Hydraulic Projects Research Articles

Measuring the Effect of Pack Shape on Gravel’s Pore Characteristics and Permeability Using X-ray Diffraction Computed Tomography

Particle shape is one of the critical parameter factors that affect gravel’s pore structure and permeability. However, few studies have considered its effects on engineering applications due to the difficulty of conducting laboratory tests. To overcome these difficulties, new methods of estimating the gravel pack shape that involve manual work and measuring the surface area of particles and pores based on support vector machine segmentation and the reconstruction of X-ray diffraction computed tomography (CT) images were proposed. Under the same conditions, CT tests were carried out on gravel packs and two other regular-shaped particle packs to investigate the influence of particle shape on the fractal dimension of gravel’s pore–particle interface and the specific surface area of the pore network. Additionally, permeability tests were performed to study the effect of particle shape on gravel’s hydraulic conductivity. The results showed that a gravel pack with a larger aspect ratio and a smaller roundness had a larger specific pore network surface area and a more complex pore structure, leading to lower permeability. This kind of gravel had a more significant length, quantity, and tortuosity of the seepage path when seepage occurred in a two-dimensional seepage field simulation. Therefore, we suggest that the filter materials of hydraulic projects should preferably use blasting gravel with a larger aspect ratio and smaller roundness to achieve better anti-seepage properties. In addition, projects can increase pores’ specific surface area using our method as a control factor in filter construction.

Preemptive warning and control strategies for algal blooms in the downstream of Han River, China

Riverine blooms have become a challenging global environmental problem owing to strong disturbances from intensified human activities and the construction or operation of hydraulic projects. Previous studies mainly paid attention to algal blooms in the lakes and reservoirs, while less focused on the prediction and prevention of algal blooms in large rivers. As one of the highly regulated rivers in China, the downstream of Han River frequently occurred consecutive algal blooms in recent decades, was selected as the case study. Firstly, algal blooms in the downstream of Han River during 1992–2021 were investigated to find out the key environmental factors governing algal blooms. Secondly, the distribution lag model was applied to ascertain the time lag between key environmental factors and algal growth in January-April 2021. Thirdly, a random forest machine learning (RFML) model was established for prediction and early warning of river algal bloom. Finally, the threshold of controllable hydro-meteorological conditions and control strategies for the algal bloom prevention was proposed. Results reveal that: (1) The importance ranking of key environmental variables for algal bloom are antecedent air temperature, total phosphorus, flow discharge, total nitrogen, solar radiation and river turbidity; (2) The time-lag between algal growth and the key environmental drivers is the previous 1–5 days period; (3) The RFML model based on antecedent environmental variables can effectively predict the concentration of Chl-a; (4) The diatom bloom is very possible to outbreak if the 5-day sliding accumulated temperature is more than 43.13 °C and the average flow discharge is less than 780 m3/s. Our study may provide potential scientific guidance for the preemptive warning and control strategies of riverine blooms.

Water supply scenarios of agricultural areas: Environmental performance through Territorial Life Cycle Assessment

This paper aims to assess the conditions under which hydraulic projects can be considered as an efficient option, from an environmental point of view, to secure water supply of agricultural areas using the Territorial Life Cycle Assessment (T-LCA) methodology. Firstly, the environmental performance of three theoretical agricultural land-use planning scenarios are defined: (1) a business-as-usual case without irrigation, (2) irrigation with an Inter-Basin Water Transfer (IBWT) and (3) with an Agricultural Reservoir (AR). These are all assessed by computing the territorial eco-efficiency (i.e. a ratio between the services provided by land planning scenarios and their related environmental impacts). Secondly, Territorial Life Cycle Assessment methodology was used to assess the water-energy-infrastructure nexus between the two hydraulic projects. Results indicate that the eco-efficiencies of the scenarios vary according to the service considered and to the type of land use. For land management or economic functions, the scenario without irrigation can perform better, while hydraulic projects are more eco-efficient for functions related to biomass production. The analysis of the water-energy-infrastructure nexus highlights the trade-offs between the two types of project. On one hand, IBWT allows for the use of a low-stress water resource and less energy, but may require high material consumption. On the other hand, AR uses less material while relying on a more scarce water resource. IBWT performs better than AR if the pipe length is less than 100 km, with a water allocation of 1% (proportion of the infrastructure allocated to the considered agriculture area). This study underlines the importance of considering the territorial context in the environmental assessment of land planning projects in order to support decision-making.

