Watershed Assessment and Restoration

Units: 3

This course will introduce fundamental principles and practical applications of biomass-to-renewable energy processes, including anaerobic digestion of organic wastes for biogas and hydrogen production, bioethanol production from starch and lignocellulosic materials, biodiesel production from plant oils, and thermoconversion of biomass and waste materials. Restricted to engineering seniors and graduate standing in COE, CALS, PAMS or CNR.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Overview of technology available for implementation of a comprehensive precision agriculture program. Topics include computers, GPS, sensors, mechanized soil sampling, variable rate control system, yield monitors, and postharvest processing controls. Applications of precision agriculture in crop planning, tillage, planting, chemical applications, harvesting and postharvest processing. Credit may not be received for BAE 435 and BAE 535.

Offered in Spring Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Even Years

Units: 1

Exploration of geographic information systems [GIS] and its applications in precision agriculture. Topics will include file structure and formatting, interfacing with precision agriculture equipment, georeferencing maps, merging and clipping farm data, data field calculations, designing management zones, variable rate prescriptions, and basic data analysis.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Design, management and evaluation of irrigation and drainage systems; concepts and processes of system design. Credit will not be given for both BAE 472 and BAE 572.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Concepts in basic hydrologic, erosion and chemical transport used in modeling. Evaluation of typical hydrologic and water quality models on watershed systems. Project examples using state-of-the-art models. Credit will not be given for both BAE 473 and BAE 573.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

The design of structural stormwater Best Management Practices [BMPs] used in the urban and suburban environments is reviewed, including stormwater wetlands, bio-retention areas, sand filters, innovative wet ponds, green roofs, permeable pavement, and reinforced grass swales. The course is application oriented and includes a pair of field trips.

Offered in Spring Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Odd Years

Units: 3

Water measurement and structure sizing. Identification of water quality problems and water quality variable selection. Monitoring design, water quality sampling equipment, and sample collection and analysis. Statistical analysis and presentation of water quality data.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This course teaches engineering principles of handling, treating, processing, and using animal and poultry manures and organic byproducts from the perspective of recovery and reuse of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and components that have a negative impact on the local environment. Topics include waste characterization, descriptions of systems and technology, land application principles, biochemical/biological processes, and potential impacts to the environment. Assignments include homework, quizzes, projects, and discussions that emphasize teamwork, problem solving, and analysis.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

This distance course introduces students to concepts of the hydrologic cycle, water quality, precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration, watershed delineation, surface runoff and open channel flow. Students will apply these concepts to an engineering design problem. This course is designed for non-engineering distance graduate students and lifelong education students and students from engineering disciplines outside of BAE. It will not substitute for BAE 471. The course is only open to students with senior standing or higher.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Theory and applications of hydraulics to open channels with an emphasis on natural streams and rivers. Course will introduce and develop principles of flow regimes [subcritical/critical/supercritical], and types [uniform flow, gradually varied and rapidly varied flow]. Application will include hydraulics of flow measuring devices, step-backwater analysis and rating curve development, and flood studies using hydraulic models. A lab-scale flume will be used to illustrate concepts. Laptops will be used in class to learn and apply HEC-RAS [water surface profiles model]. CE 382 or equivalent required. CE 381 recommended.

Offered in Fall Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Odd Years

Units: 1

This course defines uncertainty and risk pertaining to stream restoration structures and identifies and quantifies sources of such. Students will review various in-stream structures and, using an example study of the rock cross vane as a guide, will investigate a structure of their choice applying the concepts of risk and uncertainty. Modules include: Introduction to structures and definitions; Types and modes of failure; Uncertainty in Stream Restoration Design; Probability of failures, cost of failures; and Failure modes and effects.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Overview of stream ecological and functional processes that structure stream corridors. Explore human interactions with streams including stream restoration structures and watershed scale practices that impact hydraulic, hydrologic, chemical, sedimentary and biotic functions. Discuss failure and risk analysis, policy and rights, and ethical use of our freshwater resources. As we move from a microscopic study of stream benthos to global-scale water concerns, students will develop a fluency in communicating human impacts on streams. Independent visits by students to a local stream required.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

This distance course provides an introduction to applied fluvial geomorphology as it relates to natural physical stream processes. Students will learn about watershed hydrology, stream gage data analysis, bankfull stage identification, hydraulic geometry relationships, stream channel assessment and classification, stream stability and channel evolution.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 1 - 6

Selection of a subject by each student on which to do research and write a technical report on the results. The individual may choose a subject pertaining to his or her particular interest in any area of study in biological and agricultural engineering.

Units: 3

Discussion of physical concepts and properties of fluids and porous media in relation to soil-water movement. Derivation and discussion of the fundamental laws and equations governing saturated flow in porous media. Analysis of mathematical solutions of steady-state and transient flow equations to determine their applicability to drainage problems. Consideration of analogs and models of particular drainage problems.

Offered in Fall Only

YEAR: Offered Alternate Years

Units: 3

Introduction to ground water hydraulics and hydrology. Hydrologic cycle, basic ground water hydraulics, numerical solution of governing equations, ground water hydrology of North Carolina, well design and construction, flow net development, and ground water contamination sources.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Hydrologic principles underlying procedures for surface water modeling; applications of common hydrologic models to actual watersheds.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Movement and fate of pollutant discharges. Development and application of analytical solutions and numerical models. Role of these models in planning and management. Mathematical programming models. Alternative management strategies: direct regulation, charges and transferable discharge permits. Multiple objectives: cost, equity and certainty of outcome.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

Introduction to movement and attenuation of contaminants in the subsurface. Common contaminant sources; advection and dispersion; numerical modeling of contaminant transport; chemical and biological processes in the subsurface; and ground water restoration technology.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

The application of geographic information systems [GIS] to surface water modeling including stream and watershed delineations, regulatory wetlands jurisdiction determinations, and flood mapping. In addition students will develop spatial computation methods to support hydrological analysis in land use planning, landscape management, and engineering assessments.

Offered in Fall and Spring

Units: 4

Soil physical properties and theory of selected instrumentation to measure them. Topics including soil solids, soil water, air and heat. Emphasis on transport processes and the energy concept of soil and water.

Offered in Fall Only

Units: 3

A consideration of the chemical and colloidal properties of clay and soil systems, including ion exchange and retention, soil solution reactions, solvation of clays and electrokinetic properties of clay-water systems.

Offered in Spring Only

Units: 3

Overview of remote sensing including history, evolution, vocabulary, and physical principles, i.e., electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with matter. Distant and proximate remote sensing techniques [aerial photography, satellite imaging, radar, lidar, etc.], hardware, and platforms and their application in the characterization and management of soils and crops. Development of strategies for incorporating remote sensing into soil and agronomic research, and of practical skills for processing, analysis, display, and discussion of remote sensing data with applications in soil science and agriculture.

YEAR: Offered Alternate Even Years

Units: 3

Wetland definitions, concepts, functions and regulations; chemical, physical and morphological characteristics of wetland soils. Wetland soil identification using field indicators and monitoring equipment; principles of wetland creation, restoration and mitigation. Special project required for SSC 570. Two mandatory field trips. Field trips for distance education students are not required but optional. Credit will not be given for both SSC 470 and SSC 570.

Offered in Fall Spring Summer