Water Security

Water security

Learning objectives

This course will deliver new knowledge on Water Security with a focus on extreme hydrological events. It brings together different perspectives from hydrology to political ecology to study extreme events and risks. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be introduced. In the first block of the course, we will learn about the socio-political dimensions of water security including the uneven impacts of extreme events, issues of justice and equity. Flood risk assessment and management are the focus of the second block. During the last block, we will focus on droughts and water security, learning how to analyze and communicate droughts events.

At the end of this course, students ...

• Learned about and critically reflected on the different definitions and approaches to Water Security
• Learned new methods of analyzing and presenting hydrological and socio-economic data related to floods and droughts
• Increased understanding of hydrological processes
• Learned new methods of flood risk assessment
• Have acquired new skills on analyzing and communicating hydrological extreme events
• Have acquired the skill to reflect critically on the relationship between science and policy.

 Topics

Water security for whom?

o   Water security, inequalities and justice

o   Households water (in)security

o   International hydropolitics

o   Looking beyond water: food, energy, climate change

Floods and Water security:

o   Introduction to floods and to risk concepts

o   Analysing flood hazard (e.g. extreme value statistics)

o   Developing a flood damage model

o   Assessing flood exposure, damage and risk

o   Concepts of flood risk management

Droughts and Water security:

o   Introduction to Droughts

o   Analysing Drought Indices

o   Analysing and understanding flow regimes / Flow duration curves

o   Investigating and quantifying water fluxes and storage dynamics in drought effected catchments

o   Visualisation and communication of drought issues