Course Description
Engineering hydrology, soil erosion, introduction to open channel design, runoff estimations and calculations, engineered containment structures, landscape-scale water distribution, and non-point water quality.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students must complete all requirements of
undergraduate students plus additional readings assigned by
the instructor, additional exam questions based on these
readings, and development of an in-depth, watershed-scale plan
for managing nonpoint source pollution and restoring water
quality as a capstone project. The project will be presented in
a final report.
Athena Title
Natural Resources Engineering
Undergraduate Pre or Corequisite
ENGR 3160 or ENGR 3160E
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will: 1. Understand why natural resources engineering is important to society 2. Understand concepts and principles of hydrology 3. Understand foundations of water quality 4. Understand the use of basic engineering containment structures for managing stormwater and preserving land system integrity 5. Understand concepts of ecological indicators with respect to stream and watershed systems 6. Understand the impacts and effects of land disturbance, soil erosion, and uncontrolled water flow on human and ecological systems Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: • Predict precipitation for specified frequency and duration of storms • Estimate runoff volume and peak runoff rate for design • Compute infiltration volumes • Generate runoff hydrographs • Estimate erosion losses and analyze erosion runoff • Design vegetated waterways and channels with specified lining materials • Apply engineering standards to hydrology and land system problems • Assess watershed conditions using ecological and hydrologic metrics • Characterize land use for application to engineering problem‐solving • Apply modern engineering tools to conduct hydrologic analysis of pre- and post‐development land disturbing activities and design a control structure to manage runoff
Topical Outline
1. Hydrologic cycle a. Precipitation b. Infiltration c. Evapotranspiration d. Runoff 2. Engineering hydrology a. Watershed systems, assessment, and delineation b. Design storms and precipitation analysis c. Runoff analysis d. SCS method e. Rational method f. Peak discharge g. Runoff hydrographs 3. Soil erosion 4. Water quality a. Nonpoint and point sources of water pollution 5. Open channel flow a. Manning’s equation b. Vegetated waterways c. Flood routing 6. Landscape-scale containment structures a. Detention and retention b. Stormwater ponds 7. Engineering design standards for stormwater a. Water quality b. Channel protection c. Overbank flooding d. Extreme flooding 8. Design of control structures to manage runoff and peak discharge 9. Conservation and bioremediation in the environment
Syllabus