Issues of water distribution and management

Water is a finite resource being particularly influenced by climate change. Water is essential to the viability of all the world’s ecosystems. Their health in turn is crucial to both the quality & quantity of water supply. In spite of the considerable progress since 1990, one third of the global population lives under water stress conditions and - without change in the present trends - by the year 2025 two thirds will face serious water problems as demand still increases exponentially. Onto this the consequences of climate change with their tendency to extreme hydrological events are adding up.

In the seventh year of the UN Decade “Water for Life: 2005 – 2015”, this course constitutes a contribution to environmental capacity building for the protection and sustainable use of the available water resources in the light of climate change. The course addresses both water quantity & quality issues within an integrated water management. Therefore the curriculum comprises lectures, seminars, site visits and excursions on aspects like: meteorology (climate, water cycle); hydrology (water balance, basic hydraulics, catchment hydrology, hydrology of extremes); groundwater (groundwater flow, water extraction and safe yields, artificial groundwater recharge, salt water intrusion); surface water (irrigation, principles of reservoir design, sediment transport and erosion, flood protection, rehabilitation of rivers and lakes, ecology of inland waters, mechanisms of eutrophication); urban water (urban water infrastructure, water purification and distribution, waste water treatment); and decision support systems to list some of them.