Applications are now open for:

Sustainable Water Management in a Water-Limited World

UC Davis has partnered with IHE Delft to provide a collaborative program for professional-level training in the water sciences. The programs includes a range of training options, including: (1) online a la carte short courses, (2) custom on-site training for your agency, and (3) professional certificates in three tracks.

UC Davis and IHE Delft have joined forces to offer a trans-national approach designed to address local-, regional-, and global-scale water challenges.

As Sharp & Leshner (2014) stated, “The search for solutions needs to draw upon the talents and innovative ideas of scientists, engineers, and societal leaders worldwide to overcome traditional and nationalistic paradigms that have so far been inadequate to meeting these challenges” (Science, v. 343, p. 579).

Read how local water paradigms and local toolkits limit solutions. 


All course modules potentially available as custom on-site training:

Contact IHE or World Water at UCD to discuss your needs.

Professional Certificate Programs

World Water at UC Davis has partnered with IHE Delft, in the Netherlands, in the launch of three Professional Certificate Programs in water science and management. These certificates are designed for professionals or students with an existing degree in water-related science or engineering. 

Each certificate program includes a series of synchronous, distance-learning modules, including both foundational courses and tools-based training modules.  All classes are interactive and include a collaborative case-study project.  Distance-learning modules are anchored by an annual in-person Summer School, held in rotation between California and Delft, in the Netherlands, in selected years.

Post-graduate students and water professionals interested in any of these Certificates, or individual course modules, should visit the IHE website or contact IHE or UCD project staff.

Click here for more details:

Water Education for California and the World

Despite a history marked by droughts and floods and constant water-related acrimony, California has managed to thrive, evolving a unique toolkit for managing its water resources and water use. As the world looks for solutions to its water challenges, California's turbulent water history provides guidance for possible paths forward. By 2050, 2.3 billion more people will live in areas with severe water stress. Already today, 1.8 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, and nearly 3 of 4 jobs worldwide depend upon access to water and water-related services. The world is thirsty for hard-won lessons that California has learned in managing its water. And California in turn must look to global water science and management practice in order to continue to its leadership in water innovation and economic growth.

Read about the ‘California Model’ of Water Management and Policy

Why UC Davis?

UC Davis faculty and researchers in water-related science, engineering, and policy already form the single greatest concentration of academic water expertise in California. And California leads the nation and the world in developing scientific, engineering, and policy solutions in response to its own history of floods, droughts, groundwater overdraft, persistent growth, and threats to its own rich ecosystems.