Hydrology & Civil Engineering Hydrology: "The science dealing with the occurrence, circulation, distribution and properties of the waters of the earth and its atmosphere" (Random House dictionary of the English Language).

That generalized definition doesn't due justice to the sheer volume and power of water on and within the planet. Two-thirds of Earth is water - mostly oceans - and yet, ironically, a large percentage of people in third world countries do not have clean and safe drinking water. According to data that came out of the World Summit on the Environment in South Africa (August, 2002), 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water - that is 1 in 5 people on the planet. And 2.4 billion people have inadequate sanitation facilities. Also released at the World Summit was the fact that up to 80% of all sickness in the world can be attributed to unsafe water supplies.

Why bring these statistics to light in a hydrology assignment? Because the people that will one day help to bring safer water to those 1.1 billion individuals will be civil engineers. In fact, the price tag that was placed on the solution to the unsafe drinking water consumed by 1.1 billion citizens was $180 billion. That money would be spent first on civil engineers,...

The World Summit conferees committed to cutting "in half" the number of people without fresh water by the year 2015. That's a lofty goal, but so was traveling to the moon, and building the "Chunnel" between England and France, the World Trade Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, and many more civil engineering accomplishments.
Nine years prior to the World Summit, two civil engineers stepped forward (in 1993) to form the "International Partnership for Safe Water." They are civil engineering instructors Gary White and Marla Smith from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Others joined them, and progress is being made, thanks to the humanitarian efforts of civil engineers.

Flood Considerations

And when "hydrology" and "civil engineering" are used in the same sentence, it conjures up images of dams, canals, irrigation, flood control, bridges spanning bodies of water - and these are part and parcel of the engineering community's work. Indeed, many of the greatest engineering projects over the years have been aimed at managing water resources, and preventing flooding. Flooding is the #2 most frequent "natural disaster" behind fires. Flooding has caused 10,000 people to die in the United States in the last 100 years, according to FEMA. Property damage from flooding now totals over $1 billion each year in the United States. Two inches of…