Welcome to the Information Page for

Sustainable Water in a Wet Region

Summer 2019; June 17 - July 7 (subject to change)

ESRM 491 C / CEE 498 C (5 credits)

Join this webpage to receive updates.

A Summer A Field Course

Course Structure: 

• This is a field study course (i.e. away from campus and meetings times run all day). Learning is by seeing, hearing and experiencing.
• Immersion learning course - students are expected to participate in all activities - including weekends and evening, group travel, and group living for the duration of the course dates.
• Science Course: Section options available for all majors including environmental science with no pre-requisites and engineering technical elective.
• First-hand information gathering through hiking, plant tours, regional professionals and expert speakers,  - focused on technical aspects of multiple perspecitves on water resources and technologies
• Offered jointly for students from University of Washington and Jordan University of Science and Technology. (participation by Jordanian students may vary year-to-year)
• Group travel and living from Seattle to multiple locations on the Olympic Peninsula.
• All levels (freshmen through graduate students). 

Course Description:

The value of water is recognized world-wide. Even in wet regions, such as the Pacific Northwest, sustainable strategies must recognize the inter-connections among water resource, drinking water, and wastewater. This course examines the intersection of these three water engineering sectors with a focus on environmental implications of climate change predictions for temperate rain forest and wet forest regions, using the Pacific Northwest as an observational "laboratory". These intersections will be examined at differing scales (state, city and small town) and from multiple cultural perspectives by studying topics such as (content can vary year-to-year).

• Integrated "One Water" Management including the influence of water use on water quality at multiple scales. (for an example, see here)
• Cultural values related to water, and the influence of tribal cultural views on water on local and regional water decisions,
• Impacts of human water use on shellfish beds and salmon runs,
• Basics of the ecosystem food chain and how water quality can impact/disrupt this,
• Wastewater and stormwater reuse to mitigate impacts of changing water supply and demands, and
• Treatment and control of combined sewer overflow and polluted stormwater.

 More information can be found here.