Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee is the latest member of the IIT family and has its roots in the Roorkee College established in 1847 as the first engineering college in India, which was soon rechristened as Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854 after its mentor James Thomason. After about 100 years of distinguished services, the college was elevated to University of Roorkee as the first Engineering University of independent India on November 25, 1949. It has now 19 academic departments/centres offering 10 undergraduate courses in engineering and architecture, 3 dual degree programmes in engineering and over 50 postgraduate courses in engineering, architecture, sciences, computer applications and business administration besides research programmes at doctoral level.
The Department of Hydrology is one among the 19 academic departments of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. The department came into existence with the inception of the International Post Graduate Course in Hydrology in 1972, being the first such a programme in a developing country. The courses, offered by the Department are presently sponsored by the Government of India and the UNESCO. The Department has nine dedicated full time faculty members having specializations in surface water hydrology, water resources systems, watershed management, Geo-hydrology, ground water geophysics, stochastic hydrology, hydro-informatics, environmental hydrology etc.
Library:The department houses its own library which has a collection of 5800 books, a number of periodicals and the thesis of the completed M Tech and PhD works. These resources supplement those of the central library of the institute and are accessible to the students of the department.