Base: Hydraulic Engineering Fundamentals and Environments Part I

The Hydraulic Engineering Extended Track Core of 24 EC consists of two parts. Part I (15 EC) contains three units: Hydraulic Engineering Solutions in a Changing Environment (6EC); Waves (5EC); and River Systems and Interventions (4EC).

The unit Hydraulic Engineering Solutions in a Changing Environment considers physical processes, design of structures, ecological and societal components. The focus is on the most pressing issues and building with nature solutions at a system scale.

The unit Ocean Waves covers the dynamics of wind-generated waves in the open ocean and in coastal waters.

The unit River Systems and Interventions covers: (1) the characteristics of a river system,(2) the morphodynamic behaviour of these systems (including the response to human interventions) based on the underlying hydrodynamic and sediment transport processes, and (3) typical river engineering problems and methods design interventions.

The Hydraulic Engineering Solutions in a Changing Environment unit presents modern challenges in hydraulic systems that cover coastal, river and port environments, and covers fundamental knowledge required to design nature-based and hard engineering solutions in these systems (e.g., flow and transport fundamentals, design of bed protections, interactions with ecosystems). In order to effectively propose and design solutions both engineering and ecological design principles are discussed.

The Ocean Waves Unit focuses in the first part on the description of regular (monochromatic) waves before extending the results to realistic wind-generated wave fields that consist of wave components of varying frequencies and directions. It starts with linear wave theory which gives the interrelation between physical characteristics as the surface motion, the wave-induced pressure in the water and the motion of water particles. Commonly used nonlinear wave theories are then briefly introduced. We then discuss how the main properties of regular waves change when they propagate over varying depths and how they are affected by currents. In the second part of the Unit, we transition to irregular and directionally spread wave fields. We discuss how such wave fields can be measured and subsequently characterized, both in the time- and frequency-domain. We finally discuss how the wave field develops in the open ocean and coastal waters, and how an energy balance can be used to predict spectral wave evolution.

The unit River Systems and Interventions covers three main topics:

(1) The characteristics of a river system. Here we address river systems, river response to change and associated time scales, catchment hydrology, rainfall-runoff, and climate aspects.

(2) The hydraulic and morphodynamic behavior of these systems. Here we address flow properties (normal flow, backwater types, flood waves, flow structures), sediment transport, and initial, transient and equilibrium morphodynamic response.

(3) River interventions. Here we address river-related problems, (inter)national river management, flood safety, navigation and other river functions, as well as river interventions.