Stormwater management is critical to the success of many civil engineering projects.  The introduction of unwanted water can flood a soil thereby destroying its bearing capacity, it can cause extreme lateral loads by either the force of flowing water or through the existence of static head, and/or can erode a structure by its velocity and resultant scour.  The failure to manage stormwater has historically led to foundation settlement, building and bridge collapse, dam failure, roadway washout, and many other destructive events which have cost millions of dollars and claimed thousands of lives.  For these reasons, engineers must control the flow and storage of stormwater.

This webbook unit covers the general aspects storm water drainage systems construction, and provides a comprehensive discussion of 10 typical items of work related to storm water drainage systems construction, focusing on the ‘what and how.’ This in-depth knowledge will give the reader a solid foundation for real-world applications in the field.

To effectively and safely construct an item of work related to storm water drainage systems, one must learn to characterize storm water drainage system construction.

One must know how to identify the scope of work for related items of work, learn how to identify the applicable work tasks, and know how to conduct work planning and cost estimating analyses. One must also know how to integrate and sequence the work tasks to develop the project schedule, understand the related testing and sampling, and field inspections for overseeing the specific items of work, and the related performance analyses during construction.

Technology is transforming the learning environment, but one thing that remains the same is that learners want engaging, real-world content. To that end, we have gamified learning in this webbook unit by incorporating several interactive and engaging elements throughout. We hope this will help focus and engage the learner. We are aware that people’s attention spans have become shorter in recent years, and it is essential to provide meaningful real-world tools for work and for learning to meet the needs of today’s learners, which is exactly what we have done in this webbook unit.