MSc in Water – Engineering track

This is a master’s level course on hydrological modelling designed to emphasize hydrological concepts while providing skills for using well-known hydrological models to simulate hydrological processes.

The course is intended for students with a background in hydrology, water resources, civil engineering, agricultural engineering and mechanical engineering to support a possible career as a water engineer and hydrologist. Yet, it is designed for Students can broaden and deepen their understanding of hydrological systems and processes. Consequently, it is designed to enhance the skills of students in the Master’s in Water Engineering programme to provide solutions in water resources planning, development and management. The course can be divided into three (3) parts: Part I deals with surface water modelling; Part II tackles basin models including groundwater modules, as well as the interactions between surface water and groundwater modelling; Part III addresses the selection and application of commonly used hydrological models to solve river basins challenges. This entails students identifying and selecting the appropriate hydrological model and applying it in their final projects.

The course introduces students to data acquisition, data quality control and modelling extreme weather conditions to address floods, flood warning systems and flood zones, and drought phenomenon. It integrates hydrological models and GIS systems to support hydrological applications. Students are exposed to the concept of climate change and variability and the impact on hydrological processes.

The course is quantitative in nature and requires a firm foundation in calculus, physics, statistics, hydrology at first degree level. Class sessions include a lecture on the primary subject with time to work on assigned exercises. A field work component to examine the processes and measurement techniques relevant to the lectures is included where feasible. Students are exposed to an overview of each subject, with recent theories, tools and techniques including state of the art statistical analyses. They will complete quantitative assignments to develop skills in problem solving and in synthesizing hydrological concepts.

Number of Credits 4

Few engineering skills are as useful as the ability to apply basic hydraulics to the solution of water and sanitation problems. The analysis of the flow and pressure distribution of flowing water and wastewater is critical to many fundamental engineering tasks, such as sizing pipes between tanks and taps, picking pumps, and assuring a good flow distribution in water or wastewater treatment works. This course is designed for those who wish to learn how to solve such problems and how to think practically about the flow of water in engineered systems. The course will cover both pressurized and open-channel flow, and will cover the hydraulics of pipes, pumps, networks and channels (Steady Flow in Closed Conduits, Unsteady Flow in Closed Conduits and Open Channel Flow)

The following topics will be covered:

Open Channel Flow: Kinds of open channel flow, channel geometry, types and regimes of flow, Velocity distribution in open channel, wide open channel, specific energy, critical flow and its computation, Energy in non-prismatic channel, momentum in open channel flow, specific force.

Closed Conduit Flow: Closed conduit flow or flow under pressure (pipelines/pumps), Darcy Weisbach and Hazen Williams head loss formulae, Design of water distribution systems Analysis, flow in a single pipe and in pipes connected in series and in parallel, transient flow in pipes (Water Hammer)…

Number of Credits 6

Water is a prime natural resource. Acknowledging the vital importance of this scarce resource for human and animal life, as well as for maintaining ecological balance (and ecosystem function) for economic and developmental activities is a matter of utmost concern. Most countries in the MENA region suffer from water scarcity and limited renewable water resources to meet water demands. Climate change and land use dynamics are expected to exacerbate scarcity by creating or even deepening water supply-demand gaps. Water pollution with organic and inorganic contaminants, arising from sewage, agriculture as well as industrial sources has an adverse impact on the environment and human health. Risks of drinking polluted water include diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid and parasitic worm. Therefore, an ever-increasing level of attention has been directed to protecting the quality of water resources from a wide variety of point and non-point sources of pollution. Drinking and irrigation water quality are especially scrutinized in accordance with standards of drinking water criteria.

Number of Credits 4

This course offers practical training in methodologies relevant to the field of engineering. The course begins with an exploration of issues of general relevance to empirical investigation in sciences, research design, research ethics and an overview of research methods. The second part of the course offers students the opportunity to focus on qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Number of Credits 4

This course aims to provide students with a solid foundation on Africa’s historical experiences and realities. It surveys how African social and political institutions have developed over Africa’s greatly varied geography in the light of economic and environmental change over the last few millennia. Furthermore, it covers issues related to colonialism, nationalism, African states and the African identity. Finally, it equips students with a generic base of skills for the general study of history.

