Education is an integral part of the activities of PL-LCH . Training of the next generation of engineers is of paramount importance to deal with the complex challenges regarding water resources in the upcoming decades. The laboratory contributes to EPFL ‘s core mission and cutting-edge programs with Bachelor and Master courses in hydraulics. Many projects are additionally offered to enrich the training.
Courses Bachelor and Master courses Hydraulic structures and schemes (french) Hydraulic structures and schemes are vital for ensuring supply of clean and renewable energy as well as water in enough quantity and sufficient good quality in order to fight against famine, poverty and deceases in the world. Fluvial hydraulics and river training works (french) Dam engineering (english) Dams are paramount for human development around the world. The course is an introduction to the fascinating domain of dam engineering, from design to construction, for water storage and regulated supply, including for renewable energy generation (hydropower), flood protection and drought prevention. Urban hydraulic systems (english) Sustainable freshwater and urban drainage system are considered.
Fresh water: capture, reservoir and net.
Drainage: hydrology, sponge city, individual conduit and manhole hydraulics.
The integral rain water management and the legal frame are further key elements Flow monitoring technology in water engineering (english) Water resources engineering and management (english) The course focuses on designing and managing water systems to ensure sustainable use for both human and environmental needs. Engineering aspects:water quantity, quality, timing, distribution. Management: economic evaluation of water systems in the context of global changes and financial constraints. Hydropower schemes and pumped-storage (english) The course deals with the conception and design of hydraulic structures used for production and/or storage of electric energy, including pumped hydro energy storage (PHES). We discuss their technical/social/economical/environmental feasibility in the Swiss/European/Global energy transition. Computational hydrodynamics (english) Computational Hydrodynamics is an advanced course designed to explore the fundamental principles, methods, and applications of numerical techniques to hydrodynamics. Through this course students will be able to solve the fluidic governing equations, where no analytical solution is available. Bridge design (english) Construction law for engineers I (french) The course provides a general overview of the legal aspects with which civil engineers will be confronted in their professional lives. Numerous practical examples will be presented. This course is essential for engineers who wish to know and understand their rights and duties as well as possible. Sustainability (french) This course presents global sustainability issues. It introduces planetary boundaries, their systemic interconnections and social justice issues. The interdisciplinary approach introduces group work and systems thinking (interdependencies in a complex system). Irrigation and drainage engineering (english) The course aims at teaching the fundamentals of both irrigation and drainage techniques with particular attention to the soil water balance and related management, the materials, the construction methods as well as the environmental impacts and sustainability criteria of both practices. Hidden rivers (english) (Coursebook not yet approved by the section) Rhonescape (english) (Coursebook not yet approved by the section) LémanSource (french) Urban neighborhoods, infrastructures and sustainable development (french) This ENAC Teaching Unit aims to present and implement new concepts of sustainable urban neighbourhood planning.
