The College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering is a backbone college of Hohai University. The College originates from the Departments of Hydropower, Hydraulic Structures, and Hydromelioration of the East China Institute of Hydraulic Engineering founded in 1952. The first two departments merged into the Department of River Hydraulic Complex and Hydropower Structures in 1954, and the third one was renamed Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering in 1958. In 1985, the Department of River Hydraulic Complex and Hydropower Structures was renamed the Department of Hydropower Engineering. In 1995, after the internal adjustment of the University, the College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering was established as an integration of the Department of Hydropower Engineering, the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, and the Research Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering. In 2009, the College was renamed the College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower for the requirement of academic development.
Presently, the College has 133 faculty and staff members. Among them, 103 faculty members include 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 3 eminent professors under the Yangtze scholarship, 2 eminent professors under the Hohai scholarship, 24 PhD supervisors, 35 professors, and 33 associate professors. In addition, the College has invited 3 academicians, 6 PhD supervisors, and 33 professors from other universities or institutions as part-time faculty members. Currently, in the College, there are more than 1400 undergraduate students, more than 700 students are studying towards Master Degree and over 200 towards PhD. In addition, there are more than 300 part-time students studying for the professional degree of Master in engineering under the instructions of the faculty in the College.
The faculty in the College is noted for its excellence, vitality and diversity, for example, 1 as the member of the National Thousand Leading Scientist Program, 2 awarded the Outstanding Young Scientist Fund, 2 faculty members entitled National Talent in the ‘New Century Baiqianwan Talent Program’, 2 as leading scientists in the ‘333 High-Level Talent Training Program’ of Jiangsu Province, 6 selected as young and middle-aged leading scientists, 2 as leading academic scholars in ‘Qinglan Program’ of Jiangsu Province, and 3 as key-post teachers. The faculty is well organized into groups for various disciplines whose main body is composed of young and middle-aged doctorate experts. Furthermore, the College is cooperating with more than 10 famous foreign universities to run PhD programs for mutual cultural benefits and internationalization of graduate student education.
The College includes five research institutes, two departments and one research center: the Research Institute of Hydraulic Structures, the Research Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, the Research Institute of Hydraulics and River Dynamics, the Research Institute of Agricultural Water and Soil Engineering, the Research Institute of Agro-biological Environment, the Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, the Department of Agricultural Water and Soil Engineering, and the Research Center of Water and Soil Conservation. Currently, the College offers Doctorial programs leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 6 majors: Hydraulic Structure Engineering, Hydraulics and River Dynamics, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Water Disaster and Water Safety, Project Management of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering Construction, and Agricultural Water and Soil Engineering, among which the first three belong in the key disciplines of the Nation. The College offers graduate programs leading to the degree of Master of Science in Engineering in 8 majors, of which 6 majors are the same as above, and the other 2 are Agro-biological Environment and Energy Source Engineering, and Soil Science, Its Engineering Master degree programs covers the Hydraulic Engineering field and the Agricultural Engineering field. The four-year undergraduate programs leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering cover 3 majors: Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, and Facilities Agricultural Science and Engineering, which are under the supervision of the Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, and the Department of Agricultural Water and Soil Engineering, respectively. Moreover, there is a Post-Doctorial work-station in the Water Conservancy field in the College. The Center of Safety Research of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering under the Ministry of Education, the Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Irrigation and Drainage for South China and Agricultural Water and Soil Environment under the Ministry of Education, and the Engineering Technology Research Center of Geosynthetics of Nanjing are annexed to the College as well. The College is also a main contributor to the construction of the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resource and Hydraulic Engineering and the National Engineering Research Center of Water Resource Efficient Utilization and Engineering Safety.
During the period of more than 50 years, a large number of students, over 10,000, graduated from the College. Many graduates have become outstanding experts or professors in their service fields, including 7 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Chinese Academy of Sciences; more than 10 alumni have taken on the leadership at the provincial or ministerial level. Many graduates are in positions of considerable technical and managerial responsibility and have made great contributions to water conservancy and hydropower development and management in the country. Through the several decades’ development，the programs of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering and Irrigation and Drainage Engineering at Hohai University enjoy a high reputation in China. A considerable number of foreign students from developing countries in Africa and Asia graduated from the College. Moreover, the College has been developing international academic cooperation and exchanges with success, inviting foreign scholars as teachers for some period of time, and holding international and domestic academic conferences, forums and workshops frequently.
In recent years, taking the advantages of the College, the faculty in the College has conducted many research projects from the key infrastructure construction in water conservancy and hydropower engineering throughout the nation, such as Three Gorges, Xiangjiaba, Longtan, Ertan, Jinping, Laxiwa, Xiluodu, Baihetan, Xiaowan, Xiaolangdi, Shuibuya, Shuangjiangkou, Lianghekou, South-North Water Transfer, etc. The research funds have summed into over two hundred million Chinese-Yuan, and the outcomes from these studies have been put into engineering practices. Meanwhile, many academic achievements have been published in journals or monographs. According to statistics, more than 2,000 articles and 80 monographs or textbooks have been published. The faculty members of the College have won more than 100 National or Provincial Science-Technology Advance Awards, among which 1 is the extraordinary National Award.
