The WKU Department of Engineering is partnering with WKU Study Away to offer a hands-on Winter Term course. "Total Immersion Floodplain Management" will take students to some of the most massive floodplain management projects in the Southwest.

“Students will have a unique opportunity to study first-hand some of the most incredible flood control systems in the United States,” said Dr. Warren Campbell, WKU civil engineering professor and instructor for the course. “Some of these structures are massive . . . mind-boggling and our students will gain a whole new perspective by seeing them in person.”

According to Campbell, students will see the highest point in the continental U.S. (Mt. Whitney 14,495 feet) and the lowest point in the U.S. (Badwater Basin in Death Valley). “Students will see watersheds and flood works on a scale that most students from the humid Southeast have never seen,” he said.

Students will also meet with the people who run floodplain management sites, including potential employers. “The goal of this course is to help students develop an understanding of diverse floodplain issues, but they will gain even more with this course.”

Throughout the two-week course, students will study examples of flood control successes and failures, including the Hoover Dam, San Diego County’s flood works and the flood control district for Clark County (Las Vegas), a county larger than the state of Connecticut.

Course dates are Jan. 8-21, and students must submit an application and $750 deposit to Study Away by Oct. 10.

For information about this course, visit www.wku.edu/studyaway/ or contact Warren Campbell, professor of civil engineering, at (270) 745-8988 or warren.campbell@wku.edu. For information about WKU Study Away, contact Jerry Barnaby, program director of Study Away, at (270) 745-2231 or jerry.barnaby@wku.edu.

Contact: Susan Esters, (270) 745-8922.