Department of Civil Engineering

Water Engineering III

CWEV301 - Assignment 1 on Water Resources

• Hand-out date: 26th February 2024
• Each student needs to submit his/her own Assignment
• Submission would be in MS Word format and the file e-mailed to
johann.vandermerwe@mandela.ac.za on or before the 9th April 2024. NOTE:
Reports submitted after 23:59 on this date would suffer a 4% penalty immediately
and another 6% pro-rata on the 9th followed by 5% penalty per pro-rata day
thereafter. Typing to be at 1,15 spacing with a font size of 11.
• Follow the Harvard method of referencing, attach a reference list and present
ample proof if in-text referencing.

Topic:– Water volume reduction in dams.

Dams are fed by rivers and this remains the major water resource for South
Africa. The storage volume of a dam constantly reduces due to seepage,
evaporation and siltation. This assignment aims to clarify the severity of two of
these factors on dam storage capacity.

View the Mark Sheet on the next page to gain insight on the requirements, the
project layout and mark allocations per section.
 2024 – Water Engineering III
CWEV301 – ASSIGNMENT 1 - Marking Rubric
Weight Criteria Mark

2 Cover page (student and project details) and Table of

contents (with page numbers and numbers for sections)
4 Introduction to entire project
12 Discussion on Evaporation as a loss to dam storage
capacity – a problem or not?
2 Conclusion drawn for South Africa with your ‘best
solution’ proposed
4 In-text referencing – Harvard method followed
12 Discussion on siltation (sediment transport) as a loss to
dam storage capacity – a problem or not?
2 Conclusion drawn for South Africa with your ‘best
solution’ proposed
4 In-text referencing – Harvard method followed
4 Reference List – Harvard method followed
46 TOTAL
Mark interpretation/ guide
4 3 2 1 0
Insightful, Answers the Meets basic Does not answer the Does not
demonstrates question well, requirements, question in a answer the
critical thinking demonstrates adequate, shows meaningful way, question at all,
on the project good understanding of misunderstanding of no data
focus, provides understanding, the topic, key aspects, submitted, no
strong and provides assumptions made, inadequate project, objectives met.
arguments. Very good arguments, some arguments and weak attempt at No work done.
effective use of no fatal mistakes. proposed, project exploring this section.
Literature and Good use of is passable. Sparse Assumptions not
referencing. Literature and use of Literature substantiated. Poor
Excellent work. referencing. and referencing. use of Literature and
Good work. Average work. referencing.
Poor work