Areas of Specialization -  Water Resources Engineering 

The water resources engineering specialty area within Louisiana State University's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is designed to educate and train students in the fundamentals required to study and design the most challenging water resources problems in the State of Louisiana, the nation and the world. Louisiana Economic Development has identified water management as one of Louisiana’s key industries (http://www.louisianaeconomicdevelopment.com/led-news.aspx?i=Water%20Management&id=32). The water resources area encompasses graduate level coursework and laboratory, field and computational research relevant to basic and applied fluid flow in rivers, lakes, and aquifers. The program is designed to produce graduates who are well educated in fundamental disciplines, have a sound knowledge of relevant basic engineering practices, can adapt to change, and have the vision and insight needed to implement creative and cost effective solutions to growing water demands. Graduate studies in water resources engineering provide the framework for a new generation of engineering professionals who are well prepared to plan, design, build, and maintain our critical water resources infrastructure for a sustainable future. Graduate students enrolled in the program come from around the country and abroad, and also from the large population of practicing water resources engineers in the public and private sectors of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas.

 

Fields of Study and Research

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Water Resources. The Master's degree is designed as a broad-based curriculum that covers all aspects of water resources engineering. The Doctoral degree is designed as an in-depth specialty degree that permits students to choose specific areas of concentration to pursue at significantly greater depth. The Department’s course offerings are enhanced by access to LSU faculty and research in the physical sciences (e.g., geology, oceanography) as well as the numerous state and federal water-related agencies located in or near Baton Rouge, such as the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Current research encompasses surface and ground water hydrology and water resources planning and management. Example projects include remote sensing and numerical modeling of water quality in Louisiana coastal beaches, field and numerical modeling studies of sediment and bacteria transport in Louisiana rivers, groundwater modeling and management, numerical modeling of saltwater intrusion in the Southern Hills (Baton Rouge) aquifer system, multiphase flow in porous media, and physical and numerical modeling of Mississippi River hydrodynamics and sediment transport. The objectives of the research are improving our understanding of the fundamentals of fluid-flow processes, development of techniques for improved modeling, and application of laboratory, field, and modeling studies to the solution of engineering problems.

Over the past several years, NSF, NASA, USGS, CPRA, LDEQ, as well as a number of industrial and local government sponsors have funded the water resources group.

 

Requirements and Course Work

Core Course Requirements

None

 

Major Field Courses

CE 4200 -- Hydrology
CE 4250 -- Ground Water
CE 4260 -- Design of Hydrologic Systems
CE 7255 -- Advanced Hydraulics
CE 7265 -- Advanced Subsurface Hydrology and Hydraulics
CE 7275 -- Modeling for Management of Groundwater
CE 7280 -- Modeling in Physical Hydrology

 

Related Field Courses

The following are examples of related field courses that may be included in a course of study for a graduate degree in Water Resources Engineering. All students should consult with their major advisor for final approval of all coursework.

OCS 4024 – Coastal Morphodynamics
OCS 4128 – Wetland Hydrology and Hydrodynamics
OCS 4410 – Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis
OCS 7028 – Numerical Modeling of Ocean Circulation
GEOG 3013 -- Meteorology
GEOG 4014 -- Climatology
GEOG 4015 – Physical Climatology
GEOL 4023 -- Coastal and Shallow-Marine Depositional Systems
GEOL 4035 -- Advanced Sedimentology
GEOL 4164 – Deltaic Geology
GEOL 4182 – Physical Hydrogeology
GEOL 7132 – Dynamics of Sedimentation
RNR 4900 / ENVS 4900 – Watershed Hydrology

 

Leveling/Articulation Courses

Math 1550 -- Analytic Geometry and Calculus I
Math 1552 -- Analytic Geometry and Calculus II
Math 2057 -- Multidimensional Calculus
Math 2065 -- Elementary Differential Equations
CE 2200 -- Fluid Mechanics
CE 2250 -- Hydraulic Laboratory
CE 2450 -- Statics
EVEG 3200 – Water Resources II
CE 4200 -- Hydrology