Fuzzy Multi-Mode Time–Cost–Quality Trade-Off Optimization in Construction Management of Hydraulic Structure Projects

Along with the increased use of water resources, some large water conservancy projects began construction to address power supply shortages and control flooding and drainage. As investment grows, construction cycles lengthen, external environmental impacts become bigger, and civil engineering project management becomes more complex. The real aim of the hydraulic-structure engineering project model is to manage ways of delivering the project on time while maintaining reasonable quality standards and building costs, to optimize project value. We note that the trade-off between conflicting objectives in a water conservancy project in an uncertain environment is a difficult task. To simulate the relationship between a project’s construction quality and its time limit, two new piecewise functions—a double exponential function and a quadratic function—were proposed, and then a fuzzy multi-mode discrete time–cost–quality trade-off concept for water-management projects was established. This model finds the best solution to an NP-hard problem using the particle-swarm optimization algorithm (PSO). A comparison of the calculations to previous studies validates the model and its computational approach. The optimized results of a water conservation project are provided as a conceptual framework for project planning and construction timeframes.

Riverine Health Assessment Using Coordinated Development Degree Model Based on Natural and Social Functions in the Lhasa River, China.

Rivers provide a variety of ecosystem services to humans. However, human interference significantly impairs the rivers’ functions and poses a threat to river health. To increase the understanding of riverine health in Tibet, China from 2011 to 2014, this study used the Lhasa River as a case study and established a multiple indicator system incorporating both natural and social functions of the river. Weights of riverine health indicators were calculated using the entropy method. Moreover, to evaluate the coordination and development of natural and social functions, a coordinated development degree model was developed. The results showed that the entropy weights of natural and social functions in the target layer were 0.67 and 0.33, respectively. Natural functions, social functions, and riverine state index all decreased from upstream to downstream, and marked as “good” during the entire study period. In 2012, the coordinated development degree improved from previously “moderately coordinated” to “highly coordinated”. Furthermore, the development of natural and social functions was synchronized throughout the study period. Further analysis revealed that the construction of hydraulic projects had a significant effect on the hydrological regime, resulting in an increase in social functions of the river. Therefore, the coordinated development degree model is shown to provide new insight into assessing riverine health in terms of both natural and social functions.

Integrating the impact of large-scale hydraulic engineering with a sustainable groundwater development strategy: A case study of Zhengzhou City, China

With the rapid growth of China's economy, the increase in water demand has threatened the sustainable development of groundwater. Construction of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project alleviated this problem. Zhengzhou, with a large population and high-intensity energy consumption, is a water-receiving city of the South-to-North Water Diversion Central Line Project (CLP). A series of ecological risks caused by the excessive exploitation of groundwater have been exposed. It is urgent to strengthen the assessment and management of groundwater to ensure sustainable development. In this study, the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) underpinned the assessment of the sustainable groundwater development (ASGD) framework. Eight assessment factors were established based on the resource supply function (RSF) and eco-environment stability function (ESF). The novelty of this study lies in the integration of ASGD results with the impact of the CLP on the evolution of groundwater levels in Zhengzhou. Thus, more comprehensive and scientific management suggestions for groundwater development in Zhengzhou were obtained. GIS technology was integrated with the ASGD framework to identify five visualized areas: centralized groundwater supply area (8.61%), decentralized groundwater supply area (27.91%), vulnerable eco-environment area (14.34%), recharge protection area (45.67%), and unsuitable exploitation area (3.47%). The CLP changed the groundwater evolution pattern in Zhengzhou. The results showed that the operation of the CLP effectively slowed the decline in groundwater levels, thus confirming that the CLP has a positive impact on the rational utilization of groundwater. The disuse of two groundwater sources (G1 and G9) were able to enhance sustainable groundwater development. Meanwhile, five groundwater sources in the plain area proved unsuitable. Overall, this study provides a scientific basis for groundwater management in Zhengzhou City, while generating new ideas for sustainable groundwater development in cities affected by large-scale hydraulic projects worldwide.

