Learn to come up with responsible strategies for the management of water resources and climate change adaptation.
Water is a key element for sustainable development, serving as a vital resource for all life on Earth. People need water, food production needs water, and the UN estimates that three out of four jobs worldwide are dependent on water. Growing populations, climate change, and environmental degradation have made water management a critical issue for sustainable development and climate change adaptation. So what does it take to safeguard sustainability and resilience of water resources and water supply? How can you deal with challenges of water scarcity (droughts), water excess (floods) and poor water quality (availability and pollution)? The specialisation in Water Management will help you understand the relations between the water chain, human activities and climate change, and come up with responsible strategies for the management of water resources and climate change adaptation.
What is water management?
Good water governance starts with understanding the hydrological cycle, and how the water system has become unbalanced over the past decades. In this specialisation, you will explore how people (individuals, industries, governments) use and dispose of water resources, and how this affects the sustainability and resilience of water resources. This includes getting a comprehensible overview of (the needs of) the various stakeholders involved in water use and their impacts on the water resources, as well as how this is organised: who is in charge and who is not? This will enable you to come up with implications for the improvement of the governance of water resources, focusing on strategies, plans, measures, and instruments.
The course Water Management will provide you with fundamental knowledge in the domain of water and will be followed by all MEEM students. If this field has caught your interest and you choose the specialisation in Water Management, you will delve deeper into interesting cases regarding water governance, covering international topics in both the global north and global south on many levels (from a local to a global perspective). From approaches to diminishing flood risks in specific regions in Indonesia to finding ways to improve water quality in the Netherlands (related to pollutants such as microplastics and pharmaceutical residues) and from improving the availability of drink water in the global south to tackling the plastic soup in our oceans: you will find out how to address water challenges from a governance perspective.
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.
Other master’s and specialisations
Is this specialisation not exactly what you are looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. Or find out more about these other Master’s:
- Master’s in Civil Engineering & Management (specialisation in Water Engineering & Management)
- Master’s in Public Administration
- Master’s in Water Technology