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Dynamics and management of surface water and groundwater systems including modelling of surface processes, recharge, abstraction and integration of water infrastructure. Coastal engineering including surface waves and the impacts of climate change.
Surface Water, Groundwater and Coastal Engineering is a final year elective course on water engineering in the undergraduate curriculum for civil engineering students. A basic understanding of water systems is quite important in the study of surface and groundwater flows and for this reason ENCN342 is a prerequisite for this course.The increasing demand for water resources challenges our ability to understand and describe the underlying hydrologic processes. Water resources problems are seldom isolated, and their solution requires sophisticated numerical approaches to management that must address different, often conflicting, demands for water. Problems could include flood protection along coasts and rivers or conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater resources. This course introduces you to the tools you will need to conceptualize and solve complex water problems.Surface water engineeringIncreasingly, water resources are being managed on a catchment basis. Sustainable catchment management relies on robust understanding of: rainfall-runoff processes across the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum; how variability in catchment characteristics can influence rates and volumes of runoff; the relationship between flow and surface/groundwater water level at any location; and the effect of infrastructure on surface water flows. The development of appropriate catchment management solutions is also dependent on the ability to correctly evaluate the impact of different options. Furthermore, the growing focus on climate change has provoked increased need to understand the complex feedback between the climate, landuse, and the hydrologic cycle. This part of the course will deepen and expand the knowledge and skills gained in the previous parts of the surface water hydrology and hydraulics curriculum so that student will be able to work on a wider spectrum of hydrological and hydraulics engineering problems in an integrated manner. This includes both modelling of surface water processes and design of surface water infrastructure (e.g., earth channels, culverts, bridges, drop structures).Groundwater engineeringBy virtue of their underground nature, groundwater systems are largely unobserved except where they breach surfaces (streams, springs, seepage) or are intersected by wells. Therefore, an ability to infer, extrapolate, abstract and model based on limited observations is essential to the sustainable use of these resources. This section of the course will introduce you to conceptual and numerical modelling of the whole groundwater system, including concepts of recharge and discharge, and safe-yield, abstraction, drawdown. The goal is for you to be able to develop models that can predict future aquifer response to water allocation decisions. Advanced topics including the unsaturated zone, groundwater quality, and surface water interactions will also be covered.Coastal engineeringThe coastal environment has always been crucial to human society. From a fluid mechanics and engineering perspective, the coastal environment is fascinating with important processes happening over a wide range of time scales. In this course, you’ll be introduced to a number of important considerations when working in the coastal environment. A large focus of this section of the course will be on surface waves and how we model them but you will also be introduced to other important coastal processes such as erosion, tides, and sediment transport. Overlying all of these considerations is climate change and, in particular, the impact that sea level rise will have on the coastal environment.
- Analyse the design of water infrastructure pertaining to flows and inundation areas using design calculations and hydrologic/hydraulic modelling. Identify and design measures to mitigate negative effects. (UC EEI3, EEI4, BICC2, BICC3, BICC7), Washington Accord WA1, WA5- Develop and apply groundwater modelling tools to design groundwater extraction wells for use in water supply systems. (UC EEI3, EEI4, EEI5, BICC3, BICC7, GA1), Washington Accord WA1, WA5- Analyse ocean wave dynamics and the impact of coastal processes on the coastal environment.( UCEEI3, BICC3, BICC7), Washington Accord WA1
ENCI199, EMTH210, ENCN281, ENCN253, ENCN242, ENCN231, ENCN221, ENCN213, ENCN205, ENCN201, ENCN342
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Markus Pahlow
Craig McConnochie , Tom Cochrane and Matthew Weingarten
The assessment for this paper comprises several design reports (assignments), and the final exam.Assignment reportsThere are four of these to be completed, one each for the surface water modelling (10%), groundwater (10%), coastal engineering (10%) and surface water infrastructure design (10%) sections. They are an opportunity to apply the practical modelling and design skills you have developed during the lectures and tutorials to a specific case study.In addition to providing a description of the modelling activities, you will also have to submit any files developed with the various software packages used in this course as supporting evidence. Software package file submissions should be documented appropriately including commenting and a brief readme describing contents and proper operation.Notes:1. Tutorials and computer labs play a vital role in your learning process. They provide an ideal opportunity for you to work through sample problems, develop spreadsheet solutions, and to become familiar with new software. They are also an opportunity to seek help from your lecturer and/or teaching assistants. For this reason, attendance at the tutorial and computer lab sessions will be recorded. While your attendance record will not impact on your grade it will be considered in the case of your application for a special consideration.2. You cannot pass this course unless you achieve a mark of at least 40% in the final exam.3. All assignments must be submitted by the due date. Late submissions will not be accepted. If a student is unable to complete and submit an assignment by the deadline due to personal circumstances beyond their control, they should discuss this with the lecturer involved as soon as possible.4. It is important to remember that copying another person’s work and submitting that work as your own is plagiarism. This practice is unethical and may result in disciplinary action being taken against you. For assignments that are done in groups, it is important that all students in the group play an equal role in completing the assessment.5. All students are expected to read the department handbook and adhere to the ethical and professional requirements of the department.Special Consideration for Final Exam• The academic remedy for special consideration on the final exam will be an equivalent alternative assessment. These alternative assessments are only available to students who have approved special consideration applications for the assessments at an appropriate severity level.