Number of Credits 4

NA

Number of Credits 5

This is an introductory course in freehand sketching and computer-aided design (CAD). As a starting point, students will be taught basic CAD commands, tools, multi-view drawing and dimensioning techniques. To successfully complete this course, students develop comprehensive knowledge on the use of CAD and skills required to design components of water systems. Course material includes an introduction to CAD tools and their applications to water management and hydraulic systems design

Number of Credits 1

Entrepreneurship is often regarded purely as business management, resulting in entrepreneurship education content that primarily focuses on developing business management skills.

This approach limits the development of entrepreneurial potential in other sectors such as government and civil society and effectively excludes other disciplines from acquiring much needed 21st century skills. This course regards entrepreneurship as a transversal process and covers content that encourages students to be entrepreneurial – a combination of skills and mindset that unlock particular attitudes and behaviours. These include having a growth mindset (versus a fixed mindset), having a hunger for lifelong learning and applying critical thinking skills to problem solving. The course equips students with the knowledge of how to spot opportunities and generate ideas, learning in part from African cases.

The unprecedented rate of change and complexity in society requires entrepreneurial thinkers that are constantly learning, therefore, instilling a habit of lifelong learning is crucial. Critical thinking, one of the essential 21st century skills according to the World Economic Forum, promotes understanding and more effective discussions; it provides students with the ability to identify problems and equips them with the concepts and vocabulary to explain errors or poor logic. Critical thinking is therefore key to problem solving and one of the sources for effective idea generation. Business management generally relies heavily on information to make informed decisions, but in the quest to be intra- or entrepreneurial, information alone is not sufficient. The ability to spot opportunities and generate ideas from information to fulfil a need, is what makes entrepreneurial students more valuable. This course therefore aims to prepare students with problem solving skills (finding solutions to urgent challenges), critical thinking skills (thinking clearly, rationally and systematically), opportunity spotting skills (seeing the unseen and generating value from that) and idea generation skills.

All of the above requires practice and time to develop and so this course aims to ignite interest and perhaps unlock a hunger for becoming entrepreneurial. It also aims to start equipping students to be habitual critical thinkers, problem solvers, opportunity spotters and idea generators by teaching basic tools and techniques to achieve these objectives.

Number of Credits 2

The course focuses on the nexus of water policy and engineering. It begins by highlighting the challenges that humanity faces in the near future, particularly relative to water resources.

The complexity, interactivity and interaction of this resource requires a more holistic approach, since rational learning only solves rather simple problems. In addition, the interaction of water resource systems with other systems (e.g., sciences, engineering, policies, energy, food) requires particular attention when it comes to managing these interfaces. The notion of the nexus (the link) makes it possible to define the problem of interface.

Number of Credits 6

The Africa Water Vision 2025 and the Fourth Dublin-Rio Principles are interpreted to mean that water should be treated as an economic good in its competing uses for development. However, due to its use for sustaining life and the environment, water should be treated not only as an economic good, but also as a social good. Moreover, countries in Africa have launched in-depth policy reforms in the water sector over the past two decades. New institutional and governance systems have been introduced including lifeline pricing and economic valuation of water. Several economic instruments including the ‘polluter pays principle’ are being deployed to ensure the efficient management of African water resources.

It is against this background that it becomes vital for students to have the knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts of water economics to enable them to design and implement policies aimed at alleviating poverty, preserving the environment and using water resources rationally and effectively.

Hence, the course introduces students to the basic economic principles, concepts and models applicable to the water sector. Based on this foundation, the course will further synthesize economic approaches to managing water, including quantity and price-based policy instruments and cost-benefit analysis. The course explores issues of water demand and supply, water allocation and water quality, together with policies such as water pricing and water trading for managing water resources.

The course aims to familiarize students with the specific characteristics of water resources and how economic methods and models can be applied to address these characteristics to inform water policy and assist decision making. Special attention will be paid to water resources valuation and water markets, including payments for watershed services. Through a water game, students will learn how to use different surface and groundwater resources under normal and drought conditions.

