Often called our planet’s most precious resource, water is synonymous to life. We can’t survive without it, and it shapes our everyday lives in countless ways.
Water is crucial to consider in civil engineering, too, so much that this specialty has its own name: water resources engineering. From flood prevention to wastewater treatment, water engineers must ensure that water is managed responsibly and safely for their community.
As a full-service civil engineering firm, we proudly offer premiere water engineering services for Colorado’s Western Slope. In this article, we’ll explain the definition of water resources engineering, its importance as a field, what types of resources it covers, and the key disciplines nested under it.
What Is Water Resources Engineering?
Water resources engineering is a field of study that specializes in researching, planning, and designing systems to manage man-made and natural water resources. From crop irrigation to flood prevention, water engineers work to use water sustainably and responsibly. They may oversee their own projects or consult for governments, businesses and private homeowners.
What Does a Water Resource Engineer Do?
Water engineers will consider the environmental, commercial, economic, and social implications of water management design while planning out a project. They ensure clean water distribution, create new water infrastructure, and mitigate or prepare for water damage. Depending on the type of projects a water resource engineer takes on, they may work with different clients.
When working with, for example, municipal services, roadway drainage or wastewater treatment might be top of mind. As a team of specialized engineers ourselves, we’re proud to show off our improvement of the Town of Carbondale’s clarifier at their wastewater treatment facility. In this scenario, our water management engineers hydraulically modeled what type of water clarifier would serve the town best and advised the town on its installation.
Why Is Water Resources Engineering Important?
Water is considered one of the most abundant resources of the planet, since so much of the Earth’s surface is covered in it – but only 3% of our water is freshwater. Furthermore, 2.5% of that freshwater is frozen or otherwise unavailable. So what water we do have is precious, especially as global warming begins to increasingly affect our weather patterns and water distribution, disrupting our available water supply. More than ever, we’re in need of innovative water engineers to provide good stewardship over our water and reduce water waste.
What Types of Water Resources Are Covered?
When working with water resources, there are a few main types of water resources to work with: municipal, groundwater, surface water, rainwater, and seawater. We break down each type and its unique challenges below.
- Municipal: Also called tap water, this is the everyday water you get out of your faucets. It’s regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the majority of municipal water usage is for cooking, cleaning, or bathing. Then, the wastewater must be brought to a treatment facility so that it can be purified.
- Groundwater: This type of water is exactly where you think: underground. This subsurface water is the main source of water for agriculture and supplies of municipal water. In order to use this water, it must be extracted from the ground and filtered to cleanse it – and that’s where water engineers come in.
- Surface water: There are plenty of examples of surface water if you just take a look around. From retention ponds to lakes, rivers and reservoirs, surface water is malleable and ever-changing. Warm temperatures, evaporation and flooding can all change surface water levels quickly. Like groundwater, this resource must be purified prior to usage.
- Rainwater: When precipitation occurs in the form of rain, snow and more, rainwater can be a valuable water engineering resource. Since it’s coming right from the sky, it often has lower filtration needs than groundwater, and harvesting it can be quite fruitful. However, it can also be somewhat unpredictable, especially with global warming.
- Seawater: Arguably the most difficult yet plentiful type of water resource, saltwater is not used frequently for municipal purposes. Desalination processes are lengthy and expensive, making seawater finicky to utilize. Seawater is usually more of a logistical challenge in civil engineering, since the ocean is a powerful force of erosion and flooding. In coastal regions, seawater management is crucial.
What Are the Key Disciplines Under Water Engineering?
Water resources planning & management
This discipline covers the strategic planning, development, and management of water resources to meet various human and environmental needs. Key tasks for this field include:
- Water demand assessment: Water engineers will evaluate their current and projected future needs for water in their domestic, agricultural, industrial purposes, then strategize accordingly.
- Water allocation: In this task, water engineers will calculate how to distribute water resources among their users in an equitable, efficient manner. For example, they’ll plan out how to use a lake to supply local suburbs, but also to irrigate local farms.
- Infrastructure development: Water engineers will map out the creation of reservoirs, dams, pipelines, and treatment facilities needed to store, transport, and treat their water.
- Policy and regulation creation: Often, water engineers who specialize in management advise or assist in creating policies, laws, and regulations for water sustainability and water quality standards.
- Emergency response: When water-related disasters strike, it’s this field that prepares for and responds to floods or droughts.
Hydrology
Hydrology is the study of the distribution, movement, and properties of water on Earth. It focuses on the hydrological cycle, from precipitation to evaporation, transpiration and more. Here’s how water engineers interact with each part of the hydrological cycle:
- Precipitation: Water engineers will conduct research to understand their local rainfall patterns, pinpointing where the most rain typically occurs and preparing for it accordingly.
- Evaporation and transpiration: Water engineers examine how water is transferred from land and water bodies into the atmosphere. When needed, they’ll work to limit evaporation and keep precious water in their local system.
- Water runoff: Water engineers analyze how water flows over land surfaces and eventually reaches rivers, lakes, and oceans. This can help understand where and why floods happen, prevent future water damage, and predict possible pain points in a water management plan.
- Infiltration and groundwater flow: Investigating how water seeps into the ground and moves through soil and rock layers can answer how water engineers need to design their runoff and groundwater transportation systems.
- Water quality: Understanding the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water in different parts of the hydrological cycle informs how water engineers utilize their key types of water sources during planning.
Hydraulics
This particular branch of engineering deals with the mechanical properties of fluids – primarily water – in motion and at rest. Hydraulic studies include:
- Fluid mechanics: Understanding the behavior of water flow, including laminar and turbulent flow. This goes hand in hand with runoff studies from hydrology, informing hydrological models.
