International Land and Water Management (MIL) / MSc

Profile

The MSc programme International Land and Water Management focuses on the scientific analysis of land and water management issues at various scales. An integration of physical, technical, socio-economic and political dimensions in coherent approaches is sought to understand and tackle land and water management problems.

Sustainable Land Management
This specialisation deals with the processes, drivers and consequences of land degradation, and with interventions and conservation practices for sustainable land management. By providing in-depth knowledge and skills on physical and socioeconomic aspects, this specialisation prepares students for both research and development jobs. Topics covered range from erosion processes and modelling to impact assessment and strategies, from field scale to watershed and beyond.

Irrigation and Water Management
Students in this specialisation get extensive knowledge on water use in agriculture. Irrigation -from the farm level to the watershed level- is the main focus. Topics include irrigation of agricultural land, design of irrigation systems, improving the social and technical performance of existing farm irrigation systems and practices, and irrigation in its wider water management context.

Adaptive water management
Increasing human induced pressures on water cycles together with growing demands on water resources ask for careful management of water systems. Students in this specialization acquire the knowledge, skills and capacity to analyze future oriented issues in water management and to propose and critically assess management strategies and innovations.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of the MSc programme graduates are expected to be able to:
- understand and apply knowledge on scientific paradigms and theoretical approaches to land and water management issues;
- formulate a problem definition, research objective, and research questions, resulting in an adequate research design, in the domain of international land and water management (research design);
- apply appropriate methods and techniques to collect, analyse and interpret data from literature and empirical research in the domain of international land and water management (carry out a research or design project);
- understand and apply interactive approaches with stakeholders and actors at the respective levels for different agro-ecological systems;
- analyse policies and policymaking processes, the institutional contexts and the multi-facetted consequences of interventions in land and water management;
- propose interventions for alternative management systems for land and water issues at local and watershed level;
- have developed a cross-disciplinary attitude;
- function in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams or groups in complex land and water management contexts;
- communicate convincingly their research or design findings in a clear and concise manner, both in writing and verbally, geared toward various audiences;
- reflect critically on personal competences and also on problems, theories and research results in the domain of international land and water management;
- identify the ethical and value-driven aspects of research and intervention strategies, and the various roles of the specialist in the domain.

Specialisation A: Sustainable Land Management
After successful completion of the specialisation Sustainable Land Management graduates are expected to be able to:
- assess and analyse, in a cross-disciplinary manner, the processes, drivers and consequences of land degradation, and predict and evaluate the effects of interventions;
- analyse and explain how physical and socio-economic aspects can be investigated in an integrated way, and how this knowledge can be applied for development purposes.

Specialisation B: Irrigation and Water Management
After successful completion of the specialisation Irrigation and Water Management graduates are expected to be able to:
- assess and analyse, in a cross-disciplinary manner, different forms of water use and water resources management strategies applied at field, scheme and catchment level by different stakeholders;
- analyse and evaluate, interactively with stakeholders, institutional and infrastructural designs for sustainable irrigation and water management interventions in a cross-disciplinary manner.

Specialisation C: Adaptive water management
After successful completion of the specialisation adaptive water management graduates are expected to be able to:
Identify adaptive water management as a practice and context related boundary concept;
Apply theoretical concepts in the analysis of water management issues;
Propose and to critically assess adaptation strategies and innovations;
Execute a research in the field of adaptive water management.

Specializations

- Sustainable Land Management;
- Irrigation and Water Management;
- Adaptive Water Management.

Programme Director

- Ir C.F. Heijmans
Phone: 0317-(4)82770
Email: erik.heijmans@wur.nl or mil.msc@wur.nl

Study Adviser(s)

- Ir B. Bruins
Phone: 0317-(4)83706
Email: bert.bruins@wur.nl
- Ir N.C. Post Uiterweer
Phone: 0317-(4)82916
Email: nynke.postuiterweer@wur.nl
Mil.msc@wur.nl

Programme Committee

Chair: Dr ir E.J.J. van Slobbe
Secretary: Dr ir J.M.C. Vos

Internet

http://www.wageningenuniversity.nl/mil
Chairgroups
http://www.slm.wur.nl/UK/
http://www.wrm.wur.nl/UK/
http://www.ess.wur.nl/UK/
Portal: https://portal2.wur.nl/sites/BIL-MIL/default.aspx

Study Association

NITOCRA
Email: ilw.nitocra@wur.nl
Website: www.nitocra.nl