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HomeEducationMasterAll master's programmesCivil Engineering & ManagementSpecialisationsSustainability & Resilience

Overview specialisation

Become an expert in assessing and managing sustainability and resilience in water, transport and construction projects and processes. 

How do climate change, urbanisation, digitalisation and the energy transition impact the water, transport and construction domains? And how do design and construction choices impact climate, water availability, biodiversity and other aspects of sustainable development? What innovative solutions are available? And what transitions are needed to implement and achieve these innovative solutions? In this specialisation, you become an expert in sustainability, resilience and circularity in the Civil Engineering domain, combing both engineering and management skills. 

What is sustainability & resilience?

To deal with climate change and to reduce environmental impacts, sustainabilty and resilience need to become fully integrated into water, transport and other infrastructure systems. This specialisation provides you with an in-depth understanding of contemporary challenges and opportunities related to sustainability, circularity, resilience, urbanisation and digitalisation. You learn about methods and frameworks to critically assess and design promising concepts, directions for solutions and multi-actor processes. This includes strategies for carbon neutrality, life cycle assessment, resilience assessment, smart mobility, nature-based solutions, and policy interventions. You apply these concepts to different types of infrastructure systems, projects and processes - sometimes stemming directly from external organisations. Depending on your own interest, you can take more management-oriented or more engineering-oriented electives and/or focus more on water, transport or construction. 

Examples of courses you might follow during this specialisation:
  • How can you measure the impacts of civil engineering structures on climate change, water availability, and biodiversity - especially along complex global supply chains? And what can be done to reduce this footprint? The course Sustainable Engineering will introduce you to the method of life cycle assessment and its implementation in engineering and policy.
  • How does climate change affect infrastructure, ecosystems and people? What is climate-resilience about and how to assess it? In the course Urban Resilience in a Changing Climate you learn more about the concept of resilience and what type of technical and policy interventions can enhance it.

What will you learn?

As a graduate of this Master's and this specialisation, you have acquired specific, scientific knowledge, skills and values, which you can put to good use in your future job.

Knowledge

After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

  • can explain and assess how climate change and environmental degradation impact different types of infrastructure systems (e.g. urban, transport, flood defence) and supply chains;
  • are able to propose solutions that promote sustainability and resilience in water, transport and construction projects and processes, such as circular design, mature-based solutions and stakeholder participation;
  • can leverage digital tools (AI, BIM, VR) and supply chain innovations to improve sustainability in construction, while addressing legal, governance, and societal challenges in transitioning to a more sustainable and resilient Civil Engineering sector. 
Skills

After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:

  • know how to use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Water Footprint Assessment (WFA), and circular design principles to evaluate and minimise environmental impacts across infrastructure supply chains and civil engineering projects;
  • can apply scientific models and frameworks to assess urban climate resilience, transport solutions, manage water resources under climate change, and implement Building with Nature solutions for adaptive infrastructure;
  • are able to employ systems thinking, integrated assessment models, and governance theories to guide infrastructure planning, project management, and socio-technical transitions in civil engineering.
Values

After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

  • are aware of social, environmental, sustainability aspects of the Civil Engineering sector and you are able to mitigate negative impacts on ecosystems and people;
  • can develop and apply context-dependent strategies to transition to a more sustainable and resilient Civil Engineering sector;
  • can identify gaps in your knowledge, and you have a mindset to enhance and extend your knowledge through study.

Other master’s and specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you’re looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. Or find out more about these other master's:

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