The India Water Portal is pleased to announce to its users, that the Civil Engineering courses from the multi-faceted and multi-modal open courseware of National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) have been put together in the form of a summary. These courses are being carried out by Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner.

The thirteen broad subjects in the area include:

• Environmental Pollution and Management
• Structural Analysis, Design, Dynamics, Reliability
• Soil and Rock Mechanics, Dynamics and Structures, Foundation Engineering and Geology
• Water and Wastewater Engineering and Management
• Watershed Management
• Solid Waste Management
• Steel and Concrete Structures: Design and Technology
• Civil Engineering Management
• Analytical Methods
• Solids, Materials and their Mechanics
• Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydrology and Flow
• Surveying, Mapping, Geographical Information Systems and Global Positioning Systems
• Water Resources Engineering and Management

Some of the noteworthy courses related to water resource engineering and management from the above-mentioned thirteen subjects are –

Environmental Pollution and Management

The course on Aquatic Biodiversity and Environmental Pollution by IISc Bangalore focuses on how biodiversity represents the very foundation of human existence and how its loss has serious economic and social costs. The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here.

The course on Environment Management by IISc Bangalore discusses the fundamentals of environment management and ecosystem and, subsequently, the various environmental policies, legislations and international treaties. The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here.

Water and Wastewater Engineering and Management

The course on Water and Wastewater Engineering by IIT Kanpur provides an overview of engineering approaches with an emphasis on fundamental principles of domestic water treatment & supply and domestic wastewater collection & treatment. The course modules for this section can be downloaded at the NPTEL website here. The course modules for the section on domestic wastewater collection and treatment can be downloaded at the NPTEL website here. This course is also provided by IIT Madras and covers water and wastewater quality enhancement/quantity estimation/characteristics, water treatment system unit operations, sedimentation, coagulation and flocculation. The course videos can be viewed at the NPTEL website here.

This course on Wastewater Management by IIT Kharagpur deals with the collection system used for sewage, estimation of sewage discharge, conventional ways of sewage treatment, advanced methods currently introduced for treatment of sewage, and sludge handling and treatment. The concept of decentralized sewage treatment is introduced with possible reuses of treated sewage. It gives an overview of wastewater management and a fair idea of hydraulic design of various components of the sewerage scheme. The course modules can be downloaded at the NPTEL website here.

Watershed Management

This course on Watershed Management by IIT Roorkee introduces the fundamental concepts of watershed management planning and principles. It encompasses water quality issues, storm water management, drought management, soil erosion, rainwater harvesting and watershed modeling. The course provides inputs for integrated watershed management and is of help in the planning and development of a watershed. The contents cover the following:

• Watershed management concept and principles, assessment of water resources i.e. surface water and ground water in a watershed, rainfall-runoff and groundwater analysis.
• Soil erosion estimation, water quality and guidelines, watershed modeling, drought assessment and management, integrated watershed management.

The course syllabus can be viewed at the NPTEL website here.

Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydrology and Flow

Fluid Mechanics: The course developed by IIT, Guwahati deals with the study of fluids (liquids, gases, plasma) and the forces on them. To view the modules at the NPTEL website please click here. The lectures on the topic by IIT, Bombay can be viewed here.

Hydraulics: The course on Hydraulics deals with the study of fluids: their behavior, motion and interaction of fluids with other bodies. Please click here to download the modules at the NPTEL website here. Lectures on the subject by IIT, Guwahati can be viewed here.

Advanced Hydrology: This course on Advanced Hydrology by IIT Kanpur has been designed to present the principles of advanced hydrology at a postgraduate level. Download the details of the course at the NPTEL website here.

Design of Hydraulic Structures: Structures that are constructed for the purpose of the utilisation of water or to contain the damages caused by water, occupy a position of special importance in human society. View the details of the course at the NPTEL website here.

Ground Water Hydrology: The course by IIT, Guwahati has altogether 45 lectures which cover all the aspects of groundwater hydrology, such as assessment, development and management. The contents include introduction to groundwater hydrology, role of groundwater in water resources system and management, movement of groundwater through saturated and unsaturated porous media, well hydraulics, groundwater management and groundwater transport process. View the syllabus of the course at the NPTEL website here.

Water Resources Engineering and Management

The IISc Bangalore offers a course on Water Resources Systems Planning and Management covering the following aspects: system components, planning and management, economics in water resources, modeling of water resources systems, reservoir operation, dynamic programming with applications to water allocation, capacity expansion, reservoir operation, water quality modeling and river-basin planning and management. The course details and references can be viewed at the NPTEL website here.

To access all the NPTEL Courses on IWP, please click here.