Resources

These courses are not offered by THE FUTURE WATER INSTITUTE, but are a selection of (mostly) freely available online courses about water issues, for specialists and non-specialists alike. 

 

Agriculture and Food

• Agriculture, Economics and Nature (University of Western Australia). Farmers depend on good economic decision making to survive. Governments depend on economic information to make good policy decisions on behalf of the community. This course will contribute to better decision making by farmers, or by agencies servicing agriculture, and it will help people understand why farmers respond to policies and economic opportunities in the ways they do.
• Food Security and Sustainability: Crop production (Wageningen University)
• Food Security and Sustainability: Food Access (Wageningen University)

 

Climate Systems

• Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries (by Professor Harald Winkler, UCT). This course challenges people to consider how one might lift societies out of poverty while also mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
• Introduction to Water and Climate (Technical University , Delft)
• Our Energetic Earth (University of Toronto)

 

Drinking Water Treatment

• Introduction to Drinking Water Treatment (Technical University, Delft)

 

Groundwater

• Natural Attenuation of Groundwater Contaminants: New Paradigms, Technologies, and Applications (Rice University). Cleaning up the large number of groundwater contamination sites is a significant and complex environmental challenge. The environmental industry is continuously looking for remediation methods that are both effective and cost-efficient.
• Hydrogeology. 
• Groundwater modelling. 

* Reading material 

 

Resource Recovery

• Industrial Biotechnology (Technical University, Delft). A course useful for biological resource recovery from, for example, organic wastes and wastewater. 

 

Sanitation

• Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries Part 1: Understanding Complex Problems (University of Manchester)
• Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries Part 2: Developing Effective Interventions (University of Manchester)
• Introduction to Treatment of Urban Sewage (Technical University, Delft)
• Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (an EAWAG SANDEC series). Includes MOOCs on:
  • Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries
  • Planning and Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies
  • Introduction to Faecal Sludge Management (workshop materials)
  • Introduction to Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage

 

Systems Thinking

• Systems thinking and environmental sustainability (Wageningen University)
• Circular Economy: An Introduction (Technical University, Delft)

 

Urban Planning and Infrastructures

• Designing Cities (University of Pennsylvania). Each module focuses on a different aspect of city design including: How Today’s City Evolved; The Ideas That Shape Cities; Tools for Designing Cities; Making Cities Sustainable; Cities in the Information Age; Preserving Older Cities; Designing New Cities, Districts and Neighborhoods; The Challenges of Informal Cities and Disadvantaged Neighborhoods; and Visionary Cities. Course designed by the.
• The Next Generation of Infrastructure (Technical University, Delft).

 

Water-Sensitive Design

• Sustainable Urban Development (Wageningen University). The challenges cities face today require holistic, systemic and transdisciplinary approaches that span different fields of expertise and disciplines such as urban planning, urban design, urban engineering, systems analysis, policy making, social sciences and entrepreneurship. This MOOC is all about the integration of different fields of knowledge within the metropolitan context.
• Greening the Economy: Sustainable Cities (Lund University). The course has five modules: Sustainable Urban Transformation, Infrastructure and Planning, Urban Living Labs, Future Urban visions, and Sustainable Urban Lifestyles.
• Water for Liveable and Resilient Cities (past course by FutureLearn and Monash University). Monash University Water for Liveability Centre has useful resources, and Ideanthro, also based in Australia, has useful videos relating to Water Sensitive Design.

 

If you know of any interesting courses that should be listed here, please contact us.

Below we list several water fora that members of THE FUTURE WATER INSTITUTE use (though please note that this list is only a subset of what is available online).

• Akvomedia is a free to use online resource for finding and sharing knowledge about water, sanitation and hygiene projects, as well as food and nutrition security.
• The Cape Resilient Landscaping Forum hosts presentations, case studies, resources and information for all members of the landscape / green industry.
• The Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) is the global network of professionals and practitioners working to fulfil the vision of sustainable rural water services for all by raising standards of knowledge and evidence, technical and professional competence, and practice and policy in rural water supply. 
• The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) is an open international alliance with members who are dedicated to understanding viable and sustainable sanitation solutions. 
• The Water Network by AquaSPE AG is the leading online knowledge sharing platform and business exchange for global water professionals.