Water Resources Sustainability

About this programme

The water cycle is changing at an unprecedented rate through complex and interlinked processes driven by human development and climate change. For example, water resources are declining due to the consumption of freshwater for energy and agriculture, although around 4 billion people still have insufficient access to water. Regulation of rivers and lakes also affects freshwater ecosystems. Climate change also increases the likelihood of floods and droughts, making some arid regions drier and some wet regions wetter. There is a need to mitigate these effects and to manage water resources in a sustainable way. It includes a combination of lectures, analysis of scientific literature, seminars, computer labs and a workshop where environmental impact assessment of water infrastructure will be reviewed. The aim of the course is to give the student a holistic approach to the management of water resources, ranging from quantification of water flows, water modeling to water governance. The course includes an excursion to the Navarino Environmental Observatory to study the hydrological and environmental problems faced by a wetland. Teaching consists of lectures, exercises, laboratory sessions, workshops, seminars and project work. The course is offered in English. As a student you must be conscientious about clearly accounting for the material used in the texts that are submitted for examination. To use another person’s expressions or ideas without stating the source is plagiarism. To translate and/or change some words in someone else’s text and present it as your own is also a for