Water, health and development

Teaching Methods

• 17 hours lectures
• 6 hours computer practical
• 24 hours unsupervised project work
• 37 hours unsupervised study

Course objectives

General learning objectives:

• Insight and understanding of the relations between aquatic ecosystems (water), public health (in particular water related diseases) and sustainable development.
• Understanding of the socio-cultural processes and mechanisms that underlie present day water and health problems and insight into possible solutions to these integrated problems.
• Introduction to decision support models/modelling of socio-ecological problems (for example netlogo: https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/)
• Be familiar with the various Clean Tech innovations and their significance for the interaction between water management, public health and economic development.

Contents

In particular countries with an emerging economy experience difficulties in defining a sound strategy for the integration of water resources management, consolidation or improvement of public health and economic development. The strong links between human health and the health of the broader environment are an emerging topic in science. By changing our environment we create new opportunities for infectious diseases, but already seeing a natural environment speeds up the recovery rate of patients in hospitals. The course “Water, Health and Development“ provides insight in the causal relations between the Water, Health and Development knowledge domains. The lectures contribute to the following goals:

• To know and understand the relations between water and water related diseases as an example of a socio-ecological problems.
• The understanding of socio-cultural processes and mechanisms that led to current problems. The understanding of these socio-cultural processes is important to provide and implement sustainable solutions.
• To know strategies and the use of innovations in Clean Tech as a response to prevent or mitigate water pollution, outbreaks and/or the distribution of water related diseases.
• To experience the usefulness of computer modelling in problem analysis and in testing management approaches of socio-ecological problems.

Project assignment (4 persons)

Groups are focused on (a) river basins with water & health problems, or (b) around a public health issue. The problem has to be thoroughly analyzed using the Driver, Pressure, State, Impact and Response framework (DPSIR). Especially important is to integrate the mechanistic ecological knowledge with the socio-cultural knowledge. If possible, the knowledge gained of socio-ecological modelling can be applied here.

Examination

The final grade consists of a group assignment and a final exam (30% assignment and 70% exam), both must be passed.