Hydraulic structures: a positive outlook into the future

Hydraulic structures are, and will remain, relevant in the future, given the enormous problems in water engineering to come. After having been a key topic up to the Second World War, they have lost attractiveness until recent years, given the advance of mainly river and environmental engineering. Following the recent developments in laboratory instrumentation, a number of problems in hydraulic structures can be solved mainly using experimentation, thereby accounting for the flow complexities given by the often spatial and highly turbulent flow structures, combined with multi-phase flow. An outlook into the future of hydraulic structures further reveals the importance of updated hydraulic book series, from which students and practicing engineers profit from the knowledge available among the International Association for Hydro-environment Engineering and Research Committees. As a conclusion, hydraulic structures will play a dominant role in the future, given the enormous but fascinating problems posed by the scarcity and abundance of water on our planet.