Faculty
| Ziad Shawwash |
Sponsored by BC Hydro: hydropower system modelling:
optimization of hydroelectric systems (including: planning and design
of small scale hydrosystems, sizing and facility location). |
| Peter Ward |
Ward & Associates, Ltd.: hydrology; hydraulics;
engineering fluid mechanics; design of hydropower structures and analysis
of feasibility of power facilities. |
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