IWE-20806 Irrigation and Development

Vak

Studiepunten 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

IWE-10306

Continuation courses:

Research Approaches to ILWM (IWE-32306), Water Institutions, Reforms and Equity (WIRE) (IWE-31306)

Contents:

The course Irrigation and Development is intended for students planning to do research on the role of irrigation in development, focusing on water control and irrigation technology. It is a compulsory course for master students following the Irrigation and Water Management specialization of the International Land and Water Management masters program (MIL-B) and provides the basis for the Water Institutions, Reforms and Equity (WIRE) course taught in the second period as well as for MSc thesis research. The course serves as an analytical introduction to contemporary irrigation issues and debates, and aims to train students in translating irrigation design and management issues into research topics. An interdisciplinary approach for analysing irrigation water management practices is presented, in which the technical, organizational and political dimensions of irrigation situations are dealt with simultaneously. An important learning aim of the course is that participants develop their own vision on the debates pertaining to irrigation and development, by understanding and engaging with the paradigms underlying these debates. To achieve these aims, special attention is given to developing a crucial academic skill, namely analyzing and summarizing scientific texts. The course is taught by the Irrigation and Water Engineering group in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- have gained knowledge and insight in the debates on irrigation water management;
- understand the interdisciplinary approach to irrigation as developed by IWE;
- be able to study and analyse concrete issues and phenomena within the theme of irrigation and development by using the sociotechnical approach;
- have developed a vision on irrigation and development, and on the social processes that the use of irrigation (technology) can cause;
- be able to argue (in writing) his/her own position in each of the irrigation-related debates discussed in the course;
- be able to analyse and reproduce a scientific argument from a scientific text.

Activities:

The course consists of lectures, tutorials, self study and discussion groups. Particular theme concerning irrigation and development are highlighted in lectures with an explicitly outlined theoretical framework. Through tutorials the information and concepts presented in the lectures are applied and discussed to form an opinion on the issues presented during the lecture and to evaluate the utility of the conceptual frameworks. Each course participant is a member of a discussion group, and expected to discuss the literature that came with the preceding lecture. Participants will need to spend about 10 hours per week on individual study. This implies that the literature for the next lecture is read on an individual basis.

Examination:

Based on a marked summary of a scientific article and a marked take-home assignment.

Literature:

Reading materials, study and discussion questions as well as copies of the PowerPoint presentations are provided through an electronic environment that can be accessed via Eduweb.