College of Water Resources and Architectural Engineering

The College of Water Resources & Architectural Engineering (CWRAE) is one of the longest history colleges at Northwest A & F University. It started undergraduate education in 1933 and graduate education in 1941.

CWRAE has 6 departments as (1) the department of irrigation and drainage engineering, (2) the department of water resource and environmental engineering, (3) the department of water resources and hydro-elctricity engineering,(4) the department of civil engineering, (5) the department of hydrpower and electrical machinery engineering, (6) the department of structural and material engineering; 8 undergraduate programes as (1) agricultural water resources engineering, (2) hydrlogy and water resources engineering, (3) hydraulic engineering, (4) civil engineering, (5) thermal energy and hydropower engineering, (6) electrical machinery and automatization, (7) town and city planning, (8) agricultural architectural and environmental engineering,etc.; 7 master’s degree programes as (1) agricultural soil and water engineering, (2) hydraulic engineering, (3) hydrlogy and water resources engineering,(4) hydraulics and river dynamics, (5) hydraulic structural engineering, (6) structural engineering, (7) geotechnical engineering; 4 doctoral degree programes as (1) agricultural soil and water engineering, (2) hydrlogy and water resources engineering, (3) hydraulic engineering, (4) agricultural water resources and environmental engineering; 2 post-doctoral research station as (1) agricultural engineering, (2) water resources engineering.In which agricultural soil and water engineering is the national and provincial key discipline, hydraulic engineering is the provincial key discipline, agricultural water resources engineering is the national specialty, hydrlogy and water resources engineering and hydraulic engineering are the provincial specialty, agricultural soil and water engineering and hydrlogy and water resources engineering are the scutcheon specialty in Shaanxi province.

CWRAE has two national key laboratory as (1)the Key Laboratory of Agriculture Soil & Water Engineering in Arid Regions Subordinated to the Ministry of Education, (2) the Key Open Laboratory of Agricultural Water-saving in Arid Regions Subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture; 9 research platforms and consultive organizations as (1) the Research Center of safety and Hazard prevention of Water Project, (2) the Northwest Experimental and Testing Center of Water Resources and Hydro-electricity Engineering Subordinated to Ministry of Water Resources, (3) Quality Inspecting and Testing Center of Water Resources Engineering Subordinated to Shaanxi Province, (4) the Northwest Construction Supervision Center of Water Resources and Hydro-electricity Engineering, (5) the Northwest Survey and Design Institute for Hydraulic and Architectural Engineering, (6) Xianyang Northwest Consultative Limited Company of Water Resources and Hydro-electricity Engineering, (7) the Experimental Center of Water-saving and Irrigation Subordinated to Shaanxi Province, (8) the Experimental and Teaching Center of Geodesy and Topography, (9) the Experimental and Teaching Center of Electrotechnics and Electronics,etc., which have been playing important roles in serving for the creative research programes and for society.

CWRAE has 23 exercitation teaching base for undergrduate students,in which 4 is inside of the campus,and 19 is outside of university. The Experimental and Teaching Demonstration center of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering became the national level demonstration center in 2009. Moreover, there have two academic journals are published in the college, one is《Journal of Water Resources & Water Engineering》, the other is《Journal of Water Resources &Architectural Engineering》. CWRAE is one of the directors in Shaanxi Provincial Society of Water Resources and Shaanxi Provincial Society of hydropower.

There are 216 faculty and staff at CWRAE, including 25 professors and researchers, 83 associate professors and associate researchers, 22 supervisors for doctoral students, 52 supervisors for master students, 1 special invited academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 member of Discipline Assessment Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, 1 candidate for national “Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Expert Project”, 1 gainer for college young teacher award of Ministry of Education, 1 candidate for Ministry of Education “New Century Talents Support Plan”, 2 candidates for “College Outstanding Young Teachers Support Plan”, 3 candidates for Northwest A & F University “Topnotch Talents Support Plan”. The teaching group of irrigation and drainage engineering gained the honour of Provincial Teaching Team.

At present, 2386 students are studying in the college, among them, 2073 are undergraduate students, 272 are graduate students for master degrees, and 41 are graduate students for doctoral degrees. Since its establishment, CWRAE has awarded degrees to over 10200 qualified graduates, these graduates have made great contributions to the society. LI Pei-cheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a very famous specialist working in the field of water resources, WANG Guang-yuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering,a famous dynamicist, XIONG Yun-zhang, great specialist working in the area of agricultural soil and water, KANG Shao-zhong, a special invited professor of the “Changjiang Scholar Award Program” and the distinguished specialist doing research program in the field of agricultural soil and water, ZHENG Xiao-ming,current vice governor of Shaanxi province, ZHANG Sheng-chao,current vice chairman of Shaanxi provincial Political Consultative Conference, GAO Yi-xin, former vice director of Shaanxi provincial People’s Congress,etc., they are all the distinguished alumni deputies of the college.

CWRAE pays more attention to creative ability cultivation for undergraduates, and much more awards have been obtained in the past several years including 2 third grade awards in National “Challenge Cup” Competition, 1 second grade award in National Innovation Design Competition of Water Resources for countrywide college students, 1 runner-up,3 first grade, 4 second grade and 2 third grade award in China Intelligent Robot Competition in 2009 and 2010.

