Browsing by Author "Rossouw, Brian Terrence Adrian"

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    Comparison of hydrological and groundwater design methods
    (1980) Rossouw, Brian Terrence Adrian; Sparks, A D W
    One of the objectives in this thesis is to provide a handbook on groundwater hydrology for the practical engineer. A handbook should be a useful and dependable servant to its owner and user. In order to fill this role, handbooks in different fields must differ in accordance with the degree of complexity of the material systems involved and the extent - from qualitative to quantitative - to which fundamental parameters have been recognised, defined, and built into .dependable theoretical solutions. A handbook on engineering drainage must firstly, provide an understanding of the approach and reasons for determining the nature of run-off from any particular catchment whether it be a river catchment or a surfaced pavement of relatively small surface area. Then, secondly, the handbook must provide reliable methods for determining the amount of run-off that would result from a particular catchment. There are a number of methods which can be used to produce the desired results and an effort is made herein to present those methods, presently used in Southern Africa, as clearly as possible. It is accepted that computers are being used more often for drainage calculations, and that a seemingly precise solution appears with relatively little input effort. The work contained herein is a plea to engineers to return to the basics in order to understand the complexity of drainage determinations and to achieve what the author terms "the feel for drainage" - i.e. the knowledge of when to accept a result and when to advocate an amendment to the solution. This results not only in the most practical solution but also possibly the most economical. The final solution is influenced by both the structure involved and the skill of the associated worker. is a very real danger of the engineer's sense of judgement being lost by the over application of the computer.