UNION COLLEGE
Environmental Science, Policy & Engineering Program (ESPE)
Winter 2026
The Water Paradox
ENS-277
Lectures: TTH 9:00-10:45AM, Olin 306.
Office hours: immediately after class or request an appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Fresh water is tasteless, odorless, and colorless. These characteristics make water one of the most intriguing materials. It is a necessity for life. Humans, animals, birds, and almost all living creatures cannot live without water. A paradox involves features or qualities of contradictory nature. Water is notorious with such qualities. Water is one of the cheapest materials yet it is the most precious commodity known to humanity. Water could be the source of peace and development yet it could be a reason for war and conflict. Water could be a force for good to generate hydropower yet unchecked or unregulated this force could be in the form of destructive floods. Water could be a weapon to combat desertification yet too much thereof could cause erosion and failures. Floods come with loads of mud and silt that charge river deltas and keep them fertile yet weaker floods result in lesser deposits that could threaten river deltas with sea attacks. Fresh water is the basic building block for life in any of its forms yet contaminated water is a major life-threat in the form of water-borne disease. Water has always been a main reason for people to settle the land yet a shortage thereof could force people to migrate and leave their homeland. This course shows the role water played in the past, is presently playing, and will play in the future in defining communities and societies.
COURSE GRADE
Term Test (6th
week) = 25%
Class
Participation = 15%
Formula For Fairness (3F) papers (4th & 7th week) = 20%
Term Paper &
Presentation = 15%
Final Examination
= 25%
| COURSE GRADE |
| 90+ = A |
85+ = A- |
80+ = B+ |
75+ = B |
70+ = B- |
65+ = C+ |
60+ = C |
55+ = C- |
50+ = D |
NOTES
- Attendance of
exams is mandatory.
- If you must
miss the midterm test due to extraordinary circumstances beyond your control
(a letter from the Dean of Students will be required in this case), your 25
points of the midterm test will be automatically transferred to the final
exam, i.e., your final will be graded out of 50 points. No makeup for the
midterm test will be allowed for any reason. If you miss the midterm without
a supporting letter from the Dean of Students, there will be 10 points penalty, i.e, the maximum score you can earn in your final exam is 40/50.
- If you must
miss the final exam due to extraordinary circumstances beyond your control
(a letter from the Dean of Students will be required in this case), your
grade in the course will be prorated based on the components of your term
work. No makeup for the final exam will be allowed for any reason.
- Students are
randomly selected to participate in class discussion. If you are unprepared
or absent without documentation (a formal note from a doctor, nurse, coach,
dean of students, etc.), this will impact your participation credit.
- Due date for assigned course work will be announced in class. Late submission of course work is assessed at -1 point per day or part thereof.
- The academic performance of the students in this course will be held to the standards of Union College's Honor Code.
- Students with disabilities will be accommodated as per Union College's Policy.
TEXTBOOK
(Required) Periera, L.S., Cordery, I., and Iacovides, I. (2010). "Coping with Water Scarcity: Addressing the challenges," Springer (ISBN-10: 9048181615)
(Optional) Black, Maggie (2016). "The Atlas of Water," 3rd Edition, University of California Press (ISBN-10: 0520292030)
COURSE SYLLABUS
1 Introduction
2 Water Scarcity Concepts
2.1 Concepts
2.1.1 Introduction
2.1.2 Cause of Water Scarcity
2.1.3 Aridity and Drought Water Scarcity
2.2 Coping with Water Scarcity
2.2.1 Main Problem in Brief
2.2.2 Water Management Issues
2.2.3 Implications of Sustainable Development
3 Physical Characteristics and Processes Leading to Water Scarcity
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Climatic Conditions
3.2.1 General Aspects
3.2.2 Rainfall Variability in Time and Space
3.2.3 Evaporation
3.3 Hydrologic Characteristics
3.3.1 Runoff Regime
3.3.2 Groundwater
3.3.3 Sediments
3.3.4 Water Quality
3.4 Climate Change and its Impacts on Water Scarcity
3.5 Meteorological and Hydrological Data Collection and Handling
4 Droughts and Desertification
4.1 Droughts
4.1.1 Definitions
4.1.2 Manifestations of Drought and Drought Impacts
4.1.3 Drought Indices
4.1.4 Drought Forecasting and Prediction
4.1.5 Drought Monitoring
4.1.6 Drought Risk Management and Communication
4.2 Desertification
4.2.1 Concepts and Definitions
4.2.2 Processes and Indicators
4.2.3 Monitoring and Information
4.2.4 Social and Political Constraints and Issues
4.2.5 Issues to Combat Desertification
5 Conceptual Thinking in Coping with Water Scarcity
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Social Value of Water
5.2.1 Water for Life
5.2.2 Differences Between Urban and Rural Needs
5.2.3 Differences Between Arid Zones and on-arid Areas
5.2.4 Social Effects of Water Supply/Collection Practices
5.3 Environmental Value of Water
5.4 Landscape and Cultural Value of Water
5.5 Economic Value of Water
5.5.1 Safe Water Supply has a Cost
5.5.2 Water Pricing
5.6 Priorities for Water Allocation
5.6.1 Who Owns Water
5.6.2 Water Ownership
5.6.3 Water for Human Life
5.6.4 Water for Industry
5.6.5 Irrigation
5.6.6 Water Self Reliance
5.6.7 Gender Issues
5.6.Planning for Optimal Water and Land Use
5.7 International Issues - Treaties Between Sovereign States
6 Surface Water Use and Harvesting
6.1 Large and Small Scale Projects
6.1.1 Definitions
6.1.2 Objectives of Water Use and Harvesting
6.2 Reservoir Management
6.2.1 Need for Reservoirs
6.2.2 Water Scarcity Management
6.2.3 Operation of Single and Multiple Reservoir Systems
6.2.4 Groundwater Recharge
6.2.5 Design and Management of Water Resource Systems
6.3 Control of Water Losses and Non Beneficial Uses of Water
6.3.1 Location of Losses
6.3.2 Reduction of Evaporation
6.3.3 Support for Reduction of Waste of Water
6.4 Water Harvesting
6.4.1 Rainwater Collection
6.4.2 Terracing
6.4.3 Small Dams
6.4.4 Runoff Enhancement
6.4.5 Runoff Collection
6.4.6 Flood Spreading
6.4.7 Water Holes and Ponds
6.4.8 Tanks
6.5 Environmental and Health Issues
6.5.1 Overview
6.5.2 Protection of Stored Water for Drinking
6.5.3 Sediments
6.5.4 Water Quality - Chemical and Bacterial
6.5.5 The Riparian Eco-system and Biodiversity
6.5.6 Water Borne Diseases
7 Groundwater Use and Recharge
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Major Aquifers and Well Fields
7.2.1 Groundwater Reservoir Characteristics
7.2.2 Discharge, Recharge and Storage of Aquifers
7.2.3 Exploitation of Groundwater Storage
7.2.4 Management Considerations
7.2.5 Aquifer Monitoring and Control
7.2.6 Maintenance of Wells, Pumps and Other Facilities
7.3 Minor Aquifers of Local Importance
7.3.1 Particular Aspects of Minor Aquifer
7.3.2 Local Importance of Minor Aquifers and Management Issues
7.4 Environmental, Economic and Social Impacts of Aquifer Overexploitation
7.4.1 General
7.4.2 Groundwater Levels
7.4.3 Water Quality Deterioration
7.4.4 Sea Water Intrusion
7.4.5 Land Subsidence and Land Collapse
7.4.6 Stream Base-Flow Reduction, Drying of Wetlands and Landscape Changes
7.4.7 Economic and Social Impacts
7.5 Artificial Recharge
7.5.1 General
7.5.2 Methods of Artificial Recharge
7.5.3 Artificial Recharge by Spreading
7.5.4 Artificial Recharge by Well Injection
7.5.5 Recharge with Surface and Subsurface Dams
7.5.6 Problems and Solutions
7.5.7 Environmental Impacts of Artificial Recharge
7.6 Conjunctive Use of Surface and Groundwater
7.7 The Use of Groundwater in Coping with Water Scarcity |
8 Using Non-conventional Water Resources
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Wastewater Use
8.2.1 Wastewater and Effluent Characteristics