- Open channel flow: Analyzing the flow of water in natural and man-made channels like rivers, streams, and canals. These channels are often used for flood mitigation or control by water engineers, so understanding their impact is crucial.
- Pipe flow: Studying water movement through pipes, including pressure losses and pipe network design. This field informs clean water and wastewater distribution, capacity, and efficiency.
- Hydraulic structures: These refer to the actual equipment and constructs used to contain or transfer water. Dams, spillways, weirs, and other structures that control flow are all under the umbrella of hydraulic structures. Water engineers innovate and decide which structures will be most effective for their project.
- Pumps and turbines: It’s important for water engineers to understand the operation and design of devices that move and utilize water. For example, mountainous regions will need water engineers with strong understandings of what pump systems can efficiently move water uphill to their clients.
Remote Sensing
Remote sensing is the use of satellite or other airborne sensor technologies to collect and interpret data about the Earth’s water bodies. Applications in water civil engineering include:
- Water resource mapping: This involves identifying and monitoring water bodies, wetlands, and watersheds. These tools can help water engineers get a quick snapshot of their surface water supplies, and the health of said supplies.
- Flood monitoring and management: By using remote sensing data to predict and manage flood events, water engineers can monitor water levels in real time to know when to begin emergency procedures.
- Soil moisture analysis: Knowing the soil moisture levels can be important for agricultural planning and drought management. Water for irrigation may need to be calculated sparingly in areas prone to drought, so this tool is a lifeline for water engineers.
- Water quality monitoring: Remote sensors can even tell an engineering team about the quality of water bodies by detecting parameters like turbidity, chlorophyll, and suspended sediments.
- Land use and land cover change: Tracking changes in land use that affect water resources is also simple with satellites, such as deforestation or urbanization. This allows engineers to see the big picture of impacts made by human development in their region.
Remote Sensing
Remote sensing is the use of satellite or other airborne sensor technologies to collect and interpret data about the Earth’s water bodies. Applications in water civil engineering include:
- Water resource mapping: This involves identifying and monitoring water bodies, wetlands, and watersheds. These tools can help water engineers get a quick snapshot of their surface water supplies, and the health of said supplies.
- Flood monitoring and management: By using remote sensing data to predict and manage flood events, water engineers can monitor water levels in real time to know when to begin emergency procedures.
- Soil moisture analysis: Knowing the soil moisture levels can be important for agricultural planning and drought management. Water for irrigation may need to be calculated sparingly in areas prone to drought, so this tool is a lifeline for water engineers.
- Water quality monitoring: Remote sensors can even tell an engineering team about the quality of water bodies by detecting parameters like turbidity, chlorophyll, and suspended sediments.
- Land use and land cover change: Tracking changes in land use that affect water resources is also simple with satellites, such as deforestation or urbanization. This allows engineers to see the big picture of impacts made by human development in their region.
Sustainability
Sometimes considered to be a type of environmental engineering alongside civil engineering, sustainability is a key consideration in the water engineering field. Some examples of how sustainability works with water engineering can be seen below:
- Sustainable water management: This management style integrates social, economic, and environmental goals in water resource planning and management.
- Conservation practices: Water engineers may determine and implement measures to reduce water consumption and waste in their projects. This covers a broad variety of actions from water rationing to rainwater collection systems.
- Pollution control: Water engineers will consider how to safely filter water and prevent the contamination of existing water resources to protect ecosystems and their community’s human health.
- Climate change adaptation: As weather patterns, flood types and frequency all change, water engineers are faced with the challenge of designing water infrastructure and management practices to be resilient. They may need to be able to mitigate or accommodate the impacts of climate change, such as altered precipitation patterns and sea-level rise.
- Community engagement: Another key part of sustainable water engineering includes involving their local communities in water management decisions to ensure that residents’ needs and knowledge are considered. By partnering with their users, water engineers can get their community invested in protecting their resources while gaining a deeper knowledge of hurdles and issues on the ground.
What’s Next for Water Engineering?
As water resources engineering grows more prominent in the civil engineering field, we’ve noticed some new trends in the field. Some interesting advancements include:
Digital water management: Automated technology and AI can autonomously monitor water quantity and quality in real time, taking the data directly to their engineers’ decision-making process. This allows for far more specific analytics than ever before, ensuring potential problems are flagged right away while opportunities are immediately made available.
Improved filtration: As water engineers innovate and create new hydraulic structures, they’ve created improvements to existing filtration techniques as well. Nanotechnology abilities deliver improved permeability, selectivity and flux than conventional solutions. Systems designed to detect and remove micropollutants are also more effective than ever, becoming increasingly important as we detect microplastics in our waterways and bodies.
Flood prevention: Water damage can be catastrophic in a matter of hours to building foundations, allowing mold to grow within 72 hours. New innovations are being developed to prevent these events. From enhanced water gates to new dams, mitigation techniques are becoming increasingly complex to provide a rapid response when disaster strikes.
Premiere Water Engineers in the Roaring Fork Valley
Now that you understand what water resources engineering covers and the disciplines under its umbrella, you may be realizing you need water engineers on your next civil project. If you’re based in Colorado, give our team of experts at Roaring Fork Engineering a call today.
Our water engineering services cover everything from home drainage design to complex hydrological modeling for your municipal district. We specialize in the mountainous area of Colorado’s Western slopes, uniquely familiar with the challenges of water management in high elevations. We’re happy to work with you to advise, design and implement complex water resource management projects for your sites.
