ESS-33806 Integrated Water Management

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

AEW-21306 Soil and Water II.

Contents:

This course addresses management of water issues at different scale levels. It introduces theoretical approaches to research of water management and discusses different practices. All over the world human societies are consciously or unconsciously intervening in water flows. More and more these human pressures reduce or exceed the carrying capacity of water systems. And climate change is expected to aggravate this. To improve management of our water resources, now and in the future, we need to better understand interactions between human interventions and water system functioning. The IWM course addresses such interactions by discussing issues in river basin planning, implementation of water policies, and climate adaptation. These issues are characterised by ambiguities in problem definition and uncertainties in knowledge. And they are embedded in multiple governance contexts and influenced by upstream-downstream connections.
You will acquire the capacity to analyse such issues and to propose and critically assess management strategies and innovations. Research methodologies are taught and you learn how to define relevant research questions. The course's content has an (earth) systems thinking perspective. Management issues in the Rhine river basin and in Dutch water systems are presented as illustrations. But the course does not limit itself to the European context. Integrated water management is an approach with many faces. The understanding of a small farmer in Peru, for instance, will be completely different from that of an international river basin manager in Europe. As integrated water management is context dependent, you will learn to identify underlying assumptions and traditions. And you will be able to apply your analysis skills and your knowledge on methodologies in other continents and situations.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able:
- to identify integrated and adaptive water management as a practice and context related boundary concept;
- to explain theoretical approaches and methods that play a role in integrated and adaptive water management;
- to analyse complex, multi scale and multi stakeholder water issues from a researchers perspective;
- to formulate a sound problem statement and research questions for an integrated or adaptive water management issue.

Activities:

The course tries to find a healthy balance between lectures and practical's. A typical afternoon will consist of one hour lecture - one hour practical with tasks related to the lectures - one hour lecture with feedback on the practical results. Lectures are given by staff from the Earth System Science Group. Also guest lectures from water management organisations (ministry, water board, consultancy) are invited. Students will play a serious game on negotiations among actors in a watershed with competing claims on water use. And students will propose an integrated water management research applying methodologies presented in the course. Emphasis is on the skill to formulate the right research questions.

Examination:

Written test consisting of three sub-exams one each after every two-week course block (average of three sub-exams: 60%; minimum 5.5) and research proposal (40%; minimum 5.5).

Literature:

Slides and literature are provided in EDU Class Blackboard.
A reader of the literature is available through WUR-shop.