Global Water Sustainability

Catalog description

This course will cultivate an interdisciplinary, solution-oriented perspective on water resource challenges from local to global scales. Water is central to all of life, yet its management represents a wicked challenge in sustainability science because tradeoffs and feedbacks among multiple objectives are commonplace. Readings and parallel mini-lectures from natural and social science instructors will embrace the diversity of perspectives involved in managing water resources, and students will engage in collaborative problem-solving during class to deepen their understanding of each weekly theme. Meetings with case study experts from around the world will ground this dialog in reality, and all students will participate in debate-style examination of major controversies in water sustainability. Reflective writing assignments will encourage students to assess their own role in achieving water sustainability.