Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in Flood Risk Management

Application deadline: January 8th, 2012

The Erasmus Mundus Masters Course on Flood risk management is offered by the consortium consisting of UNESCO-IHE (the Netherlands), TU Dresden (Germany), UPC Barcelona (Spain) and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). The programme starts September 2012.

Interested candidates may apply online.

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The Erasmus Mundus Programme in Flood Risk Management: Global Change, Hydroinformatics and Planning (FLOODRisk) focuses on integrated flood risk management.

Start date: Annually in September
Duration: 24 Months
Locations: Delft (the Netherlands), Dresden (Germany), Barcelona (Spain) and Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Degree: Successful candidates receive MSc degrees from TU Dresden, UNESCO-IHE and UPC, Barcelona.

Integrated flood risk management aims to reduce the human and socio-economic losses caused by flooding while taking into account the social, economic and ecological benefits from floods and the use of flood plains or coastal zones. The need for the adoption of a holistic integrated approach to managing flood risks has been reflected in the Flood Directive of the European Parliament.

Existing masters programmes on floods offered in the European Union cover many technical aspects but lack integration. This programme follows the holistic approach and is explicitly designed to cover a wide range of topics - from drivers and natural processes to models, decisions and socio-economic consequences and institutional environment and is therefore an important advance in water education for Europe.

The Erasmus Mundus Programme in Flood Risk Management is offered by a consortium consisting of

• UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (the Netherlands)
• Technical University of Dresden (Germany)
• Technical University of Catalonia (Spain)
• University of Ljubljana (Slovenia).

The associated members include European hydraulics laboratories, namely, DHI (Denmark), Deltares (the Netherlands) and HR Wallingford (UK), and key national organisations responsible for flood management, including Rijkswaterstaat (the Netherlands), ICHARM (Japan) and three organisations from Bangladesh. These partners bring their specific complementary expertise in flood risk management to the programme.

During the 2-year programme students will accumulate 120 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) study points. They will follow the programme in four institutions starting in Dresden, where they complete their 1st semester with courses on hydro-meteorological processes, global change and its impact, flood risk management and GIS.

Then students move to Delft for their 2nd semester where they receive courses on hydroinformatics, modelling for planning, forecasting, control and decision support, hazard mapping, ICT and fluvial flooding and urban flood disasters. Subsequently, the students move to Barcelona to follow part of their 3rd semester with courses on hazards due to flash floods, debris flow, coastal flooding, and climate change. The last part of the 3rd semester is hosted by the University of Ljubljana where students follow courses on spatial planning, and socio-economic and institutional framework of flood risk management. Each semester provides a number of electives, and there are international fieldtrips. Finally, the students carry out their thesis work (30 ECTS) at one of the four institutes or with an industrial partner.

Participants who successfully complete the course will be awarded with the following multiple diplomas:

• Master of Science in Water Science and Engineering -specialisation “Hydroinformatics - Flood Risk Management” from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands
• Master of Science in Hydro- Science and Engineering, Technical University of Dresden, Germany
• Master of Science in Flood Risk Management from Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain