The natural resource conservation engineering class taught at Auburn focuses on the problems created by pollution, water runoff, and other environmental concerns. As students, we discuss the different ways these problems can be controlled by the installation of hydraulic structures such as weirs, retention and detention ponds, and different waterways such as concretized waterways and grassed waterways. Dr. Ken Thomas also teaches the importance of keeping your waterways clean and useful to the environment by discussing important factors such as dissolved oxygen content, total maximum daily loads, and the effects of point source and non-point source pollution.
The photo above shows a class experiment we performed to determine the infiltration rates in different types of soils. We used a single ring infiltrometer to measure the rate at which water infiltrated a mulched soil. We then compared our data to the data of different groups who measured infiltration rates on different types of soils. We then used Microsoft Excel to come up with the Horton's Equation and Kostiakov coefficients for our soil type.
This type of information will be vital throughout the rest of my career as an engineer. Infiltration rates are a major part of determining what kind of engineering strategies we must implement to most effectively protect the environment and the people inhabiting the area from pollution and flooding. Since the runoff equations for a specific area might not be known, this is a very effective way of getting precise measurements that can be used to design any hydraulic structures.
The photo above shows a class experiment we performed to determine the infiltration rates in different types of soils. We used a single ring infiltrometer to measure the rate at which water infiltrated a mulched soil. We then compared our data to the data of different groups who measured infiltration rates on different types of soils. We then used Microsoft Excel to come up with the Horton's Equation and Kostiakov coefficients for our soil type.
This type of information will be vital throughout the rest of my career as an engineer. Infiltration rates are a major part of determining what kind of engineering strategies we must implement to most effectively protect the environment and the people inhabiting the area from pollution and flooding. Since the runoff equations for a specific area might not be known, this is a very effective way of getting precise measurements that can be used to design any hydraulic structures.