CVEN3501 Water Resources Engineering Coursework Assignment Brief 2026 | UNSW

CVEN3501 Coursework Brief

Course Description

The objective of CVEN3501 is to introduce engineering hydrology and its application in water resources management and flood estimation. Topics discussed include hydrological cycle, climatology, atmospheric circulation, meteorological measurements, precipitation, streamflow measurement, runoff components, hydrograph analysis, loss rates, IFD and design  storm hyetographs, flood frequency analysis, unit hydrographs concepts and linear reservoir method, groundwater, hydraulic conductivity, Darcy’s law, intrinsic permeability, water potential, hydraulic head, unsaturated zone, aquifers, aquicludes, aquitards, steady state flow, transient flow, effective stress, transmissitivity, storativity, pump test interpretation.

Course Aims

The objectives of this course are to:

• Introduce you to the practice of water resources engineering.
• Teach you about basic hydrological measurement techniques.
• Teach you to estimate rainfall and flood frequency and flood hydrographs.
• Develop an awareness of the energy and water fluxes in the environment.
• Introduce you to groundwater and the techniques used to estimate quantity of available groundwater resource.
• Develop your written communication and teamwork skills.

Relationship To Other Courses

Water Resources Engineering will provide the basic information describing the hydrological cycle and those components of it that are essential to engineering design and process understanding. The main course taken before Water Resources Engineering (CVEN3501) which supports its content is:

Fluid Mechanics for Engineers (ENGG2500): This course introduces the student to the terminology, principles and methods used in engineering fluid mechanics. Fluid mechanics is a subject that deals with both fluid statics (fluids at rest) and fluid dynamics (fluids in motion).

Courses that can be taken after Water Resources Engineering (CVEN3501) which are supported by its content are:

Water and Wastewater Engineering (CVEN3502): The course introduces students to the principles of water and wastewater engineering, including water supply and wastewater disposal systems, water and wastewater treatment, water quality and indicators, open channel flow, pump selection and placement and pipe networks. Open channel flow topics include uniform flows, rapidly varied flows in channel transitions and hydraulic jumps as well as gradually varied flows and flow control

Groundwater resource Investigation (CVEN4503): This course aims to further develop your understanding of groundwater processes and provide you with techniques to investigate its occurrence and quality

Resiliient Flood Design (CVEN4507): This course focuses on advanced topics in flood engineering for resilient water infrastructure design. The course builds from third year hydrology and hydraulics to introduce you to estimation of large and extreme floods, the analysis and design of common hydraulic structures, including flow conveyance structures, energy dissipators and culverts and other advanced topics in hydrology and hydraulics..

Course Learning Outcomes

Learning And Teaching In This Course

Lectures are designed to provide you with hydrology theory and provide examples and demonstrations of how the theory is used in practice in the course and in the engineering industry.

Course notes provide further details on the concepts explained in the lectures

Workshops are designed to give you the opportunity to work through problems and improve your understanding of the course content.

Assessments are designed to provide you the opportunity to demonstrate that you have achieved the course learning objectives.

The assignments provide you with the opportunity to take the concepts from lectures and workshops and solve larger, more integrated problems than in the workshop questions.

Assessments

Assessment Structure

Assessment Overview

Weekly quizzes on course content. The quizzes will be run through the Learning Management System and will consist of 5 randomly chosen questions based on the previous week’s lecture content. You will have two opportunities to take each quiz and your highest mark will be recorded. Each quiz will be open for 1 week.

Tips and suggestions on incorrect answers will be provided after the quiz is submitted. Answers will be available after the quiz closes.

Course Learning Outcomes

CLO1 : Conduct a hydrological assessment of a catchment.

CLO2 : Quantify the size of design floods and risk of exceedance.

CLO3 : Describe the hydrologic cycle and energy fluxes to calculate evaporation.

CLO4 : Assess groundwater resources, including estimating flows, storage and surface water interactions.

Generative AI Permission Level

Not Applicable

Generative AI is not considered to be of assistance to you in completing this assessment. If you do use generative AI in completing this assessment, you should attribute its use.

For more information on Generative AI and permitted use please see here.

Assignment 1

Assessment Overview

Assignment on catchment flood assessment. This assignment will require you to submit a detailed flood analysis report based on the methods from Australian Rainfall and Runoff showing your calculations and figures and associated conclusions based on the analyses.

