Introduction to Hydraulics and Hydrology with Applications for Stormwater Management

Preface

This text was originally written to fill a long-standing need to treat the topics of storm water runoff and hydraulics together in one book. It is intended to be used by students of civil engineering, civil engineering technology, and surveying, as well as practitioners in industry and government. The topics presented are relevant to public works, land development, and municipal engineering and planning—in fact, to any designer (both engineer and technician) who must deal with the conveyance

of storm water in any aspect of his/her work.

The book contains features designed to make the learning process more accessible and streamlined, such as:

• Many easy-to-follow examples

• Numerous clear diagrams, charts, and topographic maps to illustrate concepts

developed in the text

• Case studies based on real-world projects

• A list of objectives starting each chapter to help focus the readers’ attention

• Design charts in the appendices to relate examples and problems to real

situations

• Inclusion of “Further Focus” features to provide deeper insight into

specific topics

• A comprehensive glossary of important terms

This fourth edition marks a significant improvement to the text by rearrangement of information and addition of new material. Several topics have been expanded, including buoyancy, stream routing, unit hydrograph, and runoff computation by the Rational Method. Expanded treatment of the unit hydrograph includes the NRCS dimensionless unit hydrograph.

A new feature, called “Further Focus,” helps direct the reader’s attention to various topics and provides additional background and sharpened interest. One new case study of culvert design has been added and one of the case studies of detention design has been replaced with a more relevant example. New figures have been added and the number of problems at the end of chapters has been increased.

The subjects of hydraulics and hydrology include many more topics than those presented in this text. Hydraulics texts are available that treat engineering hydraulics in a comprehensive manner, and there are hydrology texts that deal only with the engineering aspects of hydrology, but this book pares down the many topics of hydraulics and hydrology to the most basic and common areas dealing with

storm water management encountered by the designer on a day-to-day basis.

Principal topics include the following:

• Background concepts such as historical overview and basic notions of computation and design

• Fluid mechanics

• Fundamental hydrostatics and hydrodynamics

• Flow through hydraulic devices commonly used in storm water management

• Open channel hydraulics

• Fundamental concepts of rainfall and runoff

• Runoff computation (Rational and NRCS Methods)

• Design of culverts

• Design of storm sewers

• Design of detention basins

One of the outstanding features of the book is the treatment of runoff computations. Thorough analysis and practice of watershed delineation are included to hone this skill, which is so essential to runoff analysis but often lacking in designers’ training.

Another outstanding feature of the text is the comprehensive appendices, which include excerpts from several relevant design manuals in use today. Students and others using the text will continually refer to the design charts located in Appendixes A through D when studying examples and working problems. Mastering the use of the charts is indispensable to learning the techniques of problem solving in the real world. 

The student will learn not only the use of the charts but also the theory and rationale used to create them. For example, when analyzing a culvert problem, the student learns to recognize the correct chart in Appendix B and then uses it to derive key numerical values needed for the problem’s solution. References to specific appendix sections are included throughout the text to guide the reader in their proper use. 

One of the overarching premises used in framing the text is the belief that students need to learn engineering principles by solving problems by hand without the aid of computer software. When they are practitioners on the job, they can utilize the software, knowing the processes that are being used to compute the answers. And having worked the problems by hand, they will be able to distinguish meaningful answers from erroneous answers.

In addition to developing the readers’ hydraulic theory and runoff computation techniques, one of the goals of the text is to introduce some of the rudimentary stormwater management design processes that are used in civil engineering practice. To accomplish this, realistic design problems and case studies are included that rely on actual design charts. However, the text should not be construed as a complete design manual to be used on the job, nor is it intended to be. Good engineering practice requires the use of a variety of comprehensive sources found in professional publications and design manuals prepared by government agencies.

Design manuals are now published primarily online and change constantly. A good design professional should review the online manuals periodically to ensure use of current data and design approaches. In developing the various topics throughout the text, the author has assumed certain prior knowledge on the part of the reader. 

This includes the fundamental concepts of land surveying, interpretation of topographic maps, profiles, and cross sections, and the use of the engineer’s scale. Also, other engineering concepts such as the formation of free-body diagrams and the resolution of forces and moments are prerequisites to a full understanding of the text.

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Introduction to Hydraulics and Hydrology with Applications for Stormwater Management