Sustainable Water Management (Taught)

Our water systems are under increasing pressure from a variety of sources, including climate change, population growth, and waste. Recent weather events in the UK and abroad, for example, have highlighted the need for urgent innovative solutions to minimise the impact of flooding on communities and ecosystems.

The MSc Sustainable Water Management is designed to equip you with the tools to tackle the environmental and socio-economic challenges related to water resource management, from flood management and hydraulic modelling to climate resilience and ecosystem-based adaptation.

Water is fundamental to many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals including climate, energy, the environment, food security, equality and health. The management of water resources therefore requires an understanding of complex environmental, economic, social and political challenges, which is what this MSc programme is designed to provide.

In just 12-months (or 24 months if studying part-time) you will gain the skills and knowledge required to solve complex issues in sustainable water management, including water security, the impacts of climate and land use change on water resources, flood risk, water pollution, maintaining ecosystem services, and related management approaches.

Choose from 3 Pathways:
We offer you three distinct pathways, so that you can choose your courses based on your particular interests:

• Hydrological sciences pathway – with a focus on the technical and environmental science skills

• Water and Society pathway – with a focus on socio-economic aspects of sustainability

• Open pathway – a combined mix of both hydrological sciences and socio-economic aspects

The MSc Sustainable Water Management is founded on the School of Geosciences’ strong international profile in hydrology and water resource management. You will also avail of the excellent interdisciplinary strengths in cognate areas of water science, policy and water resources law through optional courses offered by other Schools across the University, which contribute a strong interdisciplinary dimension to the programme.

Sustainable water resource management is essential to addressing many of the environmental, economic and social challenges we face today and so this programme prepares graduates from different academic backgrounds to become the highly skilled professionals needed to tackle these challenges and manage the sustainable use of water resources at local, national and international level.

Sustainable water management requires technical expertise and innovation, but also an understanding of the social, economic, commercial and political aspects of sustainability. That is why we embrace an interdisciplinary approach to this issue and also why we welcome students from diverse academic backgrounds, including the social sciences, environmental sciences, geosciences and engineering.

You can be assessed by coursework, written or oral examination, essays, your dissertation and other methods of assessment relevant to your subject.