Title of the workshop: Achieving Water Sustainable Development Goals through Advancement in Water Higher Education


Coordinators:

 


Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andre Niemann

Centre for Water and Environmental Research

Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management

University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany


Prof. Steven Burian

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

Director, U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water,

Associate Director, Global Change and Sustainability Center,

University of Utah, USA


Professor Charlotte de Fraiture

Professor of Hydraulic Engineering for Land and Water Development,

Head of the Water Science Engineering Department, UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands

 

Learning Objectives: 

  • Describe the Water Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and how applied research can help a country achieve its targets
  • Explain how the Water SDG can be used to guide capacity building in higher education
  • Learn how to design education strategies for promoting sustainability
  • Apply the four capitals for assessing progress of capacity building
  • Develop multidisciplinary graduate courses and curriculum and work cross faculties to produce engineers able to help achieve the targets of the Water SDG
Duration: 6.5 hours
 

WORKSHOP TOPICS

Session 1. Workshop Introduction (30 minutes)

This session will introduce the SDGs and focus on the Water SDG. Participants will be engaged in an active discussion about the role of higher education in achieving the Water SDGs

Session 2. Modern strategies in educating sustainability and sustainable water management and review of Water SDG Research (1 hour)

This session will follow from the discussion in Session 1 to highlight how education strategies can promote sustainability of water resources systems. Specific examples of higher education contributions to achieving the Water SDGs, and present a framework for packaging research agendas around the Water SDG. Participants will work on framing their own research activities within the context of the SDGs.

Session 3. Introduction of the Capitals Framework for Monitoring Progress (30 minutes)

This session will present the Forum to the Future’s concept of the capitals and how it can be adapted toward higher education capacity building. Specific examples of how it has been adopted in Pakistan will be presented. Participants will be shown materials for implementing the framework in capacity building efforts and helped through the process of adapting to their use.

Session 4. Water SDG as Framework for Capacity Building (30 minutes)

This session will guide the participants through a process of setting goals, indicators, and targets associated with using capitals to guide their capacity building efforts.

Session 5. Modifying Courses and Curriculum and education across faculties and departments (1.5 hour)

This session will review the modification of courses and curriculum to incorporate Water SDG. It will also provide recommendations on how to overcome structural barriers and obstacles for cross-faculty education. How to achieve effective water education without losing focus and expertise in engineering, ecology and economy based study programs will be discussed in this session. 

Session 6. International best practices and workshop concluding remarks (2.5 hour)

This concluding session will provide examples and lessons learned from international best practices. It will then compile the collective reflections, examples, and ideas from the workshop participants and organize in the form of a workshop summary report that may be advanced for submission by selected workshop participants after the workshop.


For workshop registration, please contact conference secretary, Dr. Masoumeh Ghodrati via email address of mghodrati@ut.ac.ir or call +98 21 61112797.