By Kenya Campos


Hydraulic design and analysis is very important because it helps to check an already existing or a proposed hydraulic system to see if modification or replacement is necessary. It helps to know if there are any possibilities of floods or the establishment of infrastructure resources like roads. This work needs to be very exact because it deals with safety therefore there needs to be a design and hydraulic analysis software developed to make this task easier and more accurate.

It is necessary that this analysis be done when the project is still in its first phase. Hydrological engineers should always be hired to carry out this task especially when there is the need for the installation of hydrological inputs. With the presence of the engineer, the project manager can be able to point out some factors that can eventually affect the cost and period for the whole project.

These elements can include things like floodway regulatory program imposed constraints, availability of some drainage structures that are inadequate and may need to be replaced, opportunities that will avoid total replacement of the full system and upcoming or ongoing projects on different locations and may affect the project they are working on.

The appraisal and plan of drainage systems regularly involves a general process. All of these processes contain some common features and others that differ in unrelated projects. The basic features that make up common elements in most of these processes may include charting of current features, estimation of the features that may result in the future, necessities, project criteria, restraints and other things.

The nature of procedure that is used in the hydraulic design and assessment may vary with the kind of projects that are being undertaken and the setting of this hydrologic project. Some of them need to be altered just a little bit while others need a total hydrological change.

FEMA approves of the usage of softwares that are used to make the calculations for the normal depth and the establishments of the base floods elevations much easier. The softwares that are in the simple models can work effectively in finding solutions for the hydrological problems in a short period of time. Their models may vary but all of them surely make the jobs of these engineers less stressful. Many projects can be done with the same software at the same time therefore they save a lot of time.

The softwares can also be equipped with the benefit of configuration toolbars which allow the operators to form new working settings that will be reinforced by their workflows. They can also enlarge their hydraulic toolbox by making new worksheets to make the enquiry easier.

To sum up, it is a fact that the evaluation and planning of a hydraulic system is essential before the starting of such project. By ignoring this step of a project, the engineers run the risk of creating inadequate drainage structures that may lead to flooding. They require these softwares to ensure that they prevent this and have accurate projects.




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