This book provides a review of the principles and methods of drainage with an emphasis on design. The whole field of drainage is covered, and although the book concentrates mainly on the practice in North America, Europe and Britain, the practice in developing countries is also included. The book is directed primarily at the graduate engineer entering professional practice, but will also provide a useful reference for more senior engineers and for those in adjunct professions. Chapter 1 outlines the necessity for drainage on a large or small scale, for rural and urban areas. As the drainage engineer must decide how much unwanted water there will be and when it will occur, the chapter discusses climatic types, prediction of rainfall, evapotranspiration effects, return periods (of design storms and runoff events), river flow and flood prediction, and various sensing systems for providing short term predictions of rainfall, runoff, streamflow and flood warning. Chapter 2 gives a thorough review of the properties of soil in the context of drainage design. The extensive mathematical theories which relate to the crucial area of soil water movement are outlined and due attention is paid to the growing importance of predicting soil water movement in partially saturated soils.