Number of Credits 4

In many regions of the African continent, there is a growing concern about how “change” (e.g., climate, land-use, population) will strain our water resources. This necessitates the need to train the next generation of professionals to innovate the planning, management, and sustainability of these systems. This course is based on state-of-the-practice that builds on the legacy of research in water resources systems and seeks to provide a new generation of planners with an enhanced ability to discover and negotiate the highly uncertain trade-offs which we expect to face in balancing water resources against the demands of the future. Students are encouraged to explore the meaning of sustainable water management given conflicting demands from renewable energy systems, ecosystem services, expanding populations, and climate change. Furthermore, students learn to develop and apply deterministic and stochastic optimization and simulation models to support water resources planning and management. The idea of risk and reliability is embedded throughout the course. This course covers river-basin modelling, including water allocation to multiple purposes, water demand projections for different sectors, reservoir design and operation, irrigation planning and operation, hydropower capacity development, flow augmentation, flood control and protection, and urban water supply portfolio management (supported by case studies). Student projects encourage a deeper exploration of topics and tools of interest.

Number of Credits 4

The main objective of the first part of this course teaches the physical processes that controls the flow of water below the ground, surface-water groundwater interactions, transport of solutes, and well hydraulics. It aims to give students a sound understanding of how water moves below the surface, including soil and groundwater flow. It prepares students on topics related to groundwater production, remediation of polluted soils and industrial sites, mine drainage and landfill drainage, management of wastewater, land planning, shallow geothermics, and hydroelectricity. The second part of this course is to introduce hydrogeological modelling based on practical cases of increasing complexity. For that purpose, the course also provides information and skills to deepen knowledge in hydrogeology and approaches to describe and quantify hydrogeological features through data. The process of simplified theoretical representation of relationships to develop a model is described including the definition of the aquifer structure (mainly: architecture or geometry of geological formations, hydraulic conductivity, porosity) and the measures to collect, analyse and prepare the parameters (constant or variable) that are entered into the model. Furthermore, the course provides skills on handling the hydrogeological (groundwater) model and analysing the reliability of results for drawing conclusions.

Number of Credits 4

The course aims to familiarize students with satellite images, provide basic principles of data acquisition systems, introduce different GIS and RS software, as well as explain concepts of bands and channels, colour composition and features identification from imagery. Students gain a working knowledge of the principles and applications of remote sensing and are given a survey of the concepts and techniques of Remote Sensing and GIS. The course imparts an understanding of how the various multi-source data are structured in GIS software and knowledge of potential analyses that can be conducted in various situations to produce useful information that supports decision making in planning, monitoring and management of resources (water, forests, soil, lands) and infrastructures (e.g., drinking water systems, a network of roads). The laboratory provides hands-on experience (through case studies), including a lab practical on interpretation and analysis of digital images, generating digital elevation models, topographic calculations (slope, aspect, curvature), modelling (visibility, hydrology modelling), and other aspects of RS and GIS.

Number of Credits 4

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Number of Credits 5

This course cultivates skills and expertise in designing, planning and controlling projects. It examines the project management life cycle, defining project parameters, management challenges, project management tools and techniques, and emphasizes the project manager’s role.

The course will guide students through the fundamental tools of project management and skills necessary to devise, launch, lead, and implement successful projects in profit and non-profit organizations. Successful project managers possess the skills necessary to manage their teams, schedules, risks, and resources to produce desired outcomes. Students explore project management with a practical and pragmatic approach through project implementation, case studies and class exercises.

Number of Credits 2

This course provides learners with principles, techniques, guidelines and suggestions to improve their skills in academic written communication. Consequently, it is designed to cover techniques that can be applied to different types of academic writing including essays, dissertations, reviews, grant proposals, research papers as well as thesis writing. The course provides tools to students to create in-text references and corresponding citations. The course also teaches appropriate language and common usage of tenses for different types of academic writing.

Number of Credits 1

This course covers the fundamentals of soil, surface and groundwater conservation, with an emphasis on approaches to protect and sustainably manage these resources. The lectures give a brief overview of sources of pollution and address measures to conserve and protect surface and groundwater.

The class discusses soil, surface and groundwater conservation in the overall context of soil and water conservation and land use management. Geospatial technologies are examined as appropriate tools for soil and water conservation.

Number of Credits 4

Water resources management in the 21st century is challenged by the impact of climate change on the hydrological cycle. Although climate change is a global phenomenon, regional projections make climate modelling more precise and results more meaningful for water management. Surface air temperature and precipitation are the primary elements of the hydrological cycle for regional climate projections; changes in either of these are often considered a primary signal of climate change.

The central objective of this course is to equip students with knowledge of the science of global warming and the forecast for human impact on Earth’s climate. The module aspires to achieve the following learning outcomes: (i) knowledge of tools used to study the global climate in the past, present and future; (ii) insight into climate change science and the numerical tools that support it; (iii) ability to assess the impact of climate change on a regional level in the short, medium and long term.

