Management of hydraulic and maritime infrastructures

Learning from national and international case studies, students will develop the skills required to plan, design, execute and manage large-scale hydraulic and maritime infrastructure projects. A specific focus will be given to understanding the hydrodynamic processes that are relevant for hydraulic and maritime infrastructure design and management, as well as the hydraulic risks in urban, riverine, and coastal environments. Students will explore both traditional and probabilistic design approaches, with an in-depth analysis of their application in the context of climate change.

The skills acquired during the course will be fundamental for the sustainable and equitable management of projects relating to water resources, disaster risk reduction and port-related infrastructures, in accordance with points 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the EU Agenda 2030.

The course is organised as follows:

-traditional lectures, carried out using a participative approach to obtain the maximum involvement of the students;

- practical exercises, carried out in informatics classrooms. Such exercises are supervised to be sure that all the students will learn during the class time how to apply the most essential concepts and methods to be used in the field of maritime hydraulics, coastal and port engineering;

-guided tours of the laboratory of hydraulics of DICAR, to teach students about the experimental methods used for the physical modelling of coastal problems;

-field visits at building sites of maritime and coastal works and/or at the premises of public or private bodies involved in the coastal management (Port Authorities, Technical Offices, PEs, etc.).

Students who, following the presentation of the appropriate documentation (D.R. n. 1598 of 2/5/2018), have obtained recognition of the status of student worker, student athlete, student in difficulty and student with disabilities, will be able to follow a personalised learning path whose methods will be agreed with the teacher.

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

HYDRAULIC RISK IN RIVERINE, URBAN AND COASTAL AREAS – Definition of risk – Hazard, exposure, and vulnerability in riverine areas – Hazard, exposure, and vulnerability in urban areas – Hazard, exposure, and vulnerability in coastal areas – Effects of climate change and land use changes on hydraulic risk

HYDRODYNAMIC PROCESSES IN RIVERINE AND URBAN ENVIRONMENTS – Basic concepts of hydrology – Characterisation of riverine systems – Basic concepts of river hydrodynamics and morphodynamics – Basic concepts of urban drainage systems – Urban flooding

HYDRAULIC WORKS – Reservoir for water supply, hydroelectric energy generation, and flood mitigation – Estuarine interventions – Water supply, irrigation, and sewage systems – Traditional and nature-based solutions for flood risk reduction – Analysis of real case studies

MARINE AND COASTAL HYDRODYNAMIC PROCESSES – Basic concepts of water wave mechanics – Basic concepts of wave climate and wave hindcasting – Coastal sediment transport and erosion – Coastal flooding

MARITIME WORKS – Coastal defence structures – Harbours and their infrastructure – Upgrading existing structures – Maritime NBS structures for risk reduction

DESIGN APPROACHES – Overview of national and international design guidelines and regulations – Traditional design approaches – Probabilistic design approaches – Analysis of real case studies

1. R. Dean, R. Darlrymple, Water wave mechanics for engineers and scientists, World Scientific, 1991
2. R. Dean, R. Darlrymple, Coastal Processes with Engineering Applications, Cambridge University Press, 2002
3. U.S. Army, Coastal Engineering Research Center, Coastal Engineering Manual, 2006.
4. Thoresen, C.A. (2014). Port Designer’s Handbook: reccomandation and guidelines. ICE Publishing.
5. Tsinker, G.P. (2004). Port engineering: planning, construction, maintenance, and security. John Wiley and Sons, inc.
6. CIRIA, CUR, CETMEF  (2007). The Rock Manual. The use of rock in hydraulic engineering (2nd edition). C683, CIRIA, London.
7. A. Armanini, "Principles of River Hydraulics", Springer, 2018

At least 7-10 days before the date of the final exam, the student must send a draft of the report about the practical excercise on the class topics, printed or via mail. Once revised, the student should bring a copy of the final version of such a report the day appointed for the finals.

During the finals,the student should answer, generally, three oral questions about the topic of the class (refer to the Most frequent questions below).

The evaluation will be based on the:

- quality of the report on practical applications (50%);

- completeness and clarity of the answers to the oral questions (50%).

Active participation to class work will be also accounted for.

Definition of Hazard, Exposure, Vulnerability, and Risk

Criteria for assessing flood risk in urban, regional, and coastal areas

Effects of climate change on flood risk

Definition of the return period

Pluviometric probability curve

Unsteady flow in open-surface currents

River morphodynamics

Urban drainage systems

Characteristics of reservoirs for water supply, hydroelectric generation, and flood mitigation

Characteristics of water supply, irrigation, and sewerage systems

Flood risk reduction interventions based on Natural Based Solutions

Linear wave theory

Dispertion relationship

Wave propagation (shoaling, refraction, breaking, reflection, diffraction)

Coastal protection works

Wave hidcasting

Statistical analysis of extreme events 

Harbour structures

Hydraulic and stability design of a rubble mound breakwater