8.2.2 Wastewaters Characteristics Relative to Agricultural Use
8.2.3 Wastewater Treatment
8.2.4 Minimizing Health Hazards in Wastewater Use in Irrigation
8.2.5 Crop Restrictions and Irrigation Practices
8.2.6 Monitoring and Control for Safe Wastewater Use in Irrigation
8.2.7 Wastewater for Aquifer Recharge
8.2.8 Non-agricultural Uses of Wastewater
8.3 Use of Brackish, Saline and Drainage Waters
8.3.1 Characteristics and Impacts of Saline Water
8.3.2 Criteria and Standards for Assessing the Suitability of Water for Irrigation
8.3.3 Crop Irrigation Management Using Saline Water
8.3.4 Leaching Requirements and Control of Impacts on Soil Salinity
8.3.5 Long-Term Impacts: Monitoring and Evaluation
8.3.6 Non-agricultural Use of Saline Waters
8.4 Desalinated Water
8.4.1 General Aspects and Treatment Processes
8.4.2 Extent of Use, Costs and Environmental Impacts of Desalination
8.5 Fog-Capturing, Water Harvesting, Cloud Seeding, and Water Transfers
9 Water Conservation and Saving: Concepts and Performance
9.1 Concepts
9.1.1 Water Conservation and Water Saving
9.2 Water Use, Consumptive Use, Water Losses, and Performance
9.2.1 Water Systems, Efficiency, and Water se Performance
9.2.2 Water Use, Consumption, Wastes and Losses
9.3 Water Use Performance Indicators
9.3.1 Consumptive Use and Beneficial Use
9.3.2 Water Productivity: Irrigation
9.3.3 Water Productivity for any Water Use Sector
9.4 Water Conservation and Saving to Cope with the Various Water Scarcity Regimes
9.5 Implementing Efficient Water Use for Water Conservation and Saving
10 Water Conservation and Saving Measures and Practices
10.1 Water Conservation and Saving in Urban Systems
10.1.1 General Aspects
10.1.2 Monitoring and Metering
10.1.3 Maintenance, and Leak Detection and Repair
10.1.4 Water Pricing
10.1.5 Regulation and Control Equipment, and Service Performance
10.1.6 Dual Distribution Networks for High Quality and for Treated Reusable Water
10.1.7 Legislation and Regulations, Incentives and Penalties
10.1.8 Information and Education
10.2 Water Saving in Domestic Applications
10.2.1 Indoor Water Uses and Saving
10.2.2 Water Saving in Outdoor Applications
10.3 Water Conservation and Saving in Land cape and Recreational Uses
10.4 Water Conservation and Saving in Industrial and Energy Uses
10.5 Water Conservation in Dryland Agriculture
10.5.1 Introductory Concepts
10.5.2 Crop Resistance to Water Stress and Water Use Efficiency
10.5.3 Crop Management for Coping with Water Scarcity
10.5.4 Soil Management for Water Conservation
10.6 Water Saving and Conservation in Irrigated Agriculture
10.6.1 The Overwhelming Importance of Saving Water in Irrigation
10.6.2 Demand Management: General Aspects
10.6.3 Demand Management: Improving Surface Irrigation Systems
10.6.4 Demand Management: Improving Sprinkler Irrigation Systems
10.6.5 Demand Management: Microirrigation Systems
10.6.6 Demand Management: Irrigation Scheduling
10.7 Supply Management
11 Social, Economic, Cultural, Legal and Institutional Constraints and Issues
11.1 Local Communities
11.2 Urban Centers
11.2.1 General
11.2.2 Environmental Consequences
11.2.3 Water Reuse
11.2.4 Reduce Evaporation
11.2.5 Water Conservation Education
11.2.6 Pricing of Urban Water
11.2.7 Institutional Framework
11.2.8 Research
11.3 Rural Areas
11.3.1 Water for Households and Irrigation
11.3.2 Capture of Available Water
11.3.3 Education for Evaporation Reduction
11.3.4 Water Harvesting
11.3.5 Avoidance of Environmental Damage
1 1.3.6 Irrigation Performances
11.3.7 Water Rights
11.4 User Groups
11.5 Administration of Water Use - Public and Private Organizations
11.5.1 Types of Administrative Structures
11.5.2 Equity and Rights
12 Education
12.1 Need to Change Altitudes to Water
12.1.1 Current Attitudes
12.1.2 How Can Altitudes be Changed
12.1.3 Aims of an Educational Program
12.2 Education and Training
12.2.1 Aims of Water Education and Training
12.2.2 Overall Water Education
12.2.3 Educating Children and Youths
12.2.4 The Role of Women
12.2.5 Farmers, Households and Industrial Water