This course imparts knowledge and skills to graduate students for a career in environmental management or to prepare students who may wish to pursue a degree at the PhD level.

Number of Credits 4

Groundwater monitoring and management is rudimentary in many developing countries even though it is an essential component of terrestrial water storage, which encompasses all forms of water stored above and below the land surface. Most river basins in developing countries have faced serious degradation that has led to reduced basin storage capacity. This calls for a comprehensive study on river basins, especially in Africa, with a view to providing solutions to improve storage capacity. This master’s level elective course equips future water engineers with the appropriate techniques to enhance storage capacity of river basins, while providing skills on using well-known hydrological models in simulating water resources scenarios. The course covers both surface and groundwater storage capacities and their interaction. The course is designed to provide master level skills to students of Water Engineering in providing solutions on water resources planning, development and management through improving river basin storage capacity.

Number of Credits 4

Risk management is crucial for all water engineering projects. This course teaches students to better understand, evaluate, manage and mitigate risks and vulnerabilities in water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure assets.

Water infrastructures are exposed to (i) increasing vulnerabilities due to population growth, urbanization and climate change, (ii) disasters (also expected to increase in future because of climate change) such as floods, droughts, wildfire outbreaks, and (iii) rising water demand. There are also issues of aging infrastructure, especially in economically difficult conditions. Climate threats and extreme weather conditions such as heavy storms, floods and sea level rise are increasingly likely to occur. Therefore, decision makers such as spatial (including urban) planners, government authorities and municipalities, need to move towards assessing and managing property and infrastructure affected by these threats while taking public health into consideration. These activities provide resilience in water engineering infrastructure, which is crucial for managing current and future risks.

Number of Credits 4

Water is of fundamental importance to human development, the environment and the economy. Access to water and water security is paramount to improving the food security, incomes and livelihoods of rural communities. Reliable access to water remains a major constraint for millions of poor farmers, mostly those in rain-fed areas, but also those who use irrigated agriculture. Climate change and the resulting change in rainfall patterns pose a threat to many more farmers, who risk losing water security and slipping into the poverty trap. The need, therefore, to strengthen communities’ capacity to adopt and disseminate agricultural water management technologies cannot be overemphasized.

This course exposes students to approaches on how to use water in a way that provides crops and livestock with sufficient water, enhances productivity, and conserves natural resources for the benefit of downstream users and ecosystem services. Topics explored in this course include irrigation, soil, land and ecosystem conservation practices, such as drainage and watershed management; fisheries management; and technologies for lifting, storing and conveying water.

Number of Credits 4

Most of the world water resources including those in Africa are shared between countries. The integrated approach to sustainable management of transboundary water resources presents a noble way to avoid potential conflicts while advancing socio-economic growth and development with mutual benefits. Taking into consideration competition for water used for hydropower, recreation, irrigation, household supply and fishing is an important element of transboundary water management. In addition, the effects of climate change, mitigation and adaptation are crucial for sustaining the quality and quantity of transboundary water resources for equitable use.

Number of Credits 4

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills to effectively design, operate, maintain and control water distribution systems and sewer systems. Basic features of water distribution networks are considered and the transport and distribution network are discussed. For sewer networks, the focus is on conduit and manhole hydraulics. This course equips graduates with the skills to solve practical problems, communicate effectively and work successfully to enhance their career potential with water agencies and organizations.

Number of Credits 4

Irrigated agriculture consumes by far the most water, accounting for more than 70% of all water withdrawals. On the one hand, irrigated agriculture delivers a significant – and urgently needed – contribution to achieve food security. On the other hand, irrigated agriculture has a significant impact on water resources in terms of water quantity reduction and water quality deterioration. The current situation is alarming: food security is not yet achieved, water is scarce in many regions of the wold, water resources are polluted and the environment and biodiversity is affected. The situation is expected to become even more challenging in future due to rising water demand (increasing evapotranspiration from climate change, expanding food requirements driven by a growing population and changing nutrition behaviour) in contrast with limited water resources that are becoming unpredictable due to climate change. Full irrigation under arid conditions and supplemental irrigation as a core component of climate change adaptation measures in regions with temporary water deficit periods will remain key tools of future water management. Yet, in order to mobilize its potential in an increasingly complicated environment, irrigation must become more targeted, efficient, effective in salt management, productive and impact aware. This course equips students with skills that contribute to mastering these challenges.

