BSc Minor International Land and Water Management (WUILW) / BSc

Introduction

This BSc minor is an introduction to the field of International Land and Water Management. Proper management of land and water are essential to achieving sufficient and sustainable food production and food security worldwide. Half of the world's arable land is used for rain-fed agriculture and the other half is under irrigated cultivation for which more than 70% of the world's fresh water is used. Land - rain-fed and irrigated - is prone to degradation. Loss of soils and soil fertility through erosion or unsustainable farming practices threaten food production and incomes. Food security obviously is not only a matter of production, it is also a matter of distribution and access and therefore determined by (geo-)politics including processing, trade regulations and pricing policies.
In this BSc minor you also learn the basic engineering principles for conserving soils and water resources, for irrigation systems and various causes and types of degradation processes and how to deal with them, also spatially. You get to understand crop water requirements, how to quantify them and translate these into water demands over a growing season, taking into account the available rainfall and various possible types or irrigation water provision.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this minor students are expected to be able to:
- explain the principles of soil and water conservation and irrigation and its relation for food production, sustainability and global food security;
- design and evaluate basic irrigation schedules and soil and water conservation measures, both physical and socio-economical aspects;
-apply elementary Geo Information Science and Remote Sensing software skills.

BSc Minor Coordinator

Dr ir J. de Graaff
Phone: 0317-(4)8281
Email: jan.degraaff@wur.nl

Target Group

This minor is interesting for BIN, BBN, BBW, BGM, BLP, BPW and BMW.

Components of the BSc Minor

http://www.minors.wur.nl