Civil engineering solutions for global water access and flood management

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, to design the systems through which fresh, safe water will flow; after initial designs are prepared, construction of irrigation projects and other hydrology work will begin. 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 rushing water from a flood knocks a person off his or her feet. Two feet of water sweeps an automobile downstream. "Flash floods occur with little or no warning and can reach full peak in only a few minutes," FEMA warns. Property damage from flooding in America now totals over a billion dollars a year.

One dramatic disaster reported by FEMA is, on a large scale, what can happen when heavy precipitation occurs in a short period of time: "On July 31, 1976, the Big Thompson River near Denver overflowed after an extremely heavy storm. A wall of water 19 feet high roared down the Big Thompson Canyon where many people were camping. 140 people perished and millions of dollars of property were lost."

Again, to mitigate the issues of flash flooding, cities and states and counties will turn to civil engineers that work with hydrology.

Civil Engineering / Hydrology Innovations

Not all hydrology-related civil engineering success has to do with floods and fresh water. In fact, among the more practical engineering innovations to come along is "ice blast technology," which combines electrical and mechanical components in a machine that uses tiny ice pellets for pressure cleaning. Ice particles are made in an immersed cold drum to form a pre-stressed ice sheet that then breaks up into small ice particles. What are its uses? The U.S. Navy, Stanford and the Universities of Michigan and Washington use ice blast machines to remove loose lead paint - a process which saves them money and is environmentally safer than using caustic, toxic chemical solutions. By using ice blasting, the Dutch Ministry of Transportation has enjoyed a 55% cost savings over high-pressure water blasting in removing barnacles from giant pumps. The city of Santa Monica uses ice blasting for cleaning beach houses and removing graffiti and chewing gum from school grounds. Ice blasting has even been used in nuclear maintenance to reduce radiation hazards prior to service, thereby achieving significant dose savings.