Interdisciplinary Programs

Water Science and Policy

A Message from the Founding Director

 

Water is a valuable resource that is critical for the health, vitality, and long-term sustainability of all natural ecosystems. For humans, water plays an essential role in food and energy production, transportation, and recreation.

Worldwide, however, water resources are at a risk. Unsustainable population growth, land-use changes, pollution, and global climate change all threaten the distribution, quantity, and quality of the water on which all life depends.

Protecting and preserving our water resources requires that we take a “big picture” approach that addresses where water comes from, where it goes, how it travels, how it is used by living things, what’s in it, and how to remediate problems and develop policies to protect water.

The interdisciplinary program in Water Science & Policy educates students to address the complex challenges that we face today; to develop solutions that are socially acceptable, economically viable, and environmentally sustainable; and to be true stewards of our environment.

We invite you to join us in our endeavors to ensure that all of Earth’s inhabitants, now and into the future, have adequate supplies of clean, healthy water.

Dr. Shreeram Inamdar
Professor of Watershed Hydrology and Biogeochemistry

By choosing to study Water Science & Policy at the University of Delaware, you will be embarking on an exciting intellectual journey that will challenge you to synthesize knowledge from a number of different fields. No matter what aspect of water you choose as your research focus, you’ll be encouraged to look at how it intertwines with other natural and human aspects of water quality and quantity.

Latest News
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  • Making an Impact

    March 12, 2024 | Written by Brenda Lange (UDaily)
    When University of Delaware senior Derek Wu was a child, he and his family visited the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore every year, where he would sit and watch the elephants for a long time. He wanted to protect them after learning about their threatened extinction. But then Wu entered UD, and the introduction to microbiology course caught his eye. Today, he examines how tiny organisms change the world.
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    February 27, 2024 | Written by Katie Peikes
    Some UD students spent January in Brazil studying human interactions with plants and learning how to capture landscape details. They explored locations such as Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon, where they immersed themselves in Brazil's rich history and ecology.