Water and Diplomacy (WD2022)

This short course focuses on “Water Diplomacy” and will discuss how it will be associated with water scarcity, water conflict, or water cooperation on a regional and international scale. Besides “Water Diplomacy”, an introduction to “socio hydrology” and social sustainability in water resources will be provided. In the end, we expected the participants could broaden their insights on the
- Social impact of water resources development,
- What are the major conflicts in transboundary water resources?
- How water conflict interacts with the inhabitant and lead to socio-ecommical impact.
- What is the social sustainability of water resources
- How water diplomacy can diminish the water-related conflict in regional and international conflict
Type of the course:
The course includes four hybrid lectures with short exercises and an open discussion on different case studies with some hands-on practices.
Contact person Dr Ali Torabi Haghighi
The type of course
The course includes four hybrid lectures with short exercises and an open discussion on different case studies with some hands-on practices. Additional homework and learning diary are required for the course credit
Lectures 1 16.6.2022
- Prof. Reza Ardekanian: ‘Water diplomacy’ I 9:00-11:00
- Prof. Majid Labbaf Khaneiki: ‘Social Hydrology’ (11:15-12:00)
- Dr. Tamara Avellán: ‘Social sustainability in water’ (13:15-14)
- Prof. Reza Ardekanian: ‘Water diplomacy’ II (14:15-15:00)
- Round table discussion on water diplomacy and social impact of water resources development (15:00-16:00)
The teacher instroductions
Prof. Reza Ardekanian, Sharif University of Technology, Iran
- He is a faculty member of the Civil Eng. Dept. at Sharif University of Technology, Tehran-Iran. Regarding his background, he has a long governmental experience in the field of water management as he spent more than three decades in the Ministry of Energy in Iran as the General Manager of the National Water Resources Management Company, and also he is the former minister of Energy. He also worked as the Founding Director of the United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and Resources (UNU-FLORES) since 2012.
Prof. Majid Labbaf Khaneiki, University of Nizwa, Oman
- Majid Labbaf Khaneiki is a human geographer who specializes in water history and social aspects of water in local communities, where water establishes a nexus of political, social, and economic structures. Over the past years, he has been working as senior researcher for the International Center on Qanats and Historic Hydraulic Structures, a UNESCO category two center (UNESCO-ICQHS). He has also conducted or cooperated with over 20 research projects on water issues in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Azerbaijan.
Dr. Tamara Avelan, Water Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland
- Tamara Avellán worked as the Head of the Water Resource Management Unit at the United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resource (UNU-FLORES). She has worked intensively on sustainable water resources management in relation to ecological stresses and human induced environmental changes. She recently joined the Water Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit at the University of Oulu as a docent.