ABOUT
Introduction
The Croucher
Laboratory of Environmental Hydraulics of the Department of
Civil Engineering, the University of Hong Kong has been
conducting basic and applied research on a wide range of
hydro-environmental problems since the early 1980s. It has
contributed internationally to the understanding of buoyant
jet mixing and its application to sea outfall design. It
has played a key role in several major environmental
hydraulic projects in Hong Kong and overseas including the
environmental impact assessment of the Strategic Sewage
Disposal Scheme (SSDS) in Hong Kong, the post-operation
monitoring of the Sydney Deepwater Ocean Outfall in
Australia, and the innovative award-winning Tai Hang Tung
Storage Scheme for flood prevention in Western Kowloon, Hong
Kong. It has pioneered the use of advanced engineering
models to tackle the perpetual problem of red tides and
algal blooms and enhance fisheries management in Hong Kong.
The hydraulic laboratory was relocated to the existing
location in Chow Yei Ching Building in 1996. In 2004, the
laboratory was selected by the Croucher Foundation as the
only HKU laboratory to be named after Noel Croucher to
commemorate the Foundation's 25th anniversary.
The laboratory, closely connected with institutions
worldwide, is keen to collaborate with other parties to
develop innovative engineering solutions to challenging
problems. The laboratory is a key player in the Area of
Excellence (AoE) on Marine Environmental Research and
Innovative Technology (MERIT) funded by the Hong Kong
University Grants Committee (2004-2009) - a collaborative
inter-institution effort to conduct multidisciplinary
research relevant to the protection and conservation of the
marine environment. Together with the Department of Computer
Science of the University of Hong Kong, the laboratory has
developed a unique virtual reality computer ocean outfall
modelling system, VISJET, for environmental assessment and
education.
Over the past 25 years, the laboratory has nurtured a number of leading environmental and hydraulic engineers, who are now serving in the government, industry, and academic institutions. It has been the tradition of the laboratory to actively engage undergraduate and postgraduate students in the research activities, and to constantly integrate distilled elements of the research into the curriculum and continuing professional development (CPD) courses for practicing engineers.