Water security - Detailseite

Learning objectives

This course will deliver new knowledge on Water Security with a focus on extreme hydrological events. It brings together different perspectives from hydrology to political ecology to study extreme events and risks. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be introduced. In the first block of the course, we will learn about the socio-political dimensions of water security including the uneven impacts of extreme events, issues of justice and equity. Flood risk assessment and management are the focus of the second block. During the last block, we will focus on droughts and water security, learning how to analyze and communicate droughts events.

At the end of this course, students ...

• Learned about and critically reflected on the different definitions and approaches to Water Security
• Learned new methods of analyzing and presenting hydrological and socio-economic data related to floods and droughts
• Increased understanding of hydrological processes
• Learned new methods of flood risk assessment
• Have acquired new skills on analyzing and communicating hydrological extreme events
• Have acquired the skill to reflect critically on the relationship between science and policy.

 Topics

• Water security for whom?
  • Water security, inequalities and justice
  • Households water (in)security
  • International hydropolitics
  • Looking beyond water: food, energy, climate change
• Floods and Water security:
  • Introduction to floods and to risk concepts
  • Analysing flood hazard (e.g. extreme value statistics)
  • Developing a flood damage model
  • Assessing flood exposure, damage and risk
  • Concepts of flood risk management
• Droughts and Water security:
  • Introduction to Droughts
  • Analysing Drought Indices
  • Analysing and understanding flow regimes / Flow duration curves
  • Investigating and quantifying water fluxes and storage dynamics in drought effected catchments
  • Visualisation and communication of drought issues

 Format

The course includes a mixture of lectures and practical exercises, which will be taught in the most accessible way. We will examine different case studies. We will also study and discuss original literature. This requires willingness to read scientific literature! There will be homework of which at least 80% must be handed in as a course requirement.

Final exam: An essay (topic to be discussed with the lecturers) which should include a case study analysis to assess a drought or a flood event (of your own choice) in terms of causes and impacts. This essay can include a “lesson learned study” or apply other approaches learned during the course.

Lecture/Seminar plan 2024-2025

Tuesday 9:00 – 13:00

Suggested key reading material:

(there will be more suggestion in the different practical exercises)

• Lankford, B., Bakker, K., Zeitoun, M. and Conway, D. eds., 2013. Water security: Principles, perspectives and practices.
• A Van Loon. Hydrological drought explained WIREs Water 2015, 2:359–392. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1085
• A van Loon et al. Using paired catchments to quantify the human influence on hydrological droughts. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1725–1739, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1725-2019
• Smith AA et al. (2022) Critical zone response times and water age relationships under variable catchment wetness states: insights using a tracer-aided ecohydrological model. Water Resources Research, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030584
• X Yuan et al (2023) A global transition to flash droughts under climate change. SCIENCE,  DOI: 10.1126/science.abn6301
• Kreibich et al. (2022): The challenge of unprecedented floods and droughts in risk management. - Nature, 608, 80-86. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04917-5
• Rusca, M., Messori, G. and Di Baldassarre, G., 2021. Scenarios of human responses to unprecedented social‐environmental extreme events. Earth's Future, 9(4), https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001911
• Steinhausen et al. (2022): Drivers of future fluvial flood risk change for residential buildings in Europe. - Global Environmental Change, 76, 102559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102559
• Sairam et al. (2021) Process-based flood risk assessment for Germany. - Earth's Future, 9, 10, e2021EF002259. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002259
• Zeitoun, Mark, et al. "Reductionist and integrative research approaches to complex water security policy challenges." Global Environmental Change 39 (2016): 143-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.04.010

Admission

Students of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin please register online via AGNES in "Überfachlicher Wahlpflichtbereich" for the course number 3312133Ü.

BUA-Students of Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin please ask the teacher for admission via email. You will find the contact above at "Responsible Instructor". If you are accepted please follow the instructions for registration as BUA-Student at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on the website https://hu.berlin/bua 

Please contact the BUA-Office for Teaching and Learning with any questions regarding application and registration: studium.bua-buero@hu-berlin.de

Final exam:

An essay (topic to be discussed with the lecturers) which should include a case study analysis to assess a drought or a flood event (of your own choice) in terms of causes and impacts. This essay can include a “lesson learned study” or apply other approaches learned during the course.