Theme 1-5-Research and development for management of water resources -Needs for modernizing the teaching of water resources management

Abstract

Research and development for management of water resources has become increasingly important with growing needs of economic development, scarcities even in developed countries, and global competitiveness that requires valuing water and other environmental resources much more than now and managing them efficiently. Sustainable development requires a good understanding of not only the traditional hydrology but also other fields such as ecology. With increasing complexity, the need for well-trained engineers and scientists in systems modelling and management with the knowledge of hydrological and environmental processes has increased. But, the cream-of-the crop students at universities are diverting to fields other than water resources such as information-related sciences and engineering. Market demands determine salary levels on which we have no control. On the other hand, students in today's computer and multimedia age can be attracted if the dynamism and the challenges of water resources and environmental problems are made accessible to them in an interesting manner. Making the study interesting without losing the time for imparting the academic necessities is an interesting pedagogical problem. Many of the challenging problems that we face in our field requires proficiency in mathematical modeling of various natural processes, numerical methods, optimization, uncertainty analysis, and computing, all used in the design of solutions. We share from our experiences at least one way to modernize the teaching of sustainable water resources management such that many necessary subjects can be taught in a reasonable time to the required depth, and will be useful for modern practices based on computers.