Engineering Professional Programs

Course Faculty: Dwight Reagan

The drainage component of a modern transportation system serves many functions above and beyond its primary role as a means of channeling runoff from roadways. Drainage systems are critical in minimizing environmental impact, preserving ecological integrity, controlling effluent water quality, measuring and controlling runoff rates, and minimizing infrastructure damage due to storm water runoff.

This course provides you with a basic understanding of drainage principles, design tools and their applications and information on how drainage design relates to engineering economic, technical, environmental, and safety variables. You will review standard routing techniques including the storage-indication method as well as fundamentals of hydraulics in open channels and conduits.

A highlight of this course are the two hands-on workshops:

1. Basic hydrologic methods with discussion and demonstrations of hydrograph synthesis through the use of the Santa Barbara Urban Hydrograph (SBUH) model. In addition, basic methods will be demonstrated using hydrograph routing techniques and detention system considerations and design.
2. Fundamentals of hydraulics, data requirements, and conveyance considerations. Channel flow analysis will be demonstrated using slope area and step-backwater methods.

The instructor will provide you with detailed manual calculations and solutions for all course workshops. Relevant computer algorithms will be provided and public-domain software will be available on request. You will also receive course materials containing associated narratives, illustrations, workshop scenarios, and design tools.

Course Topics

Introduction to the rapidly-changing fields of hydrology, drainage design, and storm water engineering

A review of standard routing techniques including the storage-indication method

Fundamentals of hydraulics in open channels and conduits

Overview of basic channel-flow analysis and design; focus on slope-area methodology for deriving a predicted stage-discharge curve

Who Should Attend

This course is useful for persons new to drainage design and hydraulics and for engineers in need of an update in the technical areas of hydrology and hydraulics. Personnel involved at all levels of road, street, highway, and storm drainage design will benefit from this two-day program.

Please bring a calculator and straight-edge to class.

Continuing Education Units and Professional Development Hours

Course participants will earn 1.4 CEUs/14 PDHs upon successful completion of this course. The CEU is a nationally recognized measure of participation in a noncredit continuing education program that meets established criteria for increasing knowledge and competency.