Water Engineering and Management (WEM)

Today’s major challenges for water engineers and managers include securing water for people and for food production: protecting vital ecosystems: and dealing with the variability and uncertainty of water in space and time.

The Water Engineering and Management (WEM) field imparts education and training toward an understanding of the complexity of water use and water resources management problems. It offers a balanced curriculum, which covers both the engineering and management aspects of water resource development. Students are trained to acquire knowledge and hands-on practice in tools and techniques to come up with viable and sustainable solutions within the framework of integrated water resources management at the river basin scale.

Water Engineering and Management covers five major areas – Agricultural Water, Coastal Water, Urban Water, Water Resources, and Extreme Events and Risk Management. The courses are designed in such a way that students can specialize according to their interests. Courses on watershed hydrology, hydrodynamics, water resources systems, and concepts in water modeling provide a solid foundation for the advanced courses. The field emphasizes tools and techniques in resource planning and management in addition to laboratory and field practices.

Agricultural Water courses impart knowledge and skills necessary for the development and management of water resources for agriculture. They address various multi-disciplinary issues in the planning, design, implementation, operation, and maintenance of irrigation and drainage projects and land and water conservation programs. Current researches in the area include irrigation and drainage system management, cropping systems, erosion and water quality problems, soil conservation and land use, and watershed management.

The management and design of sound engineering work for the control and effective use of coastal zones require in-depth knowledge of hydrodynamics and an understanding of coastal zone phenomena. Coursework and research in Coastal Water cover studies of wave characteristics and their action on beaches, coastal sedimentation, estuarine hydraulics, and the applied aspects of coastal zone engineering and management.

Urban Water courses relate to water supply and sanitation, stormwater, domestic wastewater, and urban drainage for sustainable management of urban areas. The research in relation to urban water focuses on the application of state-of-the-art theory in water demand forecasting and management, design and management of water distribution systems in urban and rural areas, and real-time hydrological information systems for urban flooding and drainage.

Given the ever-growing importance of water quality, an integrated water quantity-quality approach is essential. Courses in Water Resources focus on techniques to assess the occurrence and availability of surface and groundwater. Students acquire a sound understanding of basic principles in river engineering and modeling, water resources planning, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater; integrated water resources management, and social and environmental impact assessment of water resources projects. In-depth knowledge and hands-on practice in mathematical modeling of water resource systems are provided.

Flooding is a natural phenomenon and various human activities, as well as climatic changes, have aggravated the problem causing economic losses. Students are exposed to an understanding of the behavior of rivers, and to design appropriate structural and non-structural alternatives for the effective management of rivers and waterways. Research in the area of Extreme Events and Risk Management includes river flow analysis, flood control and mitigation, flood modeling and forecasting, flood plain development, and management.