Exploring the Vital Role of Hydraulic Engineering in Managing Water Resources - An Essay Sample

In many learning institutions, hydraulic Engineering is a branch of Civil engineering that aims to address issues such as the management and the control of water resources. It is a significant infrastructure in a given national economy whose role is irreplaceable in different aspects related to the enhancement of the development and growth of the national economy, control of flood, the protection and sustainability of environmental protection, and the rational use of water resources (Huang, 2018). Hydraulic engineers are interested in the basic application of the fluid mechanics concept that primarily deals with the storage, control, collection, and use of water. They are also concerned with the occurrence of deposition and scour and the transportation of sediment by the river. Hydraulic engineers particularly develop and create conceptual designs for the different applications used to interact with water. They include; culverts, canals, spillways, outlet works for dams and other structures with thermal power plants and irrigation projects.

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Hydraulic engineers require to have an in-depth understanding of the turbulence more so the fluid-sediment interaction; this helps one better know-how of mathematical and physical knowledge of the incipient motion, dunes, and ripples. In various countries such as China, hydraulic engineering projects have significantly made a great impact and contribution to social-economic growth and development. Large hydraulic engineering projects have several features, such as a prolonged construction period. A large chunk of investment involves many different stakeholders and other complex issues compared to other general projects. Large hydraulic engineering projects have significant impacts on the national and regional economies, accompanied by a significant social risk that may lead to catastrophic disasters (Huang & Fang, 2018). In the modern world, present-day today trends and the ecological system presents a high demand for engineering infrastructures. The structure and the design of projects related to hydraulic engineering are no longer an exclusive domain of hydraulic engineers and a collaboration of different disciplines such as social science, administrative sciences, economy, and ecology. For example, the BwN Project's development requires an informed and thorough knowledge of the functionality of the natural systems and the correct interpretation of the signals that are read from its behaviors. In this project, hydraulic engineers provide information on the direction from which the project is evolving and an early warning of hazardous development on the natural ecosystem (Aarninkhof & Baptist, 2015). Today hydraulic engineering specialists must learn and be sure of putting their specialization in more complex decision-making processes.

One of the greatest hydraulic engineers i.e., Hunter Rouse, reflected his lectures in the synergy between creativity, imaginations, and creativity when designing and creating systems using the concept of hydraulic engineering. Hunter Rouse emphasized that hydraulic engineering deals with more complex and complicated facts that one ought to compliment between practice and theory, such as the incipient motion of gravels (Julien, 2017). In his lectures, Hunter Rouse said that the global challenge faced by hydraulic engineers is the different ways and approaches of curbing global challenges that involve the provision of clean water and mitigation of the natural calamities. He also emphasized the need to continue developing the environmental hydraulics that includes the study of the aquatic habitats of the endangered species, the interaction and the collaboration of the changes in the anthropogenic, hydrology and hydraulic activities such as gravel mining, radionuclides, and urbanization.

In conclusion, hydraulic engineering is an important field in our day-to-day life that has both negative and positive impacts on our lives. It is an art of science of the water in motion that involves the interactions between the surrounding environment and the flowing fluid. In many countries, hydraulic engineering is used in large construction activities that have significant impacts on the economy and the ecological system. On many occasions, if not well taken care of, hydraulic engineering activities may lead to huge catastrophic disasters.

References

De Vriend, H. J., van Koningsveld, M., Aarninkhof, S. G., de Vries, M. B., & Baptist, M. J. (2015). Sustainable hydraulic engineering through building with nature. Journal of Hydro-environment research, 9(2), 159-171.

He, Z., Huang, D., Zhang, C., & Fang, J. (2018). Toward a stakeholder perspective on social stability risk of large hydraulic engineering projects in China: a social network analysis. Sustainability, 10(4), 1223. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1223

Julien, P. Y. (2017). Our hydraulic engineering profession (Doctoral dissertation, American Society of Civil Engineers).

Van Staveren, M. F., & van Tatenhove, J. P. (2016). Hydraulic engineering in the social-ecological delta: understanding the interplay between social, ecological, and technological systems in the Dutch delta by means of “delta trajectories.”. Ecology and Society, 21(1).

Yi, Y., Cheng, X., Yang, Z., Wieprecht, S., Zhang, S., & Wu, Y. (2017). Evaluating the ecological influence of hydraulic projects: A review of aquatic habitat suitability models. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 68, 748-762.

Zhang, M., & Yu, G. (2017). Critical conditions of incipient motion of cohesive sediments. Water Resources Research, 53(9), 7798-7815.