Flooding, surface water management, drainage management, and water supply are just some of the areas in which water engineers specialise and provide expertise.
Flooding
The most common types of flooding emanate from river, coastal, surface water, sewer, groundwater, and reservoir sources. Both soft and hard defences are used to combat the threats from flooding. It is also important to manage water appropriately to avoid flooding where possible.
Civil Engineers have a highly important role ensuring that flood infrastructure is resilient. The ICE report Flooding: Engineering resilience discusses this at greater depth.
Case Study - Paull Holmes Strays managed realignment scheme
Paull Holmes Strays lie on the north bank of the Humber Estuary. It is now an area comprised of low tide mudflats, salt marshes and lagoons, filled with rare birds and wildlife. At high tide it is covered by the waters of the Humber.
However, this was not always the case. Paull Holmes Strays was once farmland, at high risk from floods.
The area was protected from the sea by a 2.5km grassed embankment, toughened by rocks. Although the defences were not in bad condition, they were at risk from overtopping. Unless action was taken, the area could soon have been flooded, putting local communities, and even the nearby city of Hull in danger.
The Environment Agency carried out a project of managed realignment, designed to create improved flood defences slightly further inland at Paull Holmes Strays and produce a new tidal haven for wildlife.
A new reinforced grassed bank was built between 200m and 500m further inland than the original flood defences. Construction involved 110,000 cubic metres of earthworks, plus 20,000 tonnes of rock armour and concrete block protection.
Work on the new defences was completed in 2002, and in September 2003 the old defences were breached in two places, creating an area of 80 hectares open to the tides of the Humber.
The area is now a nature reserve, home to thousands of birds, including rare species, plant life and water voles and the surrounding area is safe from flooding for the foreseeable future.