Experiencing water (in)security in the city: a field project in and around Berlin - Detailseite

This is an interdisciplinary project seminar on urban water (in)security, which uses the city of Berlin as a case study. Central to the format of the project seminar is own empirical work by the students, which can be the collection of primary data (qualitative or quantitative) but can also be on secondary data.

In the first session, we begin with an introduction to urban water (in)security research and to key approaches to research water and society relations (hydrosocial cycle, socio-hydrology). In week 2 we will carry out a field excursion to collect impressions, interesting research questions and already talk about the history and geographical setting of the case.  Each student will distill a research question and a first proposal that will be further developed in a research design for empirical research (with guidance). The possibilities range from analysing secondary quantitative data or texts (literature) to primary data collection (qualitative or quantitative) to modelling (plus potentially other methods). Methodological and theoretical inputs by the teachers will be provided as needed. Then begins the project work, alongside which theoretical frameworks on water and society relations will be taught.

After student presentations of interim results (the state of their research) begins another three weeks of independent project work where weekly plenary meetings might be shorter or skipped altogether. In the last two weeks of the semester, each student presents the state of their research one more time. The semester break is there to finish the empirical work (we will try to keep this to a minimum) and write up their work in light of the theoretical frameworks in form of a research paper. Individual papers will be shared – maybe in form of a website – so that a multi-faceted picture of the case emerges.

The course draws inspiration from the designs of the following research projects led by and involving HU:

• https://www.cliwac.de/en/index.html
• https://www.iri-thesys.org/research/research-projects/water-security-for-whom-social-and-material-perspectives-on-inequality-around-multipurpose-reservoirs-in-colombia/

Learning objectives

Students ...

… got to know prominent theoretical frameworks of urban water security,

… have applied them to frame an original empirical study,

… have applied their skills to formulate a research question, design a methodology, execute this and present and write up the results in form of a scientific paper.

Empinotti, V. L., Budds, J., Jepson, W., Millington, N., Nicolau Ferrara, L., Geere, J. A., ... & Wahby, N. (2021). Advancing urban water security: The urbanization of water–society relations and entry–points for political engagement. Water International, 46(6), 956-968.

Meehan, K., Jepson, W., Harris, L. M., Wutich, A., Beresford, M., Fencl, A., ... & Young, S. (2020). Exposing the myths of household water insecurity in the global north: A critical review. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 7(6), e1486.

Yu, D. J., Haeffner, M., Jeong, H., Pande, S., Dame, J., Di Baldassarre, G., ... & Sivapalan, M. (2022). On capturing human agency and methodological interdisciplinarity in socio-hydrology research. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 67(13), 1905-1916.

Rusca and Di Baldassarre (2019). Interdisciplinary Critical Geographies of Water: Capturing the Mutual Shaping of Society and Hydrological Flows. Water 11(10): 1973

Wutich, A., Jepson, W. E., Stoler, J., Thomson, P., Kooy, M., Brewis, A., ... & Meehan, K. (2021). A global agenda for household water security: measurement, monitoring, and management. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 57(4), 530-538.

Wutich, A., Budds, J., Eichelberger, L., Geere, J., Harris, L. M., Horney, J. A., ... & Young, S. L. (2017). Advancing methods for research on household water insecurity: Studying entitlements and capabilities, socio-cultural dynamics, and political processes, institutions and governance. Water Security, 2, 1-10.

Zeitoun, M., Lankford, B., Krueger, T., Forsyth, T., Carter, R., Hoekstra, A. Y., ... & Matthews, N. (2016). Reductionist and integrative research approaches to complex water security policy challenges. Global Environmental Change, 39, 143-154.

The final exam is a project report in form of research paper. The students are asked to submit and present an initial outline of the research project in week 5 and an updated version in week 8. At the end of the teaching period, students will present their interim results.

The target group are students who are interested in learning about water security and urban processes from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course includes a mixture of input lectures, excursions and practical exercises. The active participation of the students during the lectures and own empirical work by the students, guided by the lecturers, is key.