The Department, set up in 1984, mainly undertakes survey, design, study, project management and contracting for waterway transportation, water conservancy, construction and ocean projects. It has the First-Class Credentials for Waterway Transportation (Harbour Engineering), the First-Class Credentials for Engineering Investigation (Geotechnical Engineering), the Second-Class Credentials for Water Sector (Reservoir Projects, River Training, and Irrigation & Drainage), the Second-Class Credentials for Waterway Transportation (Navigation Structure and Hydraulic Structure of Shipyard), the Second-Class Credentials for Ocean Sector (Inshore Engineering), the Second-Class Credentials for Construction Engineering Design, Consulting and Decoration Design, and the Second-Class Credentials for Engineering Investigation and Design (Hydrological Geology and Engineering Measurement).

The Department pays attention to cultivating technicians for investigation and design. 50% of its staff have master/doctor degrees and/or senior professional titles, such as the First-Class Architect, the First-Class Structure Engineer, Certified Civil Engineer (Geotechnical Engineering, Harbour and Water Conservancy), Certified Pricing Engineer, etc. The Department is equipped with various facilities for investigation and design, computers, and software. The Department has been consistently following the quality policy of “Standardized, Scientific, Practical, and Exact”, and seriously implementing the quality standard of ISO9001:2000, the Quality Certificate of which was issued in 2000 by the Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance. The Department has the AAA-Class Credentials of Consulting Enterprise in Jiangsu Province.

With the support of the Institute in the fields of hydrology, water transportation, water conservancy, geotechnical engineering and material, the Department is accumulating more experience and capable of solving various complicated technical problems. It has successfully undertaken more than 150 large and/or middle-scale projects for geotechnical engineering, hydrological geology and engineering measurement, and over 400 large and/or middle-scale design projects for water conservancy, water transportation, construction and ocean engineering sectors.