Hydraulic and Environmental

Engineering

It is going to be topic of next posts a discussion on mathematical models in the Hydraulic Engineering field. Now we’d like to suggest two free software package for the simulation of one and two-dimensional analysis of environmental flows. They are developed and distribuited by The Nationale Center for Computational Hydroscience and Enginneering (University of Mississipi).
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The Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) of the US Army Corps of Engineers released a new version of its popular software HEC-RAS. So far, just a Beta release is available. Within the new features the sediment transport module seems to be the most promising for the environmental engineers. Has anyone tried to run the new HEC-RAS version? What about the sediment model? Let us know.

Save Venice from high waters and sea level rising. This is the aim of MOSE project. I cite from Wikipedia:

The project consists of a system of 79 mobile barriers designed to protect the three entrances to the Venetian Lagoon. The barriers will stay on the seabed until high tides and storms are forecast. They will then be inflated, blocking the sea from the lagoon and effectively reducing high water levels. The MOSE project has a budget of € 3 billion and it is planned to be completed by 2011. The project has known a resistance from both the environmentalists as “Save Venice and the Lagoon” and conservationist groups as Italia Nostra.

Recently, the Venice administration called for alternative projects.

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This post was inpired by the reading of a website, this one:

http://www.protezionecivile.fvg.it/ (in italian)

that is, according to me, a very good communication initiative for a very well organized public service. I can’t judge but from the material presented on the huge sitemap tree, but to my experience this is the best integration of technical knowledge and real “on-the-field” operativeness ever seen on the (italian) web.

.. well, maybe I forget what I saw working there (I’ll write about it in a contribution to come), but if we limit our talk at Italy, it is the very best. Does someone offer more? Please, let us know.

US Army Corps of Engineer publishes a Coastal Engineering Manual.

Hydrodynamic and sediment processes in coastal are treated, with a focus on the project applications of the physical processes. The manual is organized in pdf files, with an interesting Appendix on the coastal terminology.

I used the manual to manage sediment propriety in coastal areas, and to focus the importance of radiation stresses to generate nearshore currents.

Together with the Shore Protection Manual, the Coastal Engineering Manual represents the state of the art of Coastal Engineering.

Professor Gary Parker (http://cee.uiuc.edu/people/parkerg/) is one of the most famous morphodynamicists. His fields of interest cover

1. Morphodynamics of dam removal
2. Fluvial incision into bedrock
3. Deltaic and reservoir sedimentation
4. Response of large rivers to sea level rise
5. etc…

Prof. Parker shares the results of his scientific production. In particular we can find at

http://cee.uiuc.edu/people/parkerg/morphodynamics_e-book.htm

an e-book on 1-D sediment transport morphodynamics with applications to river and turbidity currents. The e-book contains some visual basic code too.

Of course, on the Parker’s main web page there is a lot of interesting stuff.