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Integration modules
The integration modules strengthen the broad integrated water management framework introduced in the foundation modules by giving you a deeper understanding of four key content areas:
- ecosystem services essential to human welfare
- catchment and floodplain processes that influence characteristics of aquatic ecosystems
- water issues from a human development perspective
- the challenge of achieving secure water access and human health improvements in contexts of poverty, cultural diversity and socio-economic inequality
Integration – Water management project
You will be introduced to governance and institutional arrangements, and the planning, economic, and financial tools that are vital to the implemention of water policy. Finally, you will learn scientific and engineering fundamentals of water supply, sanitation and wastewater treatment processes. As well as this intensive coursework, you will undertake a parallel set of projects.
Learning objectives
Upon successful completion of the Integration Semesters you will be able to:
- Apply scientific principles and methodologies used to determine and implement environmental flows.
- Assess the impacts of human activities on aquatic environments and apply methods to measure and monitor impacts.
- Understand the fundamental role of capacity development, education and training in water management in achieving improved health, poverty alleviation, economic growth and livelihood security.
- Adapt and apply a range of community development tools to design and implement locally relevant initiatives.
- Understand contemporary approaches to the identification and management of competing stakeholder interests in the water arena;
- Implement a range of water resource planning methodologies and economic tools for both supply and demand management.
- Apply fundamental principles of continuity, momentum and energy conservation and analyse water flow in closed and open conduits.
- Formulate sanitation and wastewater treatment problems in terms of wastewater characteristics, user needs, treatment requirements and technology options.
- Integrate complex and discipline-specific content into a whole-of-water cycle integrated water management framework.
Catchment and aquatic ecosystem health
(WATR7100)
This module deals with the issues and challenges that surround the sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems. This study of aquatic ecosystem health teaches three components:
- the methodology of hydrological regimes and environmental flows
- the theory and methodology behind assessing aquatic ecosystem health
- principles and practical tools for implementing riparian restoration projects across a range of aquatic ecosystems.
Course Description
The Catchment and Aquatic Ecosystem Health course provides students with an in-depth understanding of the issues and challenges relating to the sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems. The study of aquatic ecosystem health is a relatively new field that brings together biophysical understandings of how natural systems function with societal goals and human values. A major challenge for society is to satisfy the growing demands for water without degrading aquatic ecosystems and the ecological goods and services they provide. The course will focus on three key components: 1) an understanding of hydrological regimes and environmental flows methodology, including the basic principles relating hydrology to aquatic ecosystems and the design of environmental flows regimes, 2) theory and methodology behind the assessment of aquatic ecosystem health, including the development and validation of cost-effective techniques for the ecological assessment of river health; and 3) principles and practical tools for implementing riparian restoration projects across a range of aquatic ecosystems. A parallel Integrated Water Management project will run through the semester which will develop skills that complement the content delivered in the 4 co-requisite courses.
Lecturers
Community development and capacity building for integrated water management
(WATR7200)
This module considers water management in the context of human development and poverty alleviation, looking at social tools for water management and links between water supply, sanitation, hygiene and improved public health. You will learn using a suite of participatory approaches. The module emphasises capacity building, including effective education and training programs, practical tools for developing formal and informal institutional frameworks for water management, and strategies for managing public-private partnerships.
Course introduction
Community Development & Capacity Building for Integrated Water Management introduces contemporary theory and thinking on community development, coupled with an orientation to professional practice in real contexts of water management. The contribution of community development to capacity building for IWM is explored, both in theory and practice. Other aspects of community development covered include empowerment, participation, gender and social capital.
Course aims
Community Development & Capacity Building for Integrated Water Management aims to introduce students to some leading approaches to community development in the sustainable development of water resources, both in theory and practice. The module emphasises the applied skills and methods of community development facilitators, and fosters and develops those skills in students through group activities such as interactive workshops, simulations, role plays, case studies and fieldtrips.
Lecturers
Water planning and economics
(WATR7300)
You will explore the roles and responsibilities of various water management stakeholder groups, receive practical tools for effective water planning, and learn the principles and frameworks governing water economics and finance.
Course introduction
This course provides an introduction to the inter-related areas of water resources planning and economics. Students are provided with an overview of key concepts, applications and currently used methodologies in these overlapping domains of water resources management. Selected practical applications, diagnostic instruments and modelling tools are also demonstrated.
Lecturers
Water supply and sanitation
(WATR7400)
This module teaches you fundamental engineering principles and tools to design and operate water and sanitation systems. The module also introduces non-conventional approaches to water and sanitation, including ecological sanitation principles.
Course description
The Water Supply and Sanitation course provides students with engineering principles and tools for designing and operating water and sanitation systems in developing country contexts. Key topics include water quality parameters; groundwater and surface water treatment; water treatment process technologies; nutrient removal; key principles of Ecological Sanitation; simplified sewerage; decentralised water and sanitation systems; biosolids management; and operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation infrastructure. Due attention is also given to non-engineering aspects of water and sanitation systems, including tools for demand creation and management and cost-benefit analysis of options. A parallel Integrated Water Management project will run through the semester which will develop skills that complement the content delivered in the 4 co-requisite courses.
Course introduction
The Water Supply and Sanitation course provides students with engineering principles and tools for designing and operating water and sanitation systems in developing country contexts. Key topics include water quality parameters; groundwater and surface water treatment; water treatment process technologies; nutrient removal; key principles of ecological sanitation; simplified sewerage; decentralised water and sanitation systems; biosolids management; and operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation infrastructure. Due attention is also given to non-engineering aspects of water and sanitation systems, including tools for demand creation and management and cost-benefit analysis of options. A parallel Integrated Water Management project will run through the semester which will develop skills that complement the content delivered in the 4 co-requisite courses.
Lecturers
Problem-based learning projects
You will undertake a group and an individual project. The group project focuses on devising practical, integrated solutions to the problems facing a heavily salinated river catchment, which is the subject of a field visit in south-western Australia. The individual project highlights the chemical, engineering, social, economic and political challenges of recycling water in practical settings.
CRICOS Provider Number: 00025B
CRICOS Codes: 059263A, 059262B, 059261C
