Project Design Guidelines
Project Design Guidelines
(June 2004)
University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 PREAMBLE...................................................................................................................................1
2 GENERAL FORMAT OF THE REPORT..................................................................................1
3 ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
4 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................3
5 LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................4
6 STUDY AREA................................................................................................................................5
7 DESIGN METHODS AND CRITERIA......................................................................................6
7.1 POPULATION PROJECTION........................................................................................................6
7.2 APPLICABLE WATER DEMAND.................................................................................................6
7.3 WATER TREATMENT WORKS...................................................................................................6
7.4 PUMPING REQUIREMENTS........................................................................................................7
7.5 TRANSMISSION LINES..............................................................................................................7
7.6 RESERVOIRS............................................................................................................................7
7.7 DISTRIBUTION MAINS..............................................................................................................7
7.8 DESIGN SOFTWARE..................................................................................................................7
7.9 COST PROJECTION/ESTIMATION...............................................................................................8
8 DESIGN CALCULATIONS.........................................................................................................8
9 COST PROJECTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE..........................................8
9.1 COST PROJECTION...................................................................................................................8
9.1.1 Cash flow projection.....................................................................................................9
9.1.2 Implementation schedule...............................................................................................9
10 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.....................................................................10
10.1 PROJECT COMPONENTS DETAILS..........................................................................................10
10.2 SUGGESTED IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE...........................................................................10
10.3 PROJECT COST.......................................................................................................................10
11 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................10
12 APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................11
13 DRAWINGS.................................................................................................................................11
14 GENERAL INFORMATION.....................................................................................................11
14.1 EDITORIAL.............................................................................................................................11
14.2 TABLES..................................................................................................................................11
14.3 FIGURES................................................................................................................................11
14.4 General information on tables and figure.............................................................................11
Prepared by Z. Hoko i
University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
1 PREAMBLE
This set of guidelines was prepared by Eng Z. Hoko primarily for students under his
supervision. These are not general University guidelines although other students are
free to refer to them and adopt any sections they deem useful.
The design projects referred to here include water and sewerage reticulations, water
and wastewater treatment works and related ancillaries such as pumping stations and
reservoirs.
The whole aim of the design project is to train the student the requirements of a
design report in real life engineering practice. Academic requirements of a BSc
Engineering programme must also be adhered to. Therefore it can be assumed that
the design project is a role-play between a consultant and a client who is technical. It
can also be the same role-play between a junior engineer and a senior engineer. In this
“role play” the consultant is the student and the technical client is the supervisor or
lecturer. The real life technical client may be assumed to be such organizations as
Municipal engineering departments, government public works departments or
consultants who have subcontracted specialized work to subcontractors. These
technical clients normally employ engineers as well but may not have the time or
capacity to execute the design. Therefore at the end of the design project the student
is expected to have gained some knowledge and appreciation of the following:
a) How a consultant should prepare a design report
b) What to expect in a consultant design report from a client’s point of
view.
It therefore follows that the intended reader for the main report (abstract excluded) is
a technical person and thus the definition and over explaining of basic principles and
theories is not necessary. This is very important especially when deciding the contents
of chapters, literature being one of the key chapters. These guidelines are to aid
already published and recommended guidelines. The general format of the report is
presented in section 2.
Cover page
ABSTACT
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
List of appendices
Acronyms or abbreviations and symbols
1.0INTRODUCTION
1.1 Scope of project
1.2Objectives
2.0LITERATURE REVIEW
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
3.0STUDY AREA (Where applicable)
4.0 DESIGN CRITERIA
5.0DESIGN CALCULATIONS AND OUTPUTS
6.0CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.0REFERENCES
8.0APPENDICES
Guidelines and tips on how to write each chapter are presented in the sections that
follow. The section numbers of the various report elements discussed after this do not
coincide with the section number in the thesis. In the thesis/report the section numbers
as outlined under section 2.0 of this guideline should be adopted.
3 ABSTRACT
The length of the abstract should normally be 100-300 words and at most a page. An
abstract is more of a summary and should therefore contain extracts of all parts of the
thesis except literature review. In real life projects this is represented by an executive
summary, which must provide information for both engineers and other decision-
making personnel who may be managers or accountants. In simple terms it should
include outline of the following:
Introduction
Study area and its location
Current state of services and initiatives
Problems in terms of the service to be designed
Project objectives
These should normally be derived from typical Terms of Reference (TOR) for
similar real life projects. The student is therefore expected to research on actual
contracts between a consultant and a client on similar or related projects and also
have an imagination where such contracts are hard to come by. There is no
textbook method on how the student will link up and communicate with people in
industry. This is more of a personal initiative.
Methods used
This should generally cover broad concepts used in the design. These maybe say
design standards used
legal requirements adhered to or followed
design software used
Results
This should normally cover the following as examples
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
for reticulations (water and sewer) lengths, diameters and material of
major pipelines. The water reticulation consists of AC pipes ranging from
100mm to 300mm with a total length of 20km.
Treatment works and reservoirs
Size and numbers of key components
Cost and implementation period.
4 INTRODUCTION
Scope of project:
A complete water/sewerage project may include feasibility studies,
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), reticulation (onsite), trunk mains
(offsite), reservoir, water or sewage works, disposal facilities, pump stations,
preliminary and detailed design for each component. It is not always that the
consultant is responsible for all project components and there is therefore a
need to outline the scope or extend of involvement.
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
Objectives
The objectives of a design project must fulfill the client's requirements.
Client's requirements in engineering contracts are outlined in the TOR. The
specific requirements of the TOR depend on the client. For example, a
technical client will give much clearer TOR than say an ordinary non-
technical man who may even give his TOR verbally. For example the terms of
reference may outline the design period as 20 years and therefore one of the
objectives will say be :
To design a water reticulation system to meet the requirements for 20 years
(the target year may also be stated).
The TOR may not always be clear and the consultant will normally translate
the requirements into technical objectives. Students are therefore expected to
consult relevant industry sectors and organizations and to refer to previous
actual contracts to come up with fictitious /ideal objectives. Attention is drawn
to the fact that looking for data and information as well as making inquiries at
different organizations will form one of the early challenges in engineering
practice. Students are therefore expected to make their contacts and make
inquiries without having to ask for support from the institution or supervisor.
5 LITERATURE REVIEW
The aim of literature review is to discuss and outline the various literature and
methods in a country and even in the region or global. Typically reference
citation is expected to be from:
Local and foreign design manuals and guidelines
Good literature on theory
User manuals to programs or software
Journals
Lecture notes (but to a very limited extend)
Past consultants reports on feasibility and design
Past technical reports by municipalities, towns and even government
departments especially where the hypothetical project is located.
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
The student is expected to demonstrate that more than one source or criteria of
design has been cited and analysed from different literature. The student is
expected to cite, compare and contrast different theories and recommendations
on (design procedure, design formulae, parameters, data and material) and to
argue why certain approaches appear popular and logical. The student should
end a discussion of each sub-section by suggesting which approach/formulae,
design figure appears reasonable to use. Although in practice, local standards
are recommended, the student may resort to other standards or
recommendation as long as there are good arguments for this, which are
supported by literature. Literature review should not be restricted to
Zimbabwean Manuals or Publications.
6 STUDY AREA
Background on:
population and its growth
type of developments, and extend of growth
number of stands in each category, occupancy per stand
etc
Socio-economic status income, class etc.
Main economic activities
Background on:
Existing water and sewerage services. More effort and
details will be required on the service to be designed
(water or sewer). Specific consumptions, trends in
demand or sewage generation.
Major water uses and waste generation
Fees and tariffs and method of billing and
Planned expansion which could be from a sewerage
master plan or water supply master plan or planned
projects
Key statements on the objectives of the master plan
should be captured.
Policies on the services
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
This should give a brief outline of the design criteria for each of the project
component. It should also include assumed input data and selected design
parameters or values where a number of options and range of input data is
available. The design methods and criteria should be extracted form the
“conclusions” made in the literature review. There is therefore no need to
present excessive arguments and reasons for selecting the method or criteria,
as this should have been done in the literature review chapter. It is
recommended that the design methods and criteria of each of the project
components should form a subsection. For example, in a water infrastructure
design, the structure maybe as follows:
There maybe need to have the applicable demand for the current period and
also for the future if specific consumption is expected to change. This can be
the case when either the standard of living is expected to change or say the
quality and reliability and even type of water or sewage services will change.
For a community whose sanitation provision will change from pit latrines to
say water borne reticulated sewerage, a marked change in water consumption
will arise as water borne sewage an account for some 30% of water
consumption in high density developments. This will therefore have an impact
on both water consumption and sewage generation.
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
7.3 Water treatment works
Design flow determination approach (not the actual calculation of the
design flows)
Design period
Design criteria and assumed loading rates for key functions, expected
losses and expected efficiencies
Storage capacity requirements e.g. Capacity to be 2 days retention time at
average daily demand (and not the actual computation of the size of the
reservoir for this project)
7.6 Reservoirs
Maximum and minimum diameter
Max height if required
Required capacity in relation to say the average daily demand e.g. 2 days
storage at average demand
Note: These are note real figures
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
7.8 Design software
If software is to be used in design, then the universal parameters that are used
and any sign convention or assumptions must be outlined. For example, in
water reticulation design software, there could be options to select the
following:
Units
Applicable formulae say for headloss calculation
Applicable limits say for:
residual head
headloss per unit length
time step for simulation
All the methods and values of parameters should have been discussed in the literature
review. What you will be doing in this section is more of selecting from the different
approaches, theories, and figures discussed in literature review.
8 DESIGN CALCULATIONS
Students are free to modify the summaries as they deem fit. All estimates of
quantities should be according to standard methods of measurements in Civil
Engineering in Zimbabwe and in line with the Standard Conditions and specification
for civil engineering works in high density housing contracts as prepared by The
Ministry of Local Government, Zimbabwe
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
Duration [months]
Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Tender advertisement
Adjudication and award
Site establishment
Clearing
Excavation
Pipe laying
Testing
Backfilling
Ancillary work
Commissioning
11 REFERENCES
Literature referencing style and listing is that of the IWA publications which is
presented in appendix 2.
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
12 APPENDICES
13 DRAWINGS
Layout and detailed drawings should be presented. Generally a layout for the whole
project is expected and detailed drawings of layout and long sections will be required
for representative areas and sections. The student is to discuss with the supervisor on
which areas (high density, medium or low density or industrial would need to be
further subdivided to show typical details of stand layout which will enable the
student to draw detailed reticulation layout. This will provide the student with a task
to show typical location of service reticulation and the placement of such features as
connection points, fire hydrants, isolation valves, manholes etc. The extend of details
for water or wastewater treatment works and other ancillaries should also be discussed
with the supervisor.
14 GENERAL INFORMATION
14.1 Editorial
Students are referred to other approved publications for editorial requirements.
14.2 Tables
All tables must be numbered and headed. Table headers should appear above the
table. This can be done by selecting the table and then select the insert menu followed
by caption.
14.3 Figures
All figures should be captioned and numbered. The procedure for inserting figure
captions is similar to that of table headers. However figure captions should appear
below the figure.
Sources of tables and figures should be given in the standard format. In the results
section it may be sometimes necessary to present the results in both tabular and
graphical form. However the author is advised to consider this need and also to assess
whether the inclusion of a graph is adding value to the thesis.
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
Literature Review (Extracted from Guidelines for MSc Thesis Writing by Z. Hoko , 2004)
You will find it useful and time saving and less frustrating to go through guidelines for writing a thesis
or a technical paper. It is also important to refer to a past “good” thesis or even read related journal
articles and pay attention to the tone and referencing style. Doing this is also helpful to check the
structure, tone and format for other sections of the thesis. You just have to accept that you have to learn
how to write an MSc thesis as in most cases students/participants will be doing an MSc for the first
time. As the name/title of the section is “literature review”, it should not be a section to demonstrate
your creativity or empty your “reservoir” of knowledge and share your “interesting” experience. This
section should contain a review of literature and your analyses, opinions, conclusions and inferences
under this section must be derived/supported by what you are citing from reference literature. Your
references should ideally be journals and good textbooks (books mainly for underlying theory and
journals for related work, recent findings, past studies, advances and developments etc). Refereed
journals should be preferred as they are reviewed by experts before publishing. Non-refereed journals
and conference proceedings should be considered and selected carefully as some of them may have the
standard and quality next to that of newspaper articles. The internet as a quotable reference is
discouraged except in instances where it may contain electronic versions of published articles, books or
sites of reputable organizations (or people) e.g. The World Bank. However a lot of useful information,
which can guide and enlighten the student, can be found on the Internet. This includes say procedures,
equipment suppliers and operating instructions, test methods and their published references, journal
names, etc. Bear in mind that it is important to have a sound literature review well before the
commencement and latest before completion of the fieldwork as this will give you an insight to
potential problems, challenges, areas already studied as well as the knowledge gap. You are expected
to have a reference list of around 20-50 appropriate references in the final report. So I suggest that by
the time you start the field work your list of references cited should be say at least 15-20, and by end of
fieldwork say 20-25 and then at the end (submission of final report) 25-50.
Try and change your referencing style occasionally to avoid monotony. The smooth flow of the text
must be maintained even though reference will be made from different publications.
You can try the following (these are not real references)
1. According to Hoko (1998) the occurrence of drought appears to be once in 10 years in
Zimbabwe since around 1950 until the late 90s.
2. While Smith (1998) suggests that there is a relationship between student stipend level and
attitude towards learning, Hove (1999) argues that the prevailing economic and social
environment plays a more important role.
3. Reported survival rates of faecal coliforms in natural surface water in tropical regions seldom
exceed 15 days (Patel, 1987 and Garwe, 1991). You can also cite more than one reference to
give more emphasis and prove that there are more people thinking in this way.
4. Recent studies by Jones et al in the USA during the period 1999-2002 prove that……….. (et
al means and others and this is used when there are more than two authors to a reference)
5. Anthony in 1998 concluded that……..
6. Mahachi and Vivian (1999) further suggests….
7. Morgan (2000) also found similar results to those reported by Mahachi and Vivian (after
citing say Mahachi and Vivian first say as in 6)
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
8. Furthermore it was also reported by Chimuti in 1998 that political instability in Africa is as a
result of……………. (This supports an earlier citation)
9. The value of turbidity in open wells in most Asian countries is in the range of 20-50 NTU
(Daniel et al 2000). However studies in India by Vijay (1998) show that values of up to 100
NTU have been recorded.
10. A surface-loading rate not exceeding 300g/m3.d for anaerobic ponds is deemed sufficient in
Zimbabwe following extensive studies by Juru (2000).
11. Ronald (1995) argues that…….
Only quote figures and strong facts, theories and hypothesis that appear to be supported by
extensive research. Do not just quote facts, theories or figures that are found in almost any
publication on the subject. It is also not a must that every book or journal you find or read, then
you must cite it as reference. The reference list in your thesis should only be for the articles,
journals or books that you have actually read and cited not simply handled or read. It is also
frustrating to find that a reference cited is not listed in the list of references as a lot of “suspicion”
may be raised. The structure as in background should be Globalregionalcountrystudy area.
More time, effort and details though are required as you go down to the study area (i.e. previous
reports and studies preferably published).
The nature of your analyses, comparison, inferences may be: (these are not real inferences or
conclusions)
1. Based on the reported figures (or from table1or figure or from the above), the range of
loading rates is 100 to 300 g/ m3.d for successful operation of anaerobic ponds. However
other factors such as sulphates if in excess of 150mg/l can affect the performance (Mara,
1987). This is not likely to be a problem when the sewage is purely domestic as the
source of sulphates is often industrial processes.
