You will study the ways in which water availability and use are matched, and seek to develop alternative land use and water allocation policies, including legal and institutional arrangements from the local watershed to the basin scale and beyond.

Starts: Annually in October
Duration: 18 Months
Location: UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands

Prospective Students

This specialisation is designed for engineers and managers responsible for planning, developing and implementing water resources projects and programmes. Experience has shown that students need to have an understanding of quantitative methods, such as statistical analysis, in order to successfully complete this specialisation.

Learning Objectives

After completing this specialisation, graduates will:

  • Have an understanding of the physical water system and be able to predict and describe the impacts that human activities can have on the water and environmental resources;
  • Be able to name and explain principles, concepts and instruments of main national and international water and environmental legislation and common and desired institutional and management arrangements;
  • Be able to model processes of water allocation and use at different scales, and interpret model outcomes in order to gain an understanding of problems, trends, causes and effects;
  • Be able to describe socio-economic concepts that are relevant for water resources planning and management.
Application procedure

Please click here for the application procedure for the UNESCO-IHE MSc programmes.

Programme Structure & Contents

This specialisation consists of 14 modules covering a total of 12 months, this is followed by a 6-month research and thesis phase. Graduates of the programme will be awarded 106 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits.