Water Quality Management

Start next run: October 2010
Duration: 18 Months
Location: UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands

Specialisation within Environmental Science Programme (for the description of the specialisation within the Water Management Programme click here)

Participant Profile

This specialisation is intended for young to mid-career professionals in technical as well as management positions, with responsibilities or specific interests in water and environmental science and in maintaining environmental integrity in relation to human development.

Learning Objectives

After successfully completing this specialisation, graduates will be able to:

• Identify the water quality impacts of human activities on aquatic ecosystems, as well as alternative remedial actions, under different levels of environmental stress and in different socio-economic contexts.
• Explain principles, concepts and instruments of the main national and international water and environmental laws, and common and desired institutional and management arrangements.
• Successfully interpret, design and optimise water quality monitoring and assessment schemes in the watershed, for example, by using statistical and modelling tools.
• Critically analyse and evaluate alternative water quality management programmes in the watershed under different socio-economic and legal contexts, in a flexible way and often under data-poor conditions.
• Conduct - either independently or in a multidisciplinary team - appropriate research in the field of water quality management, including the formulation of research questions and hypotheses, the selection and application of adequate research methodologies and techniques, and the formulation of well-founded conclusions and recommendations.

Course Contents

In total, the Water Quality Management specialisation consists of twelve modules. It starts with four basic modules which all participants within the Environmental Science MSc programme are required to take. Within the specialisation phase, modules allow the participants to broaden and deepen their understanding of specific management issues, and to learn to apply the necessary tools with regard to the management of water quality. These are:

• Water Quality Assessment provides an overview of common and critical water pollution parameters, their indicators, sources, causes and effects, and different water quality monitoring and modelling techniques.
• Wetlands for Water Quality deals with the role of natural and constructed wetlands in wastewater treatment, especially in the tropics.
• Environmental Planning highlights policy analysis techniques and instruments.
• Watershed and River Basin Management focuses on land and water resources, as well as natural and anthropogenic interactions, at the watershed level, but within the context of the river basin as a whole.
• Aquatic Systems examines environmental problems related to the use of and impacts on freshwater ecosystems.
• Water and Environmental Law and Institutions covers environmental legislation and institutional arrangements in environmental policy formulation.

The list below shows all course modules of the specialisation within the framework of the International Master Programme in Environmental Science. This is followed by a six month research and thesis phase. In total, the programme covers a period of 18 months and graduates will be awarded 106 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits.