Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering (HWRE) is a leading consulting and research field of Civil Engineering Department. It is a major group within the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Alongwith academic work it also undertakes projects to address complicated water engineering problems relating to groundwater, hydrology, river flow and flood plain management sediment transport, stratified flow, pipe flow, hydraulic structures, water distribution, climate change and environmental studies.

Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water. This area of civil engineering is intimately related to the design of bridges, dams, channels, canals, levees and environmental engineering. Hydraulic and Water Resource Engineering is the application of fluid mechanics principles to problems dealing with the collection, storage, control, transport, regulation, measurement, and use of water. Application of Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering includes fluid mechanics, fluid flow, behaviour of real fluids, hydrology, pipelines, open channel hydraulics, mechanics of sediment transport, physical modeling, hydraulic machines, and drainage hydraulics.