• The mark on these alternative assessments will replace the original mark in the course grade calculation unless the student declines the offer or otherwise does not sit an alternative assessment, in which case the original mark will be used.• The alternative assessments for this course will be held on-campus. The alternative exam will be held during the resit week, during the semester break. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are available for this date if you want to benefit from the academic remedy for your special consideration.• All communication associated with the arrangements of these equivalent alternative assessments will be conducted using official UC email accounts. The offer to sit an alternative assessment will come with a date/time during the resit week. Students will have a clearly specified amount of time to respond to the offer. Failure to respond will be interpreted as a declined offer.• If a student has applied for special consideration but the application has not yet been approved when arrangements are being made for the alternative sitting, they may be permitted to sit the alternative assessment, but the mark will only be applied if the application is approved by the special consideration committee at an appropriate severity level.
This course does not have a required text and instead provides notes and other resources on LEARN. Furthermore, additional material will be posted on the class LEARN site as recommended reading/viewing. Please note that all lecture recordings, made available through LEARN, are copyright and are not for public dissemination
Statement on Generative AIGenerative AI (e.g., ChatGPT) is a new technology with clear implications for civil and environmental engineering practice. In this course, the use of generative AI is permitted providing it adheres to the guidelines of responsible practice described below.Generative AI can be used to improve your writing and provide editing feedback. When using AI to alter your writing, it is important to check that the substantive message of the text has not been altered. It is recommended that your prompt end with “…and explain the changes that you made” so that you can gain feedback to improve your own writing. It is not recommended to use AI to generate original text. Rather, it is safer to place yourself in the role of author, and AI in the role of editor, so that it is only improving the communication of your original ideas.AI can be used to find, gather and summarise knowledge on a subject that is outside your expertise. However, it is important that you verify any information produced by AI. AI output can be convincingly wrong on technical matters. AI output can be incomplete, potentially omitting alternative hypotheses or views. AI output can be contradictory, offering concluding statements that are incoherent with arguments given earlier. Thus, it is important to verify AI-generated output. This includes checking source material, asking or reprompting an AI for alternative views, and challenging it to justify its statements. Verification may only possible when you are a subject matter expert, i.e., a competent engineer.An AI is not a substitute for a creative, problem-solving engineer. It cannot match the complex reasoning or emotional intelligence of a human. Relying on an AI to solve problems for you may prevent you from achieving course Learning Outcomes. Being unable to demonstrate your mastery of Learning Outcomes during an invigilated assessment (exam) when AI is unavailable could lead to you failing the course.If you decide to use AI to complete a course assessment, then it is important that you are transparent about this use. If you use AI to edit the text of your submission, then you should disclose this to the course coordinator. Use of AI that falls within the permissible guidelines described here will not result in a penalty.Use of Generative AI in course assessments:You may use generative AI to complete the assignments surface water modelling, groundwater, coastal engineering, and surface water infrastructure design reports. Permitted use of AI in these assessments includes identification of information and editing the text of your submissions. You may not use AI to complete technical calculations.Consequences of misuse of AI:Students suspected of using AI outside the specifications of this document will be reported to the department Academic Integrity Officer. As part of their investigation, students may be invited to attend an interview, during which they may be asked to describe how the assessment was completed or to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject. If it is determined that a student is likely to have misused AI, then disciplinary action may be taken, including partial or full denial of credit for an assignment or course, X-mark on transcript denoting breach of academic integrity, suspension, fines and expulsion.Further reading:Academic Integrity at the University of Canterbury. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about-uc/what-we-do/teaching/academic-integrityEngineering NZ guidelines on ethical use of Generative AI. https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/engineering-and-ai/appropriate-safe-and-ethical-use/
Domestic fee $1,190.00
International fee $6,488.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Civil and Environmental Engineering .