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Civil and Environmental Hydraulics Research

Civil and Environmental Hydraulics research at WRL has five major programs:

  • Flood Engineering

Since its inception, WRL has undertaken strategic engineering investigations to determine appropriate schemes for flood protection. Within this research program, there are two major research themes: flood management - determining large scale approaches to minimising flood impact which recognise the underlying landscape characteristics; and, scour protection - WRL has developed novel methods and engineering design approaches to minimise flood scour.

  • Environmental fluid mechanics

Environmental fluid mechanics is a broad field that spans rainfall/runoff, pipe and channel flows, rivers, lakes, estuaries, the ocean, connected groundwater systems and the atmosphere. As well as investigating the complexities of flow, waves and turbulent motions, environmental fluid mechanics includes interactions with biota, ecosystems and engineering construction in the open environment.

  • Outfall design and analysis

Human use of water in cities and towns will require the eventual return of water to the open environment. Hydraulic structures will be required to deliver these discharges and analysis of their dilution performance, structural loading during extreme events and the wider impacts on the surrounding environment. Outfall research has continued at WRL since the early 1960s.

  • Aeration

There are two major aspects of aeration that are important in Civil and Environmental Engineering: strong aeration significantly changes the behaviour of the air-water phases and appropriate design methods remains an ongoing research challenge; interaction between the atmosphere and aqueous environments occurs at very thin air-water interfaces and significant uncertainty regarding the key processes dominating the exchange remains a barrier to designing energy optimal aeration systems for wastewater treatment and the open environment. WRL has undertaken engineering research investigations in aeration throughout its history.

  • Sediment transport and river regime

A feature of all open water flows is the ability of waves and currents to mobilise sediment. Erosion, transport and deposition of air and water-borne sediment are the primary natural process reshaping the landscape. Appropriate means of preventing, predicting and removing sediments from water; and managing these as part of the natural processes in the open environment, is a long-standing research programme at WRL.