Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid

Today Naval Engineering is defined as the variety of techniques and technologies which allow integral use of the seas and oceans, in addition to their conservation and the maintenance of their ecosystems.

This definition is an indication of the wide range of professional fields that Naval Engineering applies to:

• Ship design and building, both for civil and military purposes, as well as the operation and use of non-military ships.
• Attending to the world of leisure and its demands for recreational vessels and floating tourist complexes.
• Designing and constructing floating and underwater industrial complexes and devices.
• Underwater mining.
• Underwater distribution, process and communications systems.
• Underwater robotics.
• Marine fishing and fish farming.
• Coastal engineering.
• Using wind, waves, sea currents and thermal gradient to produce energy.
• Seawater desalinisation and treatment plants.
• Offshore energy production facilities.

This broad range demonstrates the application within Naval Engineering of emerging technologies which were formerly regarded as belonging to other sectors. It also shows that the industrial activities included in Naval Engineering are highly complex from a technological point of view and that requirements for safety and environmental quality are paramount.

One example is the designing, planning and building of a state-of-the-art cruise ship capable of carrying 2000 passengers and a crew of 1000. In addition to the most advanced techniques in hydrodynamic and strength analysis, this type of project also requires the most sophisticated elements in terms of comfort, which at the same time must meet high standards in terms of the actual physical appearance. Then there are the complex communications and control systems, the infrastructure for producing and distributing drinking water, collecting and treating waste water and other solid waste, air conditioning and ventilation, and generating and distributing electrical energy, as well as the vast network of hotel and leisure services. As an indication of the size of these systems, the demand for electrical energy on board is equivalent to the demand of a city with a population of 100,000.

The economic importance of these industrial and service activities is obvious. Shipbuilding alone was responsible for a turnover of around 3,000 million Euros in Spain last year, which far exceeds other industrial sectors such as aeronautics and railway construction.