#hydrotechnics

• Silt up — To deposit alluvium, to cover a piece of land or a riverbed with layers of silt, sand, and gravel brought by waters; to undergo a process of silting or sedimentary accumulation. In hydrotechnics, it describes the action by which a river modifies the dynamic relief of an area by dropping transported materials at points where current velocity decreases.
• Silting up — The act of depositing alluvium and its result; the natural or technically induced process through which a watercourse deposits sediments, leading to the rising of the riverbed or the covering of land with silt; silting up. As a plural form, it denotes the alluvial attributes or structures characterizing multiple floodplains or hydrographic basins.
• Land reclamation — A complex system of technical, hydrotechnical, forestry, or chemical works executed in a planned manner to radically and sustainably modify unfavorable soil characteristics for optimal agricultural use. The term applies predominantly to land reclamation, denoting drainage, irrigation, damming, soil erosion control, or marsh sanitation to ensure crop stability.
• Water intake — A technical term designating a specialized engineering structure intended for capturing, intake, or managed diversion of a water flow from a natural course, canal, or basin, for supplying irrigation systems, hydroelectric plants, or drinking water networks; also, the term is sometimes used in topography and transport to indicate the width of the land strip definitively occupied by a railway or a public road.
• Riprap — A massive construction element made by heap-piling, orderly laying, or chaotically dumping large blocks of raw stone, boulders, or prefabricated concrete elements (such as stabilopods). In hydrotechnical and civil engineering, this heavy structure is used for building dikes, dams, riverbank reinforcements, protections against wave or torrent erosion, and for solid underwater foundations.
• Aqueduct — A complex system of channels, large-scale pipelines, and civil engineering structures (often in the form of bridges suspended on arches) designed for collecting and transporting potable water over long distances, from the catchment source to a city's distribution network. It represents a major hydrotechnical infrastructure work.
• Starling — The upstream part of a bridge pier, projecting forward and specially shaped (pointed, wedge-like, or ogival) to split the water current, guide the flow, and protect the structure against water pressure, ice jams, or floating debris carried by the river. It serves as the frontal safety component of a bridge infrastructure facing the hydrological flow.
• Outer harbor — A specially designed, deep water area partially enclosed by breakwaters, located at the main entrance of a harbor or downstream of a river port, intended for temporary ship mooring, turning maneuvers, or absorbing wave energy. In a geo-economic sense, it designates a subsidiary port, often a deep-water one, built at the mouth of an estuary to accommodate modern large vessels that cannot navigate to the main inland port.
• Starling — A prominent construction element, with a hydrodynamic or angular profile, located on the upstream side of a bridge pier or a dam, having the structural role of splitting and deflecting water currents, reducing hydrodynamic pressure, and protecting the main structure from the impact of ice floes or logs carried by floods.