Advances in Environmental Hydraulics

Environmental Hydraulics (EH) is the scientific study of environmental water flows and their related transport and transformation processes affecting the environmental quality of natural water systems, such as rivers, lakes, and aquifers, on our planet Earth [...]

Environmental Hydraulics in the New Millennium: Historical Evolution and Recent Research Trends

Environmental Hydraulics (EH) is the scientific study of environmental water flows and their related transport and transformation processes in natural water systems. This review provides some remarks about the historical development of EH throughout three different paradigms or ages, namely, the Public Health Age, the Water Quality Age, and finally the Integrated Environmental Hydraulics Age. We further evaluate how EH research has changed in the last 20 years through a bibliometric analysis of the proceedings of the International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics (ISEH) and Environmental Fluid Mechanics (EFMC) journal articles conducted using Citespace and Leximancer. Authors and affiliations are analyzed to identify patterns of collaboration, followed by an analysis of the temporal evolution of the EFMC impact index as well as its highly-cited articles. Finally, the major EH topics are identified with a comparison between the topics extracted from the two different sources. As the EH field is becoming rapidly global, some topics were confirmed to have attracted more interest in EH such as Flow Condition, Numerical Modelling, Experimental Measurements. It is hoped that our findings could provide a reference for students, academics, and policy-makers related to EH.

Environmental Hydraulics Research

Environmental hydraulics research includes the different domains of hydrodynamics, such as the investigation and implementation of the physical and experimental applications, and research into the quantity, quality, modelling and simulation of the attributes associated with flowing water. This topic is studied both from a technical and environmental point of view, with the objective of protecting and enhancing the quality of the environment. It is a cross-disciplinary field of study which comprises open channel/river flows and pressurised systems, combining, among others, new technological, social, and environmental hydraulic challenges. It provides researchers and engineers working in water-related fields with available information, new concepts and tools, new design solutions, eco-friendly technologies, and the advanced materials necessary to address the increasing challenges of ensuring a sustainable water environment—that is, a water environment effectively managed and adequated for generations to come by promoting the adaptation, flexibility, integration and sustainability of recognised environmental solutions. Using advanced numerical and physical models in field experiments, and tests in different types of laboratory set-ups, specialists in environmental hydraulics produce the best analyses, concepts, techniques, tools, and solutions to environmental hydraulic problems, as well as in relation to the water, energy and environmental nexus.