Modular Set Up

The programme consists of 15 three-week modules, of which six are in Delft, five are in Austria and one is in the Czech Republic. In total 6 weeks (two modules) have been reserved for the MSc research proposal writing.

The first six months of the LWE specialisation are given at UNESCO-IHE in Delft; the subsequent six months are given in Austria and Czech Republic. When a participant has fulfilled all the requirements for an MSc programme, the MSc research is done in one of the East African countries.

Netherlands	Austria & Czech Republic	East Africa
6 months	6 months	6 months
General and environmental chemistry, biology, general ecology, environmental quality management, water and wastewater treatment, environmental modelling, public health, ecotoxicology, and man and resources.	Ecology and functioning of freshwater ecosystems (lakes, streams, rivers, wetlands and groundwater). Foodweb structure, human impact assessment, bio-indicators, fishstock assessment, fishpond management, water quality monitoring.	Writing of Research proposal. MSc research project at one of the network partner institutes, or at the participants's home institute. MSc thesis writing and defence. Supervision is joint responsibility of UNESCO-IHE, the International Post-Graduate Training Course in Limnology and local institutions.

Each module is taught over a three-week period, which culminates into an examination. The main contents of the modules and their assigned credit points (European Credit Transfer System or ECTS) are summarised below (module 1-6 given in Delft, the Netherlands, 7-12 in Austria and the Czech Republic).

	Module Title	ECTS	Module Content
1	Introduction to Environmental Science	5	Introduction to global agenda for water and environment; overview of environmental science programme and its four specialisations; key environmental problems and sustainable development.

2	Natural Processes in the Environment	5	Introduction to the basic scientific background of environmental issues: hydrology, ecology, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry.

3	The Human Dimension in Environmental Change	5	Relation between humans and environmental issues: demography, environmental economics, toxicology, human health, scarcity of resources.

4	Analytical Tools in Environmental Science	5	Introduction in relevant tools in Environmental science: Data analysis and statistics, modelling, GIS, presentation skills.

5	Environmental Systems Analysis	5	Application of systems analysis concepts and methods to problems of the environment and natural resources.

6	Wetlands for Water Quality	5	Introduction on natural wetlands, natural wetlands and constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, integrated production systems.

7	Ecology of Streams & Rivers	5	Introduction to running water ecology, river hydraulics & structural analysis, biota in streams & rivers.

8	Lake Ecology-I	5	Physical limnology, physicochemical parameters, microbial ecology, phytoplankton and primary production, and palaeolimnology.

9	Lake Ecology-II	5	Zooplankton & secondary production, fish ecology & fisheries, characterising foodwebs, and environmental impact assessment & lake management strategies.

10	Fishpond Management & Fish Parasites	5	Ecology of fishponds, fishpond management, fish breeding/rearing farms and fish stocking, fish diseases & parasites and environmental impacts upon fish health status

11	Wetland & Floodplain Ecology	5	Ecology of wetlands, sustainable use of wetlands, constructed wetlands, structure function and value of river floodplain ecosystems.

12	Water Quality Monitoring & Bio-indicators	5	Sources and effects of water pollution, physicochemical and microbiological methods, water quality monitoring approaches and laboratory safety and laboratory quality assurance.

13 - 14	MSc preparatory course/MSc proposal writing	10

15	MSc Thesis	36