The Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering originated from the Department of Hydropower and Hydraulic Structures established in 1952. In 1954, the Department of Rivers and Hydropower Hydraulic Structures was established. The Department of Hydraulic Structures was partially incorporated into the Department of Rivers and Hydropower Hydraulic Structures and was renamed the Department of Hydropower Engineering in 1984. In 1998, according to the new specialty catalogue of the Ministry of Education, it was adjusted to the Department of Water Conservancy and Hydropower Engineering.
The department is the earliest one in our country and has the largest number of students. It has great influence both at home and abroad. There are five doctoral disciplines, including hydraulic structure engineering, water conservancy and hydropower engineering, hydraulics and river dynamics, water disaster and water safety, and construction and management of water conservancy and hydropower engineering, among which hydraulic structure engineering, hydraulics and river dynamics, and water conservancy and hydropower engineering are all national key disciplines. It has hydraulic structure experiment center, hydropower station experiment center, sediment experiment center, hydraulic hydraulics experiment center and other experimental research centers, as well as water conservancy and civil engineering innovation experiment center for students. In addition, it has established practice bases in Xinanjiang, Fuchun River, Three Gorges, Gezhouba, Geheyan, Tankeng, Xiluodu and Bailianya.
The department takes pride in its strong and high-quality teaching faculty. Currently, there are more than 70 teachers, 70% of whom have senior professional titles, including one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, one scholar of the Yangtze River, and more than ten academicians and special professors.
The department has cultivated nearly 10,000 graduates, including five academicians from the two academies (Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering). It has undertaken a large number of projects of national and provincial funds, as well as scientific research projects of major water conservancy and hydropower projects at home and abroad. The department has obtained high-quality research results, and won more than 60 prizes of National Science & Technology Progress Award, provincial and ministerial scientific and technological awards and national invention patents. It has published more than twenty textbooks and monographs, over 500 papers and won four prizes of excellent textbooks of national and provincial colleges and universities, three excellent courses, five prizes of teaching achievement and four prizes of excellent teachers.
