It is now widely accepted that climate change will lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle and will have a major impact on regional water resources. It is also clear that, in many parts of the world, variability in climate conditions, next to many socio-economic and environmental developments, is already having major impacts and that such variability is increasing.

Both present variability and long-term climate change impacts are most severe in the developing world, and particularly affect the poor in these regions.

Learning objectives

Objectives of the online Water and Climate Change course are:

Understanding the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management in relation to Climate Change
Understanding the climate system and the hydrological cycle
Being aware of the impact of climate change on society
Understanding of dealing with risk and uncertainty
Understanding of adaptation in relation to water and climate change

Target group

The course is designed for professionals actively involved in the water and climate sectors. They may be working as policy makers at local, regional or national level, as staff of NGO or the private sector dealing with adaptation, or as junior university lecturers or scientists, etc., and who do not have the time or resources to take a course that lasts several weeks abroad.

Partners

Universidad del Valle (Colombia)
Bogor Agricultural University (Indonesia)
ICHARM (Japan)
UNESCO-IHE (The Netherlands)

Additional information

The Water and Climate Change online module is offered in full distance learning mode. Participants complete the course in a period of 10 weeks with a workload of 80 hours.

A participant is expected to spend about 8 hours a week on average through reading, discussion and assignments. The course is sub-divided into 5 subjects and a written assignment. A complementary modelling course with a study load of 40 hours is optional.

Within the course, each subject starts and ends on a specified day. Generally, a subject takes 2 weeks.

Within this period, the participant is free to study in his or her own time. Questions with regard to the subject can be posted on the discussion forum, eliciting responses from fellow participants and teachers.