Report to be a maximum of 20 pages, not including appendices.

The assignment will be marked based on the accuracy of the numerical answers and based on specific criteria in the marking guide. Individual contributions will be moderated using Team Eval.

A marking guide and formal feedback will be provided within 10 working days of the assignment due date through the Learning Management System.

Course Learning Outcomes

CLO1 : Conduct a hydrological assessment of a catchment.

CLO2 : Quantify the size of design floods and risk of exceedance.

CLO3 : Describe the hydrologic cycle and energy fluxes to calculate evaporation. CLO5 : Collaborate as a team to prepare a report, implementing organisational and interpersonal tools effectively.

Generative AI Permission Level Planning/Design Assistance

You are permitted to use generative AI tools, software or services to generate initial ideas, structures, or outlines. However, you must develop or edit those ideas to such a significant extent that what is submitted is your own work, i.e., what is generated by the tool, software or service should not be a part of your final submission. You should keep copies of your iterations to show your Course Authority if there is any uncertainty about the originality of your work.

If your Convenor has concerns that your answer contains passages of AI-generated text or media that have not been sufficiently modified you may be asked to explain your work, but we recognise that you are permitted to use AI generated text and media as a starting point and some traces may remain. If you are unable to satisfactorily demonstrate your understanding of your submission you may be referred to UNSW Conduct & Integrity Office for investigation for academic misconduct and possible penalties.

For more information on Generative AI and permitted use please see here.

You may use LLMs or similar to help you brainstorm the asssignment structure and for tips on using software such as GIS, R, Python or FLIKE.

Make sure you double check any analysis or plots that the AI produces for you as in my experience the text and figures appear reliable but are not quite correct.

Assignment 2

Assessment Overview

Assignment on groundwater. This assignment will require you to set up a model of a groundwater system and calculate the answers to a number of questions.

The assignment will be marked based on the accuracy of the numerical answers.

Formal feedback will be provided within 10 working days through the Learning Management System.

Course Learning Outcomes

CLO1 : Conduct a hydrological assessment of a catchment.

CLO4 : Assess groundwater resources, including estimating flows, storage and surface water interactions.

Generative AI Permission Level Simple Editing Assistance

In completing this assessment, you are permitted to use standard editing and referencing functions in the software you use to complete your assessment. These functions are described below. You must not use any functions that generate or paraphrase passages of text or other media, whether based on your own work or not.

If your Convenor has concerns that your submission contains passages of AI-generated text or media, you may be asked to account for your work. If you are unable to satisfactorily demonstrate your understanding of your submission you may be referred to UNSW Conduct & Integrity Office for investigation for academic misconduct and possible penalties.

For more information on Generative AI and permitted use please see here.

Final Exam

Assessment Overview

Final examination to be held during UNSW formal examination. The exam will cover all the course content. It will be a mix of multiple choice, numerical and short answer questions.

Course Learning Outcomes

CLO1 : Conduct a hydrological assessment of a catchment.

CLO2 : Quantify the size of design floods and risk of exceedance.

CLO3 : Describe the hydrologic cycle and energy fluxes to calculate evaporation.

CLO4 : Assess groundwater resources, including estimating flows, storage and surface water interactions.

Detailed Assessment Description

Final examination to be held during UNSW formal examination. The exam will cover all the course content. It will be a mix of multiple choice, numerical and short answer questions.

Hurdle Rules

A mark of 40% in the final exam is required for the other assessments in the course to be counted towards the final mark for the course.

Generative AI Permission Level No Assistance

This assessment is designed for you to complete without the use of any generative AI. You are not permitted to use any generative AI tools, software or service to search for or generate information or answers.

For more information on Generative AI and permitted use please see here.

General Assessment Information

Requirements To Pass Course

The final grade for this course will normally be based on the sum of the scores from each of the assessment tasks. However a mark of at least 40% in the final examination is required before the assignments and quiz marks are included in the final mark. It is recommended that students who perform poorly in the assignments and workshops discuss progress with the lecturer during the semester. The lecturer reserves the right to adjust the final scores by scaling if agreed by the Head of School.

Supplementary Examinations for Term 1 2025 will be held on dates in late-May as advised by the school should you be required to sit one. You are required to be available during these dates.

Please do not to make any personal or travel arrangements during this period.