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Water Resilience: Challenges and Solutions

Module description

From the extremes of flooding and drought to the increasing pressure on water quality and quantity from population growth, we live in a time when the challenge of providing water resilience is critical. This interdisciplinary module will introduce you to the environmental, social and economic challenges involved in water resource management and will explore a suite of novel and developing ‘nature-based solutions’ that promise to deliver benefits to both people and nature.

This research led module will be delivered by academics from the new Centre for Resilience, Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW). Drawing on real world examples, field-based learning and engagement with external experts, students will have the opportunity to develop highly sought after employability skills.

This module examines a critical contemporary environmental and societal issue and as such welcomes all students with no pre/co-requisite modules.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module has the following aims:

• To introduce you to the critical challenges faced globally and locally in managing water resources and the associated hazards for both people and the environment.
• To explore a range of solutions that can be applied to increase water resilience. Given the increasing recognition of the role that Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can play, we will introduce and evaluate novel contemporary solutions such as rewilding, species reintroduction and the role of ecosystem engineers and landscape restoration.  We will consider the need for, and potential to deliver, multiple-benefits from these solutions.
• To outline the policy and management frameworks for implementing nature-based solutions to water challenges and cost-benefit/risk opportunity decision making approaches.
• To highlight the need for an interdisciplinary approach to address the environmental, economic and societal implications challenges and develop and provide sustainable solutions.

This module addresses a contemporary issue within our environment and society for which geography graduates are well placed to be future leaders. The module will be led by academics from the new Centre for Resilience, Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW), providing a research-led approach to teaching, using real-world global and local case studies where researchers at the University of Exeter have worked with practitioners and communities.

Additional learning and future employability skills will be provided by the involvement of leading external experts CREWW is partnered with (i.e. from government environmental agencies, 3^rd sector or industry) involved in water resource management and nature-based solutions.

The summative assessments (100% coursework) in this module will focus on developing your 1) oral, written and visual presentation and communication skills, 2) critical thinking skills and 3) ability to work as a team to address water resilience challenges. The poster will develop your ability to synthesise, evaluate and communicate complex interdisciplinary concepts visually to a broad audience. Imitating how landscape management decisions are undertaken in partnership with stakeholders in the real world, the group exercise will give you the opportunity to critically apply your learning and practice group communication and teamwork skills.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Describe and explain the challenges faced in water resource and hazard management
• 2. Describe, explain, and appraise the capacity for nature-based solutions to deliver hydrological resilience and other additional benefits

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Assess the nature and social, economic and environmental drivers of change within managed physical environments
• 4. Access, analyse, evaluate, synthesise and summarise information from a range of sources

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Communicate a reasoned and supported argument effectively and fluently to a general and technical audience
• 6. Undertake and develop independent/self-directed study/learning to achieve consistent, proficient and sustained attainment

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content varies from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Water resources: the challenge of water resource management in intensely populated and managed anthropogenic landscapes with an introduction to catchment hydrology.
• Hydrological extremes: the hazards of drought and flooding – challenges and solutions.
• Water quality and contamination: ensuring safe water for people and nature.
• Nature based solutions: changing landscapes, landscape scale restoration, species recovery and rewilding.
• Co-benefits/ecosystem services: the need for solutions that deliver multiple benefits – water resources, biodiversity, climate resilience, societal and economic.
• Management frameworks: enabling landscape restoration, natural flood management and nature-based solutions.
• Stakeholder and community engagement: critical consideration of the conflicts and opportunities associated with different nature-based solutions and the need for cost-benefit analysis in decision making.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to redo the relevant assessment. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Keesstra, S., Nunes, J., Novara, A., Finger, D., Avelar, D., Kalantari, Z. and Cerdà, A. (2018). The superior effect of nature based solutions in land management for enhancing ecosystem services. Science of the Total Environment, 610, pp.997-1009.
• O’Donnell, E. C. Lamond, J. E. & Thorne, C. R. (2017) Recognising barriers to implementation of Blue-Green Infrastructure: a Newcastle case study, Urban Water Journal, 14:9,964-971, DOI: 10.1080/1573062X.2017.1279190
• Ellis, N, Anderson, K and Brazier, R. (2021). “Mainstreaming Natural Flood Management: A Proposed Research Framework Derived from a Critical Evaluation of Current Knowledge.” Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment, March, 030913332199729. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133321997299.
• Brazier, R. E., Puttock, A., Graham, H.A., Auster, R.E., Davies, K.H.,  and Brown, C.M.L.,( 2021). “Beaver: Nature’s Ecosystem Engineers.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water. John Wiley and Sons Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1494.
• Nature-Based Solutions for Supporting Sustainable Development (UNEP/EA.5/RES.5): https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/39864;jsessionid=F1E2F49588A680333DF8B5F1A148F147
• IUCN Definition of Nature-based Solutions https://www.iucn.org/our-work/nature-based-solutions
• A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan
• Working with natural processes to reduce flood risk: https://www.gov.uk/flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-research-reports/working-with-natural-processes-to-reduce-flood-risk
• Applied research example 1, the Devon Beaver Project: https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/making-space-beavers#:~:text=A%20targeted%20approach%20for%20the,a%20range%20of%20other%20benefits.
• Applied research example 2: the South West Peatland Partnership: https://southwestpeatlandpartnership.co.uk/what-we-do

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• CREWW Homepage: https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/creww/

Key words search

Water resources, nature-based solutions (NBS), flooding, drought, contamination, pollution, co-benefits, biodiversity, climate resilience, community engagement