Introduction

Many regions of the world are increasingly facing challenges when it comes to managing water. The nature of these challenges differs from one location to the next. It may relate to having too little water while water demands are growing (water scarcity), too much water (flooding), and water of poor quality rendering it unfit to sustain aquatic ecosystems and/or containing the provision of water to people, industry and agriculture. Addressing these challenges requires that water managers apply an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, taking into account hydrological, biophysical, chemical, social, economic, institutional, legal, policymaking and planning aspects. The M.Sc. and Ph.D. Water Resources Engineering and Management programs provide such an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. Throughout the program, students are encouraged to study water resources management from a multidisciplinary perspective and to seek integrated solutions for problems selected from real case studies.

The graduate programs in Water Resources Engineering and Management are designed to improve the skills of engineers to develop, implement and critically evaluate water management policies and strategies in order to foster inclusive and sustainable use of water and achieve effective governance of water systems. Students learn to take into account variations in social and environmental constraints and resources in formulating water resources management strategies. The programs benefits from integrated and holistic theoretical framework enhanced by several experience-based and case-based instructional methods such as games, which bring together real life situations and game conditions (players, rules, competition, conflict, etc.) and activates students in the learning process. Students of these programs enjoy interacting with lecturers having various educational backgrounds in the fields of civil engineering, environmental engineering, irrigation engineering, chemical engineering, economics, and social sciences. 

M.Sc. and Ph.D. Water Resources Engineering and Management programs are organized by Kish International Campus, University of Tehran“Regional Institute for Water Education for West and Central Asia” (RIWE) through collaboration with:

• School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran
• Kish International Campus, University of Tehran

About Organizer

“Regional Institute for Water Education for West and Central Asia” (RIWE) was established in 2017. On February 17, 2016, UNESCO Cluster Office in Tehran, University of Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Ministry of Energy, and IHE-Delft (formerly known as UNESCO-IHE) signed a MOU for establishment of RIWE.

RIWE as a water education facility, based in the University of Tehran, offers water related B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees, short courses and summer schools through collaboration with its partner universities and institutes including:

• IHE-Delft, Delft, the Netherlands,
• Ministry of Energy, Tehran, Iran,
• UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office, Tehran, Iran,
• University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

University of Tehran, which hosts RIWE has been ranked 15^th in the “Water Resources” subject in the 2017 Shanghi Raking of Academic Subjects. University of Tehran, therefore, as the only university in the Middle East region with such a high raking in “water resources” and as the biggest and oldest university in Iran is the best possible host for RIWE in the region. Further information about RIWE can be found in riwe.ut.ac.ir. 

M.Sc. Program: Water Resources Engineering and Management

The M.Sc. program in Water Resources Engineering and Management starts with a foundation phase, in which students are familiarized with engineering skills needed for modeling of water resources systems. In this phase students, should successfully pass the required courses shown in the table as well as four elective courses from the following two thematic clusters:

• Water Resources Management
• Urban Water Management

Students can successfully finish the program by conducting M.Sc. research and thesis writing in line with the selected thematic cluster. Once successfully completed this program, graduates will be able to:

• Describe and predict for a given water resources system, the main hydrological and environmental processes and how these processes are dynamically linked with human activities, including land use and water service provision.
• Critically evaluate technical and nontechnical interventions through analysis of implications for the water system, its users and their interrelations.

They will also learn some of the required skills for a water resources engineer/manager including: 

• Good team-work skills
• Problem-solving skills
• IT skills
• GIS and remote sensing skills
• Communication skills

Ph.D. Program: Water Resources Engineering and Management

Graduates of the Ph.D. program acquire an understanding of scientific research methods for modelling of water resources systems, analyses of results of such models and their application to water resources and infrastructure management. They are able to develop their own original and interdisciplinary solutions to water stress, conflict, and unsustainability related problems.

The Ph.D. program consists of three Phases. In the first phase, students should successfully pass 6 graduate courses (18 credits) from the following list and choose their supervisor and general theme of their Ph.D. research based on their research interests, educational and professional background as well as career ambitions. Students can also enroll for one course in other schools of the University of Tehran or even other universities, if her/his supervisor suggests the necessity of the course for achieving better performance of the student in implementing her/his Ph.D. research. Such credit transfer should be approved by the host department in RIWE. 

Graduate courses for Ph.D. students include the folllowings:

• Water Resources Systems Analysis
• Advanced Hydrology
• Advanced Groundwater
• RS and GIS Application in Civil Engineering
• Water Governance
• Water Economics
• Institutional Analysis
• Hydro Politics and Diplomacy
• Water Laws and Protocols
• Value Engineering
• Sustainable Development and Environmental Management
• Meteorology and Climate Change
• Advanced Water and Wastewater Engineering
• Design of Water and Wastewater Networks
• Principals of Water and Wastewater Treatment
• Water Desalination
• Design of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants
• Sustainable Development and Environmental Management
• Value Engineering

The second phase consists of qualifying exam and research proposal preparation. Students are encouraged to take qualifying exam by the end of third semester and finish writing research proposal by the end of fourth semester. In the third phase of Ph.D. program, which usually takes around 2 years, students focus on their Ph.D. research and dissertation writing. The third phase can be carried out off campus while regular meetings between students and their supervisors are mandatory. 

Admission Process

For information about admission process and fees please visit http://kish.ut.ac.ir or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..