The program option in hydrology and water resources is designed to provide the broad-based backgrounds necessary for effective consideration of design and operation of interacting water resource systems. The program combines surface and groundwater hydrology and hydraulics, fluid mechanics, environmental engineering, elements of meteorology, remote sensing and systems analysis with related disciplines such as economics, geology, geography, mathematics, statistics, electrical and computer science engineering, operations research, law, sociology, and urban and regional planning. The scientific and engineering emphasis are predominant but the socio-humanistic emphasis prevalent in today's water resource problems prompts the inclusion of selected courses from the Liberal Arts College.
Considerable emphasis is given to the use of the digital computer in both research and coursework.
The facilities of the computational laboratory for hydrometeorology and water resources are available for sponsored research projects and include a supermini computer, high speed work stations, and advanced software graphics packages. Research is conducted at the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research and at the Computational Laboratory for Hydrometeorology and Water Resources in the College of Engineering. Any 53 or 58 above one hundred level course with the consent of the advisor.