Hydraulic engineering usually deals with the application of fluid mechanics principles to water flow problems, but may also include fluids ranging from blood to magma. Engineering hydrology quantifies the distribution and movement of water in the environment. Some problems encountered in hydraulic engineering include: floods, sediment transport, water supply, wave forces, hydromachinery, and the protection or restoration of surface and ground water resources.
Engineers in the hydraulics/hydrology area may spend their time with applied mathematics, laboratory experimentation, or field construction and testing. The necessary skills range from imagination and common sense to sophisticated analytical and computer modeling ability.
Graduate Study
The hydraulics/hydrology graduate degree program at Auburn University provides the student with a rigorous foundation in theoretical and experimental aspects of hydraulics and hydrology together with the practical skills and knowledge necessary to solve modern water resources engineering problems. Considerable emphasis is given both to the use of computers in mathematical modeling of surface and subsurface hydraulic and hydrologic systems and to the use of field investigative and laboratory experimental techniques in the understanding and solution of engineering problems encountered in these systems. In planning and control agencies, or in teaching and research institutions, each student's program of study is treated as a special case.
Faculty in Hydraulics and Hydrology
