The College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering originates from the Hydraulic Engineering Department of Hohai Engineering Specialized School in 1915. In 1924, Hohai Engineering Specialized School merged with the Engineering Department of Southeast University to establish Hohai Engineering University. In 1927, Hohai Engineering University was incorporated into the Civil Engineering Department of the Engineering College of the Fourth Sun Yat-Sen University, which was renamed as National Central University afterwards. In 1931, the Civil Engineering Department of the Engineering College was divided into the water conservancy unit and the structural road engineering unit. In 1937, the major of water conservancy was independently set up as the Department of Water Conservancy, which was the first independent department of water conservancy in China. In 1952, the Departments of Hydropower, Hydraulic Structure, and Hydro-melioration were founded. The first two departments were combined into the Department of River Hydraulic Complex and Hydropower Structures in 1954, and the third one was renamed as the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering in 1958. In 1985, the Department of River Hydraulic Complex and Hydropower Structures was renamed as the Department of Hydropower Engineering. In 1995, the College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering was established as a combination of the Department of Hydropower Engineering, the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, and the Research Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering. The Department of Modern Agricultural Engineering was established in 2003 and it became independent in 2004. In 2009, the College of Agricultural Engineering and the College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering were merged as the College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering. In 2018, the Department of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, the Research Institute of Agricultural Water and Soil Engineering, the Research Institute of Agriculture Environment, and their related disciplines were all separated from the College of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering.

The college includes the Department of Water Conservancy ，the Experimental Center of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, and four research institutes (i.e., the Institute of Hydraulic Structure, the Institute of Hydraulics and Rivers, the Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering and the Institute of Intelligent Water Conservancy and Intelligent Disaster Reduction). In addition, the college owns four specialized offices: the Discipline and Talent Construction Office, the Professional Construction Office, the International Cooperation and Exchange Office, and the Engineering Education and Social Cooperation Office. Besides, the college has a post-doctoral work-station of hydraulic engineering and Engineering Technology Research Center of Geosynthetics of Nanjing. The college is also a main contributor to four national teaching and scientific research platforms: the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, the National Engineering Research Center of Water Resource Efficient Utilization and Engineering Safety, the National Experimental Teaching Center of Hydraulic Engineering, and the Cooperative Innovation Center of Water Science and Water Safety supported jointly by Jiangsu Province and the Ministry of Water Resources.

Currently, the college has four second-level disciplines (i.e., Hydraulics and River Dynamics, Hydraulic Structure Engineering, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, and Construction and Management of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Projects) and one first-level discipline (i.e., Safety Science and Engineering). Among them, Hydraulics and River Dynamics, Hydraulic Structure Engineering and Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering are the national key disciplines. The college owns four doctoral programs in second-level discipline (i.e., Hydraulics and River Dynamics, Hydraulic Structure Engineering, Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering, and Construction and Management of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Projects), one master program in first-level discipline (i.e., Safety Science and Engineering), one professional doctoral program (i.e., Civil Engineering and Water Conservancy), and one professional master program (i.e., Civil Engineering and Water Conservancy). The major of water conservancy and hydropower engineering was selected as the first batch of national first-class undergraduate professional construction site, the demonstration major of Curriculum, Ideology and Politics in Jiangsu Province, and the brand major of industry-education integration in Jiangsu Province. The discipline of Water Conservancy Engineering mainly supported by the disciplines of the college is one of the first batch national 211 key construction disciplines, national first-class key discipline and national advantageous discipline innovation platform construction discipline. It ranked first in the national discipline evaluation in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, it was one of the A+ disciplines and kept ranking first. In 2010 and 2014, it was successively selected to be involved in the construction project of Jiangsu advantageous disciplines. In 2017, the discipline of Water Conservancy Engineering was selected as the national First-class universities and disciplines of the world construction discipline.

Presently, the college has 115 faculty and staff members including 41 professors and 46 associate professors. 6 professors undertake both educational and administrative tasks. Among them, there are 53 doctoral supervisors, 54master supervisors and 26 part-time doctoral supervisors. 95% faculty members own PhD degree. Among the faculty and staff members, there are two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, three persons acquiring the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, one winning National Famous Teacher, two eminent professors under the Yangtze River Scholar award, 3 persons being involved in the national ten-thousand talents program, 5 persons being involved in the oversea leading scientist program, one young scholar under the Yangtze River Scholar award, 3 being selected in the “New Century Baiqianwan Talent Program”, more than 50 persons winning prizes at province levels. There are 8 provincial and ministerial level teams in the college, such as the Yangtze Scholars Innovation Team of the Ministry of Education and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan Team of Jiangsu Province.