TELEMAC modelling of the influence of the Poyang Lake Hydraulic Project on the habitat of Vallisneria natans

The Poyang Lake Hydraulic Project (PLHP) has been proposed to address the water resource shortage and hydro-environment deterioration in Poyang Lake. This proposal has raised concerns over the possible changes to the habitat of aquatic organisms. Vallisneria natans is a main food source for the Siberian Crane, an indicator species for migratory birds in Poyang Lake. In this study, the influence of the PLHP on the habitat suitability of Vallisneria natans is predicted based on a hydrodynamic model and the growth characteristics of Vallisneria natans. The results show that the effect of the PLHP varies greatly in different typical years. The mean monthly habitat area of Vallisneria natans can increase by up to 191% in a low-water-level year, 145% in a medium-water-level year, yet only 18% in a high-water-level year. The habitat area can reach more than 1000 km2 during most of September and October, nearly 1/3 of the total area of the lake region. It indicates that Vallisneria natans will gain large areas of land suitable for its growth, and provide abundant food sources for Siberian Crane during winter. These findings can be helpful to evaluate the ecological benefits of the regulatory schemes of the PLHP.

Crossing Boundaries: Maya Peterson’s Pipe Dreams

Crossing BoundariesMaya Peterson’s Pipe Dreams Adrienne Edgar (bio) Anyone who has traveled in rural areas of Central Asia will recall seeing oozing, salt-encrusted fields, rendered unfit for cultivation by faulty Soviet irrigation practices. On my first visit to Turkmenistan in the 1990s, I passed miles of such ruined land on my way to a friend’s home village.1 While the devastation of the Aral Sea is the best-known result of the Soviet drive for cotton in the region, the environmental effects of Soviet rule extend far beyond the shores of that doomed body of water. Maya Peterson’s important book helps us understand how this situation came to be. In Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia’s Aral Sea Basin, Peterson tells a story of technology, modernist ideology, and imperial hubris.2 The drive to remake Central Asia’s land and water, begun under the tsars, reached its culmination in the Soviet era. In a perfect cascade of unintended consequences, Soviet “modernizing” policies of agricultural development in Central Asia resulted in famine, the spread of malaria, the destruction of agricultural land through salinization, and the desertification of the Aral Sea and surrounding areas. Water and the environment are vitally important yet neglected aspects of Soviet history. Discontent over environmental damage was a key factor fueling the separatist sentiments that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet successor states are still struggling with the legacy of poor stewardship of natural resources. Yet the study of environmental history in Russia and the Soviet Union is in its infancy, and the number of works on this topic relating [End Page 352] specifically to Central Asia can be counted on the fingers of one hand.3 In Pipe Dreams, as Peterson explains in the introduction, the physical environment is not just the setting for the action; nature, and especially the vital yet unpredictable resource of water in all its forms, is itself a key actor. The book’s narrative arc follows the course of Central Asia’s rivers from the Aral Sea and lower Amu Darya into the mountains and back again, as Peterson tells of the human actors who sought to harness, manage, and control these waters. Like Central Asia’s waters, Peterson’s narrative crosses borders and transcends boundaries both physical and chronological. While many works on Soviet Central Asia have focused on a particular “national republic” (partly because the structure of Soviet archives nudges historians in this direction), Pipe Dreams follows the story of water and irrigation wherever it leads, paying little heed to the Soviet-drawn borders separating Kazakhstan from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan from Uzbekistan.4 Peterson’s source base is extensive and includes Russian imperial and Soviet archives from five different post-Soviet countries, as well as a wide array of published materials. Peterson’s research also transcends international borders. She views Russian and Soviet hydraulic projects in Central Asia as part of the global Irrigation Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in which science and technology were harnessed to bring water to arid regions and to turn “wastelands” into prosperous areas. These modernist visions sought to transform arid landscapes in places as diverse as North Africa, China, Australia, and the American West. Chronologically, Peterson does not allow her account to be limited by the traditional periodization of Russian/Soviet history, which has tended to emphasize the rupture of the 1917 revolution. She argues convincingly that the roots of the Aral Sea disaster do not just lie in Stalinist “gigantomania” and the communist drive for agricultural and industrial development but stretch back into the 19th century. She sees continuity in the goals and methods of Central Asia’s imperial [End Page 353] Russian and Soviet rulers, each of whom pursued “modern”—and ultimately self-serving and destructive—ways of watering and cultivating the region. As the book’s title tells us, Pipe Dreams is about both water and empire, and Peterson’s focus on continuity and the physical environment allows us to see empire in Eurasia in new ways. Few would dispute the imperial qualities of the Russian Empire, but debates about the nature of...

