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Water, Energy and Land Management

Code: 43063 ECTS Credits: 9
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
4313784 Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability OT 0

Contact

Name:
Marc Pares Franzi
Email:
marc.pares@uab.cat

Teachers

Genis Riba Sanmarti

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

Oral and written English skills


Objectives and Contextualisation

This is a 9 ECTS optional subject from the specialisations in "Science and management of Global Change" and "Ecological Economics". The subject aims to introduce students to current debates on the management of water and energy resources, emphasizing the territorial dimension.

The course will pay special attention to the different water and energy management models (supply-demand; public-private; centralized-decentralized); the different technologies used; its environmental, social and territorial impacts and the unequal power relations regarding energy systems and the water cycle. The subject addresses these issues at different scales and with case studies from different parts of the planet.

Through readings of selected materials, lectures and class presentations and discussions, students are expected to gain a basic and robust knowledge of water and energy management.


Competences

  • Apply knowledge of environmental and ecological economics to the analysis and interpretation of environmental problem areas.
  • Integrate knowledge and use it to make judgements in complex situations, with incomplete information, while keeping in mind social and ethical responsibilities.
  • Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
  • Work in an international, multidisciplinary context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Integrate knowledge and use it to make judgements in complex situations, with incomplete information, while keeping in mind social and ethical responsibilities.
  2. Know different models for managing water and energy, especially at the regional level.
  3. Solve problems in new or little-known situations within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.
  4. Understand new forms of water and energy governance.
  5. Understand the main territorial, social and environmental conflicts associated with water and energy management.
  6. Work in an international, multidisciplinary context.

Content

Block I - The Water Cycle

1. Introduction: planning, water and energy

  • The water-energy nexus
  • Water planning and management
  • From the hydrological cicle to the hydrosicial cicle
  • Virtual water

 

2. Water governance and the politics of scale

  • Scalar effects and multilevel governance
  • Centralized and decentralized models in water management
  • Participatory water governance
  • Water and risk

 

3. Water supply

  • Large scale conventional hydraulic technology: reservoris and water transfers
  • Large scale alternative hydraulic technology: desalination and water reuse


4. Water demand

  • Demand management
  • Decentralized water resources: groundwater, greywater and rainwater
  • Water and tourism


5. Commodification, social protection and emancipation

  • Privatization and municipalization
  • Water poverty and water as a social need
  • Integrated water management in cities: the liberal vs the emancipatory view

 

Block II - Energy Systems


6. Basic concepts of energy use

7. Geopolitics of energy

8. Historic review of energy uses

9. Energy systems

  • Definition and importance
  • Properties
  • Multilevel governance

10. Energy supply chain

  • Fossil fuels
  • Electricity

11. Energy transition and future energy systems


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 18.5 0.74 2, 4, 5
Practical exercices 11 0.44 1, 3, 6
Seminars 20 0.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Type: Supervised      
Assigned readings 15 0.6 1, 2, 4, 5
Course works 22 0.88 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Tutorship 3 0.12 3
Type: Autonomous      
Information research 36 1.44 1, 2, 6
Personal study 40 1.6 2, 4, 5
Readings 55 2.2 2, 4, 5

The following activities will be carried out:

a) Lectures. In some sessions we will have an invited speaker.

b) Seminars: a brief introduction to the specific topic given by the instructor followed by the presentation of assigned readings by students, the group discussion of the main points discussed in the readings, and a final conclusion coordinated by the instructor. Students are expected to read the assigned materials; prepare and guide discussions and participate actively in the debates.

c) Exercices: some practical exercise will be carried out at class, usually using cooperative work.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Class participation 10 % 0 0 1, 3
Energy course work 25 % 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Oral presentations 30% 4.5 0.18 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Water course work 25 % 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

  • Class participation (20%): on the basis of practical exercises carried out at class.
  • Oral presenations (30%): from the assigned readings.
  • Water course work (25%): the instructor will give the details at the beginning of the course.
  • Energy course work (25%): the instructor will give the details at the beginning of the course.

 

Not assessable. Anyone who has not completed and delivered the coursework is considered non-evaluable. Undelivered activities will be graded as zero (0).

Plagiarism. In the event that the student commits any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instituted. In the event that several irregularities occur in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.

Single Assessment: This module does not offer the Single Assessment modality, in accordance with the coordination of the master and with the Dean's Office of the Faculty of Sciences.


Bibliography

The Water Cycle
  • Bakker K. 2010. Privatizing Water. Governance Failure and the World’s Urban Water Crisis. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press
  • Boelens, R., Perreault, T. and Vos, J. (eds). 2018. Water Justice. Cambridge: Cambride University Press.
  • Estevan, A.; Naredo, J. M. 2004. Ideas y propuestas para una nueva política del agua en España. Bilbao: Bakeaz.
  • Gandy, M. 2014. The fabric of Space. Water, Modernity and the Urban Imagination. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press
  • Poch, M. 2021. Aigua 3.0 a Catalunya. Una visió calidoscòpica. Girona: Curbet Edicions.
  • Sanjuán, M. 2005. Gestió local de l'aigua. Barcelona: Fundació Pi i Sunyer.
  • Sedlak, D. 2014. Water 4.0. NewHaven, Conn: Yale University Press
  • Sultana, F.; Loftus, A. (eds). 2012. The Right to Water. Politics, governance and social struggles. London: Earthscan.
  • Swyngedouw, E. 2015 Liquid Power. Contested Hydro-Modernities in Twentieth Century Spain. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press
 
Energy Systems
  • Abramsky, k. (Ed.). 2010. Sparking a Worlwide Energy Revolution: Social struggles in the transition to a post-petrol world. Edinburgh: AK Press.
  • Boyle, G.; Everett, B.I.; Ramage, J. (Eds.). 2003. Energy systems and sustainability. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Droege, P. (Ed.). 2008. Urban energy transition: from fossil fuels to renewable power. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Fernández Duran, R.; Gonzáles Reyes, L. (2014). En la espiral de la energía (vol. 1 i 2). Madrid: Libros en acción.
  • Hopkins, R. 2008. The transition handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience. Vermont: Chelsea Green.
  • Iraegui, J.; Ramos, J. 2004. Gestió local de l'energia. Barcelona: Fundació Pi i Sunyer.
  • Patterson, W. 2007. Keeping the lights on: towards sustainable electricity. London: Earthscan.
  • Riba Romeva, C. 2011. Recursos energètics i crisi: La fi de 200 anys irrepetibles, Barcelona, UPC.
  • Riba Sanmartí, G. 2016. El cost de l'energia, Barcelona, Octaedro.
  • Scheer, H. 2011. Imperativo energético. Barcelona: Icària
  • Scheer, H. 2009. Autonomía energética. Barcelona: Icària
  • Valero Delgado, A.; Valero Capilla, A. (2021). Thanatia. Límites materiales de la transición energética. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza

 

Software

No required software


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TEm) Theory (master) 1 English second semester afternoon