ABSTRACT
This chapter draws together various strands of knowledge, which have been developed separately in foregoing chapters, together with some new concepts. Open channel flows of the steady, varying and unsteady types, hydrology and sediment transport all play a part in river engineering. The vast body of literature that has been produced over the last 100 years bears witness to the fascination, complexity and controversial nature of the subject. There is no complete theoretical approach to many of the problems, though various numerical models can help the engineer to make sensible predictions. In this chapter, an understanding of the hydraulic design features of lined and unlined river channels and the application of various the design equations are first introduced. This is followed by a description of the key morphological features of natural river channels. Next, the various types of computational hydraulic models used for river flow simulation are detailed, and the selection of suitable models for a design application is discussed. Finally, the current approaches to river engineering are introduced.