Oriented to the demands of improving the deterioration entironment in loess plateau and enhancing the construction of irrigation area in dryland and cold area, CWRAE has carried on several hundred of scientific research projects in the fields of agricultural soil and water, sediment prevention and treatment, sustainable utilization of water resources in dryland, the seepage control and anti-frost of canal and reservoir, hydraulic steel sluice gate,irrigation hydraulics and high velocity flow,etc., and obtained fruitful achievements in these fields.

In 1970’s, professor XIONG Yun-zhang together with specialists in his research group established the national key discipline—agricultural soil and water engineering, which is oriented to the requirements of dryland irrigation, and it is a new intercross of discipline, emphasized on the organic integration with water, soil and crop, and integration method using both engineering and biological measures.They have been omnidirectional carrying on research on issues of agricultural water-saving and sustainable use of water resources in arid and semiarid regions of China, researches of SPAC water transport dynamics and its water-saving mechanism, crop water caculation and dificit irrigation theory, crops regulated alternate partial root-zone irrigation, field crops regulated deficit irrigation,water measurement and water distribution technique of canal with high concentration of sediment,etc.

Sediment problem in loess tableland caused by soil and water loss is a severe problem. In 1950’s, professor SHA Yu-qing together with lot of specialists had completed over 130 research programs on issues of sediment control of San Men Xia reservoir, sediment yielding, river sediment, canal and reservoir sedimentation in Yellow River and Weihe river basin, and they had also produced classic books such as 《Introduction of Sediment Transport》，《Reservoir Sedimentation》，and《Flood Diversion for Irrigation and Warping》.

Water shortage, soil and water environment deterioration in northwest of China is the same serious problem. In 1980’s, academician LI Pei-cheng together with his research group members have been doing research programs as hydrology regularity and the evolution mechanism of soil and water environment in condition of human being activities, and regional sustainable use of water resources, etc., they have formed its special superiority in the field of water resources management.

Aging and frozen damage of hydraulic structures is a common problem in northwest of China. “Guanzhong Ba Hui Project”, which have been running for about 70 years since its built in 1940’s, taking it as the main case,CWRAE have been carrying on much more research programs on this issue, such as seepage control and anti-freezing of aging structures of canals, reservoirs and irrigation systems in dryland and cold region. Several national standards and monographs in this field like 《criterion of seepage control and anti-freezing of canals》are produced from CWRAE. The journal of 《Canal Seepage Control》is originated by the college too, and more than ten times nationwide training class and research class of seepage control of canals and reservoirs were offered by the college as well. CWRAE have formed its distinctive feature in this area of seepage control and anti-freezing for aging canals and reservoirs.

In 1980’s, professor HAN Ying-guan, chief engineer LI Chong-zhi, professor XIA Mai-ding and professor ZHANG Zhi-heng together with their research group engineers carried on research programs on issues as the prevention and treatment of sediment in water diversion projects, reservoirs and canals, the shape optimization of hydraulic structures, energy dissipation and scouring control of outlet structures in a key project, and the mechanism of cavitation and cavitation erosion of high velocity flow, and obtained many valuable achievements, these achievements have been cited in lots of engineering book, monograph and design of water resources key project. Two national standards has been edited by these specialists, it shows that CWRAE has the strong discipline of hydraulics and river dynamics.

CWRAE is active in undertaking research programs at national,international cooperation, provincial, and ministerial level, including National Key Sci-tech Tacking Program, National Key Fundamental Research Plan Program, National “863” Plan Program, National Key Water-saving Agricultural Special Item, National Sci-tech Support Plan Program, National Natural Science Foundation Program, National Outstanding Youth Fund Program, National Key Industrialization Project Program of High-efficient Agricultural Water Use, such programs is over 130. Meanwhile, CWRAE is active in doing Engineering programs for serving the society and communities, and such programs is over 400 in recent years. More than 20 of the programs received awards at national, provincial and ministerial level, in which 2 programs received the second prize of National Sci-tech Improvement, 6 programs received the first prize of provincial and ministerial sci-tech improvement, and 8 programs received the second prize of provincial and ministerial sci-tech improvement. Over 420 papers from the college have been published in overseas top journals as 《Journal of Hydraulic Engineering》，《Journal of Structural Engineering》，《Journal of Irrigation & Drainage Engineering》，《International Journal of Sediment Research》，and in domestic top journals as《Journal of Hydraulic Engineering》，《Sediment Research》，and《Journal of Geotechnical Engineering》,etc., In which, more than 210 papers have been embodied by SCI and EI.

Director group of CWRAE will adhere to such ideas of academic pursuit as Improving college by talents, Advancing research level by discipline construction, and strengthening disciplines of water-saving agriculture in dryland, hydraulic and civil engineering being in tight junction with national key construction projects, they would like to do hard job to form a nice working condition for all of the faculties and staffs. They hope CWRAE will become a high level college in the future , having its first class disciplines and distinctive characteristics, and they are striving for the great goal!