Analysis of the evolution pattern and causes of downstream gigantic hydraulic projects

Abstract The Jingjiang reach, located in the middle Yangtze River, downstream of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), is a typical curved reach. After TGR impoundment, the evolution behaviors of the Jingjiang reach changed, mainly because one or more original factors, including geological conditions, existing projects, bending radius, upper reaches' regimes, and incoming water and sediment changed. In this paper, these influencing factors were investigated by using the measured data and the mathematical models that were proposed by the authors in a previous paper, and consequently, the evolution laws of the curved reach were analyzed. The results showed that the existing river nodes reduced the influence of the upstream river regime on the evolution of curve reaches and also slowed the speed of convex bank scouring and concave bank depositing. Constructed projects could reduce sediment transport intensity from the concave bank to the convex bank. The decrease in incoming sediment after TGR impoundment was beneficial to convex bank scouring. The increase in median water period duration was favorable for convex bank scouring and concave bank depositing. Both convex bank and concave bank were scoured when the incoming sediment concentration decreased sharply. The sediment concentration of suspended load would stabilize near the saturation point, and the riverbed would be scoured when there is sediment concentration under the saturation point, while the riverbed would be deposited when the sediment concentration reaches the saturation point.

Unveiling direct and indirect impacts of the Three Gorges Project for supporting synergistic water-power management

Large-scale hydraulic projects (LHPs) have played an essential role in the development of the surrounding area. due to their multiple functions in both water and power systems. Various industries can benefit from LHPs through the supply chains differentially. However, systematic analysis to investigate such impacts at a sectoral level is lacking and the mechanism that how these LHPs can affect different sectors is still unknown. Herein a factorial top-down impact assessment model (FTIAM) is developed to evaluate the direct and indirect impacts of the Three Gorges Project (TGP) on the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from the perspective of water and power supplies at a sectoral level, and screen the factors and their interactions affecting such impacts. The vital final demand and consumption sectors inducing the most water and power-use produced by the TGP (WTGP, ETGP), as well as the related distribution patterns at different production layers will be identified. Key supply chain paths for water and power flows will also be traced to reveal how the TGP affects the whole socio-economic system step by step. Some findings are revealed: 1) Final demand is dominant to control the distribution patterns of WTGP and ETGP. 2) The distribution patterns of WTGP would change from U to L shape as final demand increases. 3) The final demand of Hubei province induces most WTGP while the area outside the YREB consumes most ETGP respectively. 4) Manufacture of foods and tobacco, and Construction are two key sectors that have a high reliance on WTGP and ETGP indirectly. For the conservation of the resources, policies within the YREB focusing on water-use efficiency of agriculture and manufacturing sectors, and power-use efficiency of sector CON and TI are essential. The enormous final demand for WTGP and ETGP in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Sichuan province calls for immediate actions to promote a more water-saving and energy-saving lifestyle. For the economic benefits, small or medium-size hydraulic projects might be the mainstream for the YREB in the following decades. Such results are conductive to support the synergistic management of water and energy resources within the YREB and provide a reference for promoting regionally sustainable development assisted by LHPs.

Monitoring Large-Scale Hydraulic Engineering Using Sentinel-1 InSAR: A Case Study of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project

The Middle Route of South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) Project,known as one of the greatest hydraulic projects of China, undertakes most of domestic and industrial water use in the Beijing&#x2013;Tianjin area, as well as a part of ecological water use. The whole canal should be monitored to ensure a continuous water supply for water-receiving areas. Compared with traditional ground-based monitoring tools limited by the low distribution density, intensive labor force, and huge cost, the satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) with wide coverage, high-frequency revisiting, and low cost is more suitable for monitoring large-scale infrastructures. In this study, we employed the Sentinel-1 data to monitor the canal of the Middle Route of the SNWD Project within Henan Province. The deformation rates along the canal were obtained by using persistent scatterer InSAR, from which a total of 20 deformed canal sections and seven suspected deformed canal sections were identified. Among them, the Shahe aqueduct is overall stable except for the Shahe Beam Aqueduct and Lushanpo Landing Aqueduct. The Yuzhou-Changge canal passes through a subsidence funnel with a maximum deformation rate of about &#x2013;20 mm&#x002F;year. The InSAR-derived deformation coincides well with the <i>in-situ</i> leveling measurements over the Yuzhou-Changge canal. Their correlation is 0.95 and the root mean square error of their differences is 2.41 mm&#x002F;year. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of satellite InSAR for monitoring large-scale hydraulic engineering. It can be combined with ground leveling to achieve overall investigations and detailed monitoring, largely improving the efficiency and cost of the current ground monitoring system.

