Sustainable Water Resources Engineering

Core modules:

Research and Professional Skills

This module fosters best practice in engineering-related research/professional skills and delivers a range of training activities to meet the needs of professional engineers dealing with research and technological development.

15 credits

Engineering Hydraulics

This module aims to provide a solid base for the analysis of water flows in closed and open ducts. The module provides basic physical insights of the dynamics of laminar and turbulent flows in pipes and open channels. It will also give you a detailed overview of the governing equations and assumptions involved in their application at different scales of analysis. You will gain understanding and competence in the analysis of flows in different contexts and the practical application of these to solve common water engineering problems.

15 credits

Engineering Hydrology and Hydrogeology

This module is intended to provide an introduction to Hydrology and Hydrogeology for MSc Water Engineering and MSc Civil Engineering students, to equip you with basic quantitative skills for conducting mass balance calculations as well as hydrological and hydrogeological investigations. The module content comprises the prediction of rainfalls, quantitative and qualitative analysis of water movement over the surface and through the subsurface, the estimation of flood flows, the study of hydrologic and hydrogeological processes along with the range of space and time scales at which they occur, an overview of hydrological and hydrogeological measurement techniques, and an overview of current issues in the field, such as climate change.

15 credits

Urban Stormwater Management

This module is designed to provide you with an understanding of the fundamental concepts and processes associated with hydrology and urban drainage design, and to apply these concepts to a variety of drainage engineering problems. Through lectures, tutorials and individual literature and case study research, you will develop your knowledge of current and developing practice in urban drainage, including the increasingly important roles of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) (also know as 'Sponge Cities').

This module aims: (i) to develop knowledge and understanding of current and developing practice in urban drainage engineering/urban stormwater management; and (ii) to develop skills in applying fundamental hydrological and hydraulic knowledge to drainage design.

15 credits

Water Quality Processes & Treatment

Water bodies become contaminated with substances that pose environmental and human health risks as they move through the hydrological cycle. This module aims to address the sources, consequences and treatment of contaminants within the water cycle. The module focuses on developing understanding and technical skills on: a) mechanisms (physico-chemical and biological) involved in determining water quality and safety and b) the most common treatment technologies used by water utilities for delivering drinking and treating wastewater, whilst addressing novel and alternative treatment technologies. The module will also discuss monitoring, sampling, laboratory and analytical methods to evaluate the quality and the safety of water for different uses.

15 credits

Advanced Engineering Research Study

This module represents a major element of the Masters programme, with the aim of enabling you to learn skills in scientific investigation and in running and presenting a project. You are required to submit a comprehensive (bound) report describing the individual work that you have done during the summer semester.

60 credits

Optional modules:

Engineering within Planetary Capacity

It is projected that by 2050 the human population will be 10 billion, with over 75% concentrated in urban and megacity areas. It is essential that engineering solutions are developed to create and maintain an urban built environment that can meet rapidly changing societal needs, whilst being within the carrying capacity of the planet. This module will equip you with the skills to develop and analyse built environment engineering solutions to ensure they operate within planetary boundaries.

15 credits

Civil Engineering Project Management

This module will introduce you to core management topics and skills relevant to the complex environment of the modern construction industry. Key topics addressed include: construction project management, making a business case, understanding value, risk and quality, managing resources and contracts, legal responsibilities and procurement.

15 credits

Advanced Geotechnics

This module is designed to (i) deepen your understanding of the fundamentals of soil behaviour, (ii) develop your understanding of the use of limit analysis in geotechnical engineering and (iii) describe the concepts behind geotechnical limit state design and how safety idealisations are used to deal with the complexities of soil behaviour in a sustainable manner. Through lectures, tutorial sheets, and software exercises, you will develop your knowledge of geotechnical design with reference to Eurocode 7. You will also develop your ability to use a range of state-of-the-art engineering design concepts and tools, all aimed at promoting sustainability and efficiency in engineering practice.

15 credits

Climate Resilient Water Infrastructure Design

This module aims to equip you with the necessary conceptual knowledge and engineering skills to effectively address the uncertainties associated with climate change, socio-economic factors, and technological advancements in the design of water infrastructure. The module employs computer-assisted exploration, hands-on Python programming, and various interactive interventions (guest lecture, serious game) to empower you in developing robust designs capable of maintaining their intended function throughout the infrastructure's lifetime. The module's objectives include evaluating climate and other risks to water infrastructure, comprehending how they change traditional water engineering design practice, and providing you with essential concepts and methodologies for managing these uncertainties.

15 credits

Computational Fluid Dynamics

This module is designed to provide and reaffirm an understanding of computational fluid dynamics from underlying governing principles modeling the behavior of fluids to typical numerical mathods used for solving them. Through lectures, practical computer sessions, and labs the module aims to provide students with a working understanding of transport equations, turbulence, pressure-velocity coupling in steady flows, and implementation of various boundary conditions in a built-environment context. The module will additionally develop students skills in effectively and professionally communicating implemetation of CFD models.

15 credits

Design and Management of Sewer Systems

This module will provide students with a high level of knowledge and understanding as to how sewer and stormwater drainage systems operate in the UK. Teaching will focus on acquiring knowledge about current and emerging regulatory, management and design practices. Students will be required to understand the environmental and sustainbility issues associated with this type of infrastructure system. Students will apply industry standard design approaches in a case study, considering hydraulic and pollution concepts to evaluate and modify the performance of the case study network to meet current regulatory requirements, anticipated future pressures whilst considering the long term sustainability of the system. Students will be expected to demonstrate their level of knowledge and understanding via application in the case study sewer network.

15 credits

Managing Design and Construction

This module will apply core skills taught in previous modules to real life scenarios related to the management of construction. The scenarios will include aspects of: construction project management, making a business case, understanding value, risk and quality, managing resources and contracts, legal responsibilities and procurement.

15 credits

Geotechnical Infrastructure

The module will focus on the analysis and sustainable design of large scale geotechnical infrastructure and systems, such as embankment dams, levees and tunnels. Aspects of uncertainty and risk, particularly in the context of a changing climate, will be developed related to ultimate and serviceability limit states, using a range of historical case histories within the published literature. A forensic investigative analysis will be conducted on a case study of geotechnical failure, benefiting from data from the literature and numerical modelling. This will be complemented by a consideration of soil acting as both a continuum and as a particulate system, and by an examination of the role of physical modelling, analytical models, constitutive models, and the geological model.

15 credits