Drainage and Flood Mitigation

Learn to Manage Too Much Water

• Flooding
• Poor drainage
• Excessively wet soils

Lesson Structure

There are 7 lessons in this course:

1. SCOPE AND NATURE OF WATER MANAGEMENT
   • What Needs to be Waterproofed in the Backyard?
   • Materials for Waterproofing
   • Why Drainage is Important
   • Reasons for Drainage
   • Over watering
   • Rainfall
   • Canal seepage
   • Seepage under structures
   • Artesian conditions
   • Floods
2. WATER MOVEMENT IN SOILS
   • Introduction
   • Soil particle type - prismatic, columnar, platy, crumb etc
   • Nature of water in soil
   • Field capacity
   • Infiltration
   • Suction
   • Saturation
   • Soil moisture
   • The Lateral Movement of Water
3. UNDERSTANDING CAPILLARY ACTION
   • What is capillary action
   • Capillary fringe
4. MANAGING WATER AT THE SOURCE
   • Rainfall
   • Rainwater Harvesting
   • Stored Water – Dams, Reservoirs, Tanks
   • Diverting Storm Water
   • The Water Table
   • Leaks
5. MANAGING SURFACE DRAINAGE
   • Types of Surface Drainage Systems
   • Surface Drainage
   • Ditches and open drains
   • Humps and hollows
   • Levees and graded banks
   • Biofilters
   • Permaculture Swale
   • Improving surface drainage after construction
   • Surface drainage in field, channels
   • Peak storm drainage, storm runoff
   • Drainage structures and salinity
6. MANAGING SUB-SURFACE DRAINAGE
   • Improving Soil Drainage
   • First decision: subsurface or surface drainage?
   • Types of Subsurface Drains
   • The Water Outlet
   • Gradients
   • Layout of Drains
   • Laying an Agricultural (Agi) Drain
   • Distance Between Drainage Pipes
   • Depth of Drains
   • Maintenance
   • Subsurface Drainage
   • Lesson 6 Additional Reading
7. STORM DRAINAGE
   • Storm Runoff
   • Inlets
   • Manholes
   • Swales
   • Storm Water Management
   • Intensity of Rainfall
   • Storm water Runoff Estimations
   • Lesson 7 Additional Reading
   • Selecting the Size (Diameter) of Pipes
   • Selecting the Size and Shape of Ditches and Swales
   • Water table control
   • Water table investigations
   • Steady state drainage
   • Final Assessment

Who is this Course For?

• Land managers, Environmental officers
• Farmers
• Landscapers and gardeners
• Construction workers, contractors
• Developers, planners, property owners
• Plumbers, water industry people, drainage and irrigation installers
• Earthmoving equipment operators
• Anyone else with a need to better understand drainage or flood mitigation