Analysis of Mechanical Properties and Slope Stability of Red Bed Soft Rock: A Case Study in Xinjiang Irrigation Diversion Channel

The channel slope in the red‐bed soft rock area is prone to instability and collapse due to the influence of the channel flow movement, rainfall, weathering, and other factors. Under long‐term operation conditions, the sediment stripped from the channel side wall is liable to silt along the process of water flow transportation in the channel, which seriously leads to elevation of the channel bottom, increase of channel width, and reduction of the horseway, which affect the normal water conveyance and operation safety of channels. In view of the collapse and instability of Zhetang diversion irrigation channel project in Xinjiang hydraulic project, through on‐site sampling and indoor rock mechanics test, the strength mechanical parameters of slope rock samples are obtained, and the indoor rheological test is carried out, and the triaxial rheological law is obtained. Under different levels of stress, the axial creep strain accounts for more than 50% of the total axial strain, indicating that the rheological effect of sample rock is obvious. Based on the strength parameters of rock samples, a numerical model is established. The stability of red‐bed soft rock channel bank slope is studied by using the strength reduction method of finite element method. The seepage field of channel slope under conventional working conditions is analyzed, and the slope stability under different operating conditions is compared and calculated. The results show that the slope stability safety factor of Zhetang diversion irrigation channel slope is 1.60 under conventional working conditions and 1.33 under check working conditions, which are greater than the recommended value in the specification.

The United States at the Center of the Action

The United States at the Center of the Action

Study on the mechanism of Xiajiang Hydraulic Project landslide reactivation based on long-term in situ monitoring techniques

Landslide reactivation is a progressive process that takes a long time and is influenced by various factors. Studies that focus on short periods or limited factors may fall short of revealing the complicated reactivation mechanism. In this study, the mechanism of Xiajiang Hydraulic Project landslide reactivation is investigated using long-term in situ monitoring techniques. The slope’s long-term reactions were monitored using different sensors installed since the initial landslide. The reactivation process is analyzed based on the obtained monitoring data, revealing the reactivation mechanism. The results show the following: (1) Heavy rainfall and poor drainage conditions are direct trigger factors for landslide reactivation. (2) The reactivation process is promoted by multiple factors such as the slope deformation, rainfall infiltration, and the strength of geomaterials, which are mutually coupled. Further, suggestions are proposed to improve safety management based on the aforementioned results.

Numerical Simulations of 2D Hydraulic Jumps by a Parallel SPH Model

Hydraulic jumps are a rapid transition from supercritical to subcritical flow and generally occur in rivers or spillways. Owing to the high energy dissipation rate, hydraulic jumps are widely applied as energy dissipators in hydraulic projects. To achieve efficient and accurate simulations of 2D hydraulic jumps in open channels, a parallel Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics model (WCSPH) with Shepard Density filter was established in this study. The acceleration of the model was obtained by OpenMP to reduce execution time. To further reduce execution time, a suitable and efficient scheduling strategy was selected for the parallel numerical model by comparing parallel speed-ups under different scheduling strategies in OpenMP. Following this, two test cases of uniform flow in open channels and hydraulic jumps with different inflow conditions were investigated to validate the model. The comparison of the water depth and velocity fields between the numerical results and the analytical solution generally showed good agreement, although there was a minor discrepancy in conjugate water depths. The numerical results showed free surface undulation with decreasing amplitude, which is more consistent with physical reality, with a low inflow Froude number. Simultaneously, the Shepard filter was able to smooth the pressure fields of the hydraulic jumps with a high inflow Froude number. Moreover, the parallel speed-up was generally able to reach theoretical maximum acceleration by analyzing the performance of the model according to different particle numbers.

Copula-based modeling of hydraulic structures using a nonlinear reservoir model

Abstract Multivariate flood frequency analysis has been widely used in the design and risk assessment of hydraulic structures. However, analytical solutions are often obtained based on an idealized linear reservoir model in which a linear routing process is assumed, and consequently, the flood risk is likely to be over- or underestimated. The present study proposes a nonlinear reservoir model in which the relationships of reservoir water level with reservoir volume and discharge are assumed to be nonlinear in order to more accurately describe the routing process as it takes into consideration the interactions between hydrological loading and different discharge structures. The structure return period is calculated based on the copula function and compared with that based on the linear reservoir model and the bivariate return period based on the Kendall distribution function. The results show that the structure return period based on the linear model leads to an underestimation of the flood risk under the conditions of high reservoir water level. For the same reservoir, linear and nonlinear reservoir models give quite different reservoir volume-water level and discharge-water level curves; therefore, they differ substantially in the sensitivity to flood events with different combinations of flood peak and volume. We also analyze the effects of the parameters involved in the reservoir volume-water level and discharge-water level relationships on the maximum water level at different return periods in order to better understand the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method for different hydraulic projects.

