3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

This graduate-level course explores the dual nature of water scarcity worldwide, including both natural and human causes, and what is being done to help people and ecosystems cope with scarcity. The course covers definitions of water scarcity, the geographic extent of the problem, and trends in factors that contribute to it. It also examines several types of actions that are being taken to deal constructively with water scarcity. These actions fall into the general categories of monitoring, supply enhancement, conservation, re-use, pollution control, lifestyle changes to lower our water footprint, and public policy changes. Many of these actions, especially those related to public policy, are incorporated into seven principles of sustainable water management detailed in the course textbook, “Chasing Water: A guide for moving from scarcity to sustainability”, by Brian Richter of the Nature Conservancy. Examination of the principles helps to end the course on a hopeful note by reminding us that humans collectively use only 5-10 percent of the water that falls as precipitation, and we have the capacity to greatly reduce the human suffering and environmental damage caused by poorly managed use of freshwater resources.