Pre-requisite: 64001/75002
Hydrologic analysis provides the input parameters essential for the design of many engineering works, from the simplest road culvert to major water storage reservoirs. It also may provide data upon which the managers of our water resource can base their decisions. A knowledge of engineering hydrology is essential for the specialist water engineer and for many engineers employed in essentially non water engineering positions. For example, local government authorities and state main roads departments spend in excess of $200M annually on small water conveyance and drainage structures. Engineers employed by these authorities would be required to determine the design capacity of these structures by estimating the runoff from the catchments draining to them. This unit will familiarise students with a range of important surface and groundwater hydrological processes. Rainfall input and evaporation are considered from a treatment of elementary meteorology and Australian climatology. Some of the simpler solutions to common problems in engineering hydrology will be presented, along with the shortcomings of these solutions. The unit will stress the stochastic nature of many hydrological processes and present some of the probabilistic approaches used. Students will also be introduced to the fundamentals of groundwater hydraulics.