MAXIMUM FLOW STUDY BY THE HYDROGRAM METHOD FOR A WATERSHED IN THE SOUTH OF SANTA CATARINA, BRAZIL

Knowing the maximum flow and its return period is extremely important for safely dimension hydraulic projects for flood prediction and control and also water erosion prediction. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate Capivari river watershed maximum flow, located in south of Santa Catarina, that has a flooding history. The method used was The United States Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Triangular Unit Hydrogram method (current Natural Resources Conservation Service), and, for effective rainfall, the US Curve Number (SCS-CN) method is used. To estimate the maximum flow in the watershed, three background moisture scenarios (CNI, CNII and CNIII) and six empirical equations proposed for rural watersheds were adopted to calculate the concentration time. To evaluate the observed upstream flow, a 34-years historical series was used, measured at the São Martinho downstream fluviometric station (code 84598002), located in the outlet section of the study watershed. The results showed that the maximum flows estimated by the SCS-CN method for the conditions of CNII and CNIII had greater differences (-198% and -287%) compared to the observed flow. The smallest differences were verified for the CNI condition for all the analyzed return periods (2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50 and 100). Also, it was observed that, the longer is the return period, smaller the difference among the maximum observed and estimated flows, and, the smallest was verified for the 50-year period, indicating that this is the most appropriate for studies of extreme events in the study watershed.

Establishment of social stability risks evaluation model based on GAHP and IVHFSs

The construction of hydraulic projects inevitably involves land requisition and resettlement, with considerable impact on the society, the environment, and the economy of the project site, and leading to social stability risk events. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically assess social stability risk to put forward corresponding countermeasures. By applying WSR theory (Wuli-Shili-Renli Theory) to the investigation of the case-study of the Jiangxiang Reservoir Project, this paper constructs an evaluation index system for the risk to social stability from land requisition and resettlement, from the three dimensions of “physics”, “matter”, and “human principle”. The GAHP (Group-decision Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is used to determine the index weights, while the index values of each risk factor are determined by using the interval valued hesitant fuzzy sets (IVHFSs) method. A comprehensive assessment of risks to social stability from land requisition and resettlement in the Jiangxiang Reservoir Project is performed, and coping strategies for major social stability risk factors are proposed. This paper effectively supports the development of assessments of risks to social stability from land requisition and resettlement in other hydraulic projects.

Effects of a Proposed Hydraulic Project on the Hydrodynamics in the Poyang Lake Floodplain System, China.

Knowledge of dam construction in floodplain systems and its hydrodynamic effects plays a critical role in managing various kinds of floodplains. This study uses 3D floodplain hydrodynamic modeling to explore the possible effects of a proposed hydraulic project in Poyang Lake (PLHP) on the hydrodynamics, exemplified by a large floodplain system. Simulations showed that the water levels across most lake regions presented more significant changes than in the floodplain areas during the study period. The increased water levels upstream from the PLHP (~1.0 m) were distinctly higher than that downstream (~0.1 m). The PLHP may decrease the magnitude of the water velocities in the main channels of the lake, whereas velocities may experience mostly minor changes in the floodplains, depending upon the altered flow dynamics and transport. On average, the water temperature may exhibit mostly minor changes (~<1.0 °C) for both the horizontal and vertical scales within the flood-pulse-influenced lake system. Additionally, the model results indicated that the outflow process caused by the PLHP may be altered from the natural discharge into the Yangtze River to frequent backflow events during the storage period, demonstrating the non-negligible effect of the PLHP on the water supply for the downstream Yangtze River in the future.

The rise of the civil engineering profession in Britain

In this paper, based on his James Sutherland History Lecture delivered to the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2020, Steven Brindle provides a brief history of civil engineering in Britain, charting its development from hydraulic projects and early attempts to apply intellect to structural design in the 17th century, through a great commercially driven boom in the Georgian era, to the foundations of the modern profession in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.