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2019　River Engineering

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Academic unit or major
Undergraduate major in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Instructor(s)
Kanae Shinjiro 
Class Format
Lecture     
Media-enhanced courses
Day/Period(Room No.)
Mon1-2(M111)  Thr1-2(M111)  
Group
-
Course number
CVE.B311
Credits
2
Academic year
2019
Offered quarter
3Q
Syllabus updated
2019/9/20
Lecture notes updated
2019/11/7
Language used
Japanese
Access Index

Course description and aims

River engineering was and has been an empirical engineering, but scientific knowledge and methodology are also applied in modern river engineering. In this course, students will study the basics of terrestrial hydrological cycle for river engineering. Then, students will study three major aspects of rivers and water resources management: flood mitigation, water utilization, and the environment, that leads to a comprehensive understanding of rivers and water resources. Specifically, topics/themes include hydrological cycle and runoff analysis, flood control planning and statistical hydrology, water disasters from the past to the current, water resources management and water use, and the environment and development of rivers and water-resources. In addition, latest important topics such as climate change and water will be introduced.
This course has two aims. The first aim is to let students obtain a set of basic and comprehensive knowledge and perspective at undergraduate level for each topic/theme written above, The second aim is to let students to experience for himself/herself the following three exercises individually or by group: development of runoff modeling, application of hydrological statistics to actual data and its discussion, and investigation on an actual example of river disaster and management.

Student learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) obtain a set of basic and comprehensive knowledge and perspective at undergraduate level for each topic/theme: hydrological cycle and runoff analysis, flood control planning and statistical hydrology, water disasters from the past to the current, water resources and water use, and the environment and development of rivers.
2) explain comprehensively river and water resources management in terms of three major aspects: flood protection, water utilization, and the environment, based on basic knowledge and perspective written in 1).
3) complete three important exercises individually or by group: development of runoff modeling, application of hydrological statistics to actual data, and investigation on an actual example of river disaster and management.

Keywords

River, Hydrology, Water cycle, Water resources, Water disasters

Competencies that will be developed

✔ Specialist skills Intercultural skills Communication skills ✔ Critical thinking skills Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Lecture, discussion and small-exam are mixed in every lesson. There are opportunities of group-based investigation and presentation. Students are requested to individually compute a rainfall-runoff model and an extreme value analysis. Because of the nature of river that is inherently integrated and complicated, topics of 1-15 may be integrated in every lesson.

Course schedule/Required learning

  Course schedule Required learning
Class 1 Introduction to river engineering and terrestrial hydrology for water resources engineering Understand the targets and objectives of this class.
Class 2 History of flood control and flood damage mitigation in Japan Understand the history of flood control and flood damage mitigation in Japan.
Class 3 Statistical hydrology (extreme value analysis) Understand extreme value analysis that can be applied to heavy rainfall data or similar data for return period calculation.
Class 4 Terrestrial hydrological cycle and rainfall-runoff modeling (rational method, storage function method, tank model) Understand basic runoff models, based on basic understanding on terrestrial hydrological cycle.
Class 5 Design flood (without and with artificial regulations) Understand the concept and examples of design flood (without and with artificial regulations).
Class 6 Hydraulic structures and dams, sediment transport and river bed deformation, and groundwater 1 Understand major examples of hydraulic structures and dams. Understand basic physics and representative examples of sediment transport and river bed deformation.
Class 7 Water resources and water withdrawal/use 1 Understand major examples of water resources management and water use in Japanese rivers.
Class 8 Water resources and water withdrawal/use 2 Continuation of the last lecture. Understand major examples of water resources management and water use in Japanese rivers.
Class 9 Hydraulic structures and dams, sediment transport and river bed deformation, and groundwater 2 Continuation of its part 1. Understand major examples of hydraulic structures and dams. Understand basic physics and representative examples of sediment transport and river bed deformation. Groundwater may be discussed.
Class 10 Examples of modern water disasters 1 (Survey) Examine recent examples of water disasters (mostly, events in Japan or in the world, within several years). Survey by students is conducted.
Class 11 Examples of modern water disasters 2 (Lecture) Continue to examine recent examples of water disasters. Several major characteristics are itemized and introduced.
Class 12 Examples of modern water disasters 3 (Presentation) Continue to examine recent examples of water disasters. Make a presentation based on the survey.
Class 13 Examples of modern water disasters 4 (Presentation) Continue to examine recent examples of water disasters. Make a presentation based on the survey.
Class 14 Recent topics in river management and hydrology including examples of modern water disasters and climate change Recent topics in river management such as climate change impact.
Class 15 Making advanced discussion and concluding the course Making advanced discussion and concluding the course

Textbook(s)

Not specified

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Handouts will be distributed in the class or uploaded on OCWi. Japanese books shown in the Japanese version of this page are recommended if students want to study details.

Assessment criteria and methods

Reports (or exams or presentations) will be assigned to three themes: runoff analysis, statistical hydrology, water disasters and flood control planning. Each theme will cover approximately 15%. For the rest, several small reports and small exams rather than a single report may be assigned through the class. Assessment is based on the quality of the written reports (or answer sheets).

Related courses

  • CVE.B201 ： Hydraulics I
  • CVE.B202 ： Hydraulics II
  • CVE.G310 ： Water Environmental Engineering
  • CVE.B401 ： Water Resource Systems
  • CVE.G230 ： Environmental Planning Project
  • TSE.A312 ： Introduction to global and local ecology
  • TSE.A315 ： Introduction to Meteorology
  • TSE.A316 ： Introduction to Natural Disaster Science and Engineering
  • TSE.A314 ： Introduction to Water and Mass Transport in theEnvironment

Prerequisites (i.e., required knowledge, skills, courses, etc.)

None required

Other

Nothing special

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