2. It can be concluded from the foregoing that…………………….
3. Thus from the above equation as adopted from Arthur (1987), a safe loading rate for
Harare which has a mean coldest month temperature of 15oC is 240 g/ m3.
4. One can therefore deduce that in tropical climates, the removal of nutrients (N and P) in
hybrid sewage treatment systems is generally 1.5 times as compared to trickling filters.
Jones (1999) however reports that this ratio is 2.5 times in Kenya. This could be as a
result of recent advances in the technology following massive investment in human
resources development as well as private sector participation. It is therefore safe to
assume that a ratio of 2 times is feasible in Zimbabwe within the next 5 or so years as
there appears to be a strong drive for capacity building as evidenced by the introduction
of two postgraduate programmes in the field of water management and engineering at the
University of Zimbabwe. In addition to this the government has recently adopted a policy
to enhance water and sanitation in the major cities, which include Bulawayo, the study
area.
5. It can be seen that contrary to reports in Europe that………….the situation in Africa
is…………
6. Owing to the above conflicting schools of thought on the subject, it is impossible to make
sound conclusions on the role of mosquitoes in spreading the virus. Therefore there is
need for further investigation on transmission of the virus by mosquitoes especially in
malaria prone areas such as the Zambezi valley.
7. It therefore appears that the summer harvest of tilapia fish in aquaculture ponds is about
150% of that of winter. However other factors such as altitude may affect the comparative
yields of different places.
Although the word MSc appears in the above extract the approach for literature review is basically the
same as that for BSc.
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University of Zimbabwe, Department of Civil Engineering BSc Design Project Guidelines
APPENDIX 2: REFERENCE CITING AND LISTING
References: citations in text ( extracted from IWA Publishing instructions for
authors)
7.1 Use surname of author and year of publication: Jones (1982) or (Jones, 1982).
7.2 Insert initials only if there are two different authors with the same surname and same
year of publication.
7.3 Two or more years in parentheses following an author's name are cited in ascending
order of year, and two or more references published in the same year by the same author
are differentiated by letters a, b, c, etc. For example: Brown (1969, 1972, 1973a, b).
7.4 Different references cited together should be in date order, for example: (Smith, 1959;
Thomson and Jones, 1982; Green, 1990).
7.5 If a paper has been accepted for publication but has not been published the term "(in
press)" should be used instead of a date.
7.6 If a paper has been submitted but not definitely accepted the term "(submitted)" should
be used. If the paper is still being prepared the term "(in preparation)" should be used.
7.7 The abbreviation "et al." should be used in the text when there are more than two co-
authors of a cited paper.
8. List of references
8.1 References should be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper. Although "et al." is
preferable in the text, in the list of references all authors should be given.
8.2 Journal reference style:
Asano T., Maeda M. and Takaki M. (1996). Wastewater reclamation and reuse in Japan:
overview and implementation examples. Wat. Sci. Tech., 34(11), 219-226.
Note that to unambiguously identify articles in Water Science and Technology the issue
number as well as the volume number is needed.
8.3 Book reference styles - (i) article in compilation; (ii) multi-author work; (iii) standard
reference; (iv) report; (v) thesis:
(i) Abell B. C., Tagg R. C. and Push M. (1974). Enzyme catalyzed cellular transaminations.
In: Advances in Enzymology, A. F. Round (ed.), vol 2, 3rd edn, Academic Press, New
York, pp. 125-247.
(ii) Henze M., Harremoës P., LaCour Jansen J. and Arvin E. (1995). Wastewater Treatment:
Biological and Chemical Processes. Springer, Heidelberg.
(iii) Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (1995). 19th edn,
American Public Health Association/American Water Works Association/Water
Environment Federation, Washington DC, USA.
(iv) Water Research Centre (1990). Proposed Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of
Aquatic Life from Intermittent Pollution, Report PRS 2498-NM, Water Research Centre,
Medmenham, UK.
(v) Tamminen T. (1990). Eutrophication and the Baltic Sea: Studies on Phytoplankton,
Bacterioplankton and Pelagic Nutrient Cycles. PhD thesis, Department of Environmental
Conservation, University of Helsinki.
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