The college has 379 doctoral students, 694 full-time master students, 371 part-time master students, 722 undergraduate students, and 95 international students. The college adheres to the fundamental task of establishing morality and cultivating talents, and takes the implementation of the spirit of the National Education Conference as the main line, vigorously promotes the construction of talents training capacity, and actively builds a high-level talent training system. In recent years, the college has achieved fruitful results on talent cultivation, e.g., 2 national excellent doctoral dissertations, 2 nominations of national excellent doctoral dissertations, 22 excellent doctoral dissertations and 40 excellent master dissertations in Jiangsu Province, 242 postgraduate research and innovation programs and 42 practical innovation programs in Jiangsu Province, 21 excellent graduate dissertations on water conservancy majors in national colleges and universities, 4 recipients of “National Master Degree of Engineering with Excellent Contributions”, 3 recipients of “Excellent Achievement of Master's Degree of Engineering Practice”, and 5 recipients of “Excellent Achievement of National Master's Degree of Hydraulic Engineering Practice”. The faculties of the college have also won numerous prizes: 1 special award of “Excellent Teacher Special Prize” and 6 “Excellent Teacher” of Baosteel Education Award, 4 special prizes of “National Water Conservancy Department Young Teachers Lecture Competition”, 3 National Excellent Guidance Teachers for Graduate Students of Hydraulic Engineering Professional Degrees, 3 “Advanced Individual of National Water Conservancy Engineering Professional Degree Postgraduate Education Work”, and 1 team of “Top-Ten Graduate Tutors in Jiangsu Province”. In addition, the college faculties have won many competitions, including the national and provincial awards for teaching achievements, the national contest for young teachers of water conservancy, the Jiangsu micro-lecture competitions. The professional teaching team has been awarded of “Advanced Education Group of Jiangsu Province”. In the past five years, the college has successively offered 6 courses, including national excellent resource sharing course, national excellent video open course, and national excellent online open course, 4 Jiangsu Province Online Open Courses, 1 excellent graduate course and 1 cultivating course with English teaching for foreign students in Jiangsu province, and 1 first-batch of national first-class undergraduate course, and 1 national ideological and political demonstration course. The college has published 6 national planning textbooks and water conservancy planning textbooks, and 8 key textbooks in Jiangsu province.

Taking advantage of water conservancy disciplines, the faculties in the college has successively undertaken major national research projects such as national key R&D projects and key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and participated in the research and solved the key technical problems of major national water conservancy projects such as the Three Gorges, the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, Xiluodu, Shuibuya, Jinping, Xiaowan, Baihetan, and Wudongde. In recent years, the college continued to contribute to meet the water-related needs of major national strategies such as the “Belt and Road Initiative”, “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development”, “Yangtze River Economic Belt Development” and “River Chief System”. In the past five years, the total scientific research funds have been increased by more than 340 million yuan, and 668 new scientific research projects have been funded. Among them, 7 are the national key scientific research projects supported by the Natural Science Foundation and 2 are the major consulting projects of 10 million yuan. The college has published 520 SCI papers, 424 EI papers, 24 scientific and technical books, and 327 national and international invention patents. The college has won 34 scientific research achievements awards at the provincial and higher level (including 8 with Hohai University as the first unit), including one second-class prize of National Technological Invention Award and one National Innovation Award.

The college has made solid efforts to promote international cooperation and exchanges. It has successively signed inter-school cooperation agreements with Queen’s University of Canada, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Ottawa, the University of Arizona, and the University of Western Australia, and established a Sino-Western joint laboratory with the University of Catalonia in Spain. Training base for international students has been established with the China Power Construction Group East China Survey and Design Research Institute Co., Ltd. In the past five years, the college has authorized 9 foreign patents, published nearly 200 academic papers in cooperation with foreign institutions, and invited more than 80 overseas experts from famous universities to visit our university and give academic seminars to our faculty and students. The cooperation in international projects is deepening. The college has successfully applied for and been approved to build the “River network hydrodynamic system and safety discipline innovation base”, cultivates and builds the “Water engineering safety and long-term operation discipline innovation base”, and establishes the “National Key Research and Development Program International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Project”, and jointly with the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom won the “Sino-British Urban Flood Control Research Impact Project” funded by the British Royal Academy of Engineering.  The college has hosted 4 international high-level academic conferences and successfully received more than 40 foreign exchange students and visiting groups. More than 200 teachers and students have participated in national and international academic conferences. More than 40 people have gone abroad to participate in academic exchange activities.