Water Engineering and Management

Today’s major challenges for water engineers and managers include securing water for people and for food production: protecting vital ecosystems: and dealing with 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 the 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 the solid foundation to the advanced courses. The field emphasizes on 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.