Water Resources and Environmental Management

Learn to apply geo-information and Earth observation techniques to tackle global water-related challenges such as flooding, water scarcity, water pollution, and food safety.

Life would not be possible without one of Earth's most important natural resources: water. However, the world’s population growth is much faster than the increase in the amount of available fresh water. At the same time, fresh water resources like river and lakes are polluted by human activity. Countries are facing frequent floods and droughts often at the same time because of extreme weather and uneven distribution of rains. Meanwhile, a continuous monitoring of water quality for irrigation is crucial for yield and quantity of crops. Would you like to come up with sustainable solutions to tackle these and similar pressing issues? Then the specialisation in Water Resources and Environmental Management is what you are looking for.

The focus of the specialisation is on the use of satellite images for water resources. For example, you can use the data to assess if a particular area will be flooded under specific rainfall conditions. Also, you can go further: how fast will it be flooded and what kind of measures could be taken to prevent this?

What is Water Resources and Environmental Management?

In the specialisation in Water Resources and Environmental Management, you will work on various assignments utilising geospatial data from multiple sources including satellite imagery. You will learn to analyse if water resources can be used sustainably for agricultural, human, and animal consumption, among other things. Good water management is essential for crops and livestock, so how much water is needed to grow a specific type of crop in a given geographical area? Does the area get sufficient rainfall for this type of crop? What about parameterising an integrated hydrological model with the help of remote sensing, so you can understand water behaviour? This way, you can help stakeholders utilise the available water responsibly by also considering changing (climate) conditions and prevent (future) water scarcity. You will also analyse instances of flood disasters and conduct statistical analyses, so governments can use the information to create evacuation plans and make weather forecasting systems more accurate.

Thanks to the state-of-the-art geoscience labs, visualisation and usability labs, and satellite and sensor databases available at ITC, you will gain hands-on experience and work on real-life problems and solutions. How can you create a hydrological model for improved flood forecasting in a geographical region susceptible to periodic floods? What about using satellite imagery to look into land cover changes in a city, so you can analyse if it is getting more or less green and help stakeholders come up with sustainable urban planning solutions? There is a great variety of challenges you will learn to solve!

What will you learn?

As a graduate of the Master's in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation with a specialisation in Water Resources and Environmental Management, you have acquired specific scientific knowledge, skills, and values that will help you in your future career.

Knowledge

After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

• can derive essential water and energy variables from Earth observation data;
• have a deep understanding of techniques related to spatial hydrological modelling supplemented with Earth observation data for effective water resources management;
• can use Earth observation data to build tools used by water managers and policymakers.

Skills

After successfully finishing this Master’s specialisation, you:

• are able to collect, process, and visualise essential water and energy variables from Earth observation data;
• can use open-source software, programming languages, and cloud and server GEO-IT processing tools; 
• can apply Earth observation datasets to estimate water productivity, droughts, floods, and water quality.

Values

After completing this Master’s specialisation, you:

• understand natural processes in water systems that affect these systems;
•  are aware of technological choices and ecological dynamics and processes that produce specific water use and allocation patterns;
•  understand matters such as water-related disasters and sustainability of water use.

Other master’s and specialisations

Is this specialisation not exactly what you are looking for? Maybe one of the other specialisations suits you better. You can also find out more about related Master’s at the University of Twente:

• Master's Spatial Engineering