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Gain technical skills for designing, inspecting, and maintaining civil engineering structures, with a strong emphasis on engineering principles. 

Civil engineering projects can often be characterised by enormous complexity. The specialisation in Hydraulic & Geo-Structures focuses on the complex interactions between soil, water, and man-made structures combining advanced geotechnical, hydraulic, and structural engineering principles with data-driven and computational approaches.

What is hydraulic & geo-structures?

The design, inspection and maintenance of civil engineering structures (e.g. bridges, roads, dams, waterways, tunnels, power stations, or railways) requires in-depth mathematical and physical knowledge. How can you measure the risk of bridge failure? What does it take to build multifunctional, climate-resilient dikes, or to reinforce them? And how can you take the properties of a certain type of soil (e.g. sand or clay) into account in geo-structures, whether it forms the foundation or it is used as a building material? 

This specialisation prepares you to design and manage structures with a strong focus on safety and stability. It covers both above-ground and underground civil engineering works. You will develop a solid foundation in mathematics and physics, learn how to translate hydraulic and geotechnical challenges into quantitative models, and apply these insights in sustainable geotechnical design, management, and monitoring. Key topics include geo-risk assessment, hydraulic engineering, structural health monitoring, geotechnical modelling, and digital twinning.

Examples of courses you might follow during this specialisation:
  • For hydraulic and geostructures that require a high safety standard (e.g. dikes and embankments), the risk of failure needs to be properly evaluated, taking into account uncertainties in both material characteristics and spatial variablity as in the field. In the course Geo Risk Assessment you will learn to quantify these uncertainties from in-situ geotechnical data, using statistical methods, and to incorporate them into computer models for reliability based design.
  • Soil Mechanics is an essential element in the design of the built environment, whether it forms the foundation of structures or it is used as building material for embankments and dams, mining infrastructure or waste disposal facilities. In the course Geotechnical Modelling you will deepen your understanding of stress-strain behaviour of soils, study constitutive models for soil behaviour and gain hands-on experience with soil mechanics laboratory tests and apply geotechnical modelling in civil engineering design.

Within this specialisation, you will work on solutions for interesting, real-life cases that sometimes stem directly from the field. You might, for example, learn about dike design, foundations and structural health monitoring of hydraulic and geo-structures. It is exactly this diversity that makes students of this specialisation – and this Master’s in general – stand out on the job market!

What will you learn?

As a graduate of this Master's and this specialisation, you have acquired specific, scientific knowledge, skills and values, which you can put to good use in your future job.

  • After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

    • have a broad overview of the multidisciplinary aspects of hydraulic and geotechnical engineering; 

  • After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:

    • have a solid command of relevant theoretical, experimental, and digital methods in an integrated manner, answering to civil engineering challenges cost effectively;

  • After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

    • can develop a multi-perspective, context-dependent approach for Hydraulic and Geo-Structures solutions;
    • can identify gaps in your knowledge, and you have a mindset to enhance and extend your knowledge through study; 
    • are aware of social, environmental, sustainability aspects of Hydraulic and Geo-Structures and you are able to analyse and understand these aspects and to integrate these elements in your scientific work.

Other master’s and specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. Or find out more about these other master's:

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