Number of Credits 4

The United Nations have promulgated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Agenda 2030) as a way of energizing governments across the globe to improve the livelihoods of communities in urban and rural settings. SDG number six promotes access to water, sanitation and wastewater treatment methods for all citizens to reduce diarrhoea and disease (UN Water, 2017). In 2015, 844 million citizens did not have access to safe drinking water (WHO & UNICEF, 2017), 2.3 billion citizens had no access to safe sanitation (WHO & UNICEF, 2017), only 50% of African communities had access to basic handwashing facilities (WHO & UNICEF, 2017) and 882,000 citizens died from diarrhoea, mostly children under the age of five (United Nations, 2018). Treating wastewater enables its reuse (WHO, 2018). Ecological sanitation requires a paradigm shift to provide affordable sanitary systems, with minimal use of water and affordable treatment systems to recover and re-use human waste. Access to sanitation is important as the safe disposal of human urine and faeces (human wastes) is fundamental to human dignity. This requires an appropriate sanitary facility such as a flush toilet or a ventilated improved pit (pit toilet) followed by the use of a wash basin facility for hand washing. Pit sludge contains harmful pollutants that can infiltrate groundwater resources; waste accumulated in the pit toilet must be removed and treated or treated onsite. The wash facility involves the use of soap and clean water (microbiologically safe water). Health awareness (Hygiene education) and human behaviour are important factors in increasing the regular use of sanitary facilities as opposed to open defecation (UNICEF, 2013). The continuous use of sanitary facilities has been shown to lead to a reduction in diarrheal diseases and waterborne infections. Domestic wastewater is composed of grey and black water. The grey water contains waste water from household bathrooms, brushing of teeth, washing of clothes and washing of dirty pots, plates and cups and is known to contain heavy metals, pathogens and nutrients. The wastewater (black water) that is generated from the flush toilet is known to contain harmful pollutants, heavy metals, pathogens (e.g., bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites) and also nutrients (nitrates, phosphates) offering advantages, yet also potentially leading to environmental problems (eutrophication of waterbodies). Domestic wastewater is often combined with wastewater from other water users such as factories and mines. Thus, onsite wastewater treatment is recommended to these other water users. The wastewater generated from different types of water users, such as households, factories, mines or hospitals, must be disposed safely (treated first, before being discharged to a waterbody such as a river, stream, dam or the sea) to ensure that the external environment is protected.

Number of Credits 6

The course equips students with knowledge of the interactions, synergies and trade-offs between the water-energy nexus and climate change. The course sets a foundation by explaining the water-energy nexus and how it relates to climate change. A brief exploration of the underlying mechanisms of the water-energy nexus and physical science basis of climate change is followed by a step-by-step and detailed description of how climate change is projected to affect water resources and energy systems and the potential consequences for the water-energy nexus, food and energy security and, in turn, sustainable development. Additionally, the course teaches the technological, socio-economic and policy responses to overcome the challenges within the water-energy nexus in the context of a changing climate. The students apply their knowledge and skills to analyse the impact of climate change on the water-energy nexus in a specific case study.

Number of Credits 4

NA

Number of Credits 5

The course aims to provide students with knowledge of the relationship between gender and human rights both within the African and international systems. It explores origins, development and challenges of integrating gender into human rights law discourse and practice. Focusing on international protection of women’s human rights as an example, the course introduces students to relevant international bodies and instruments.

Number of Credits 2

The course considers ethics, leadership, leadership dilemmas and accountability issues that can arise when an individual’s values conflict with those of an organisation, or when a situation requires decisions with competing or conflicting values. The focus is on ethical issues that leaders have to deal with including ethical dilemmas in decision making. Effective leadership in Africa, and the subsequent emergence of Africa, depends on ethical leadership and accountability. Many African countries face challenges arising from accountability problems that have led to bad governance. The course examines leadership principles, theories and styles. Within this course, students use case studies, their own experiences and current events to examine actions leaders have taken and consequences they have faced. Students work on real-life issues of transparency and accountability, examine underlying reasoning of the problems, identify and analyse ethical dilemmas, and develop action plans for solving and preventing similar problems at the organisational and societal levels.

Number of Credits 1