This book is primarily intended for students of Civil Engineering Departments as well as other departments of Polytechnic Schools that teach the subject of Hydraulics. Open channel hydraulics is part of the hydraulics subject, which may be taught as a core course. As an elective course, it is taught to students specializing in Hydraulic-Civil Engineering. Additionally, practicing Civil Engineers involved in issues such as flow in natural watercourses, rivers, and artificial channels, the design of open channels, spillways, dam overflow structures and culverts, and flow measurements in natural watercourses and rivers can consult this book.

The book initially presents the basic principles of mass, momentum, and energy conservation and their applications in open channels, topics that a Civil Engineering student should know before proceeding to subjects such as the design of hydraulic structures, flood protection of rivers and streams, and flow measurements in the field, which are addressed by students following the direction of Hydraulics and Environmental Engineering.

The subject of Open Channel Hydraulics is considered one of the classical subjects of Civil Engineering and one of the few areas where the Hydraulic Civil Engineer has "exclusivity" in such a broad, interdisciplinary field as Water and the Environment. Classic books in the international literature date back to 1959 (V.T. Chow, Open Channel Hydraulics, McGraw Hill Co.) and 1962 (Henderson, Open Channel Flow), since from ancient times man constructed open channel works (sewage works in Minoan Crete, Roman aqueducts, etc.).

The book is based on the author's teaching experience in Hydraulics and Open Channel Hydraulics courses since 1992 and his research experience in related topics since 1981, when he began his doctoral dissertation on the subject of Open Channel Hydraulics of composite sections at the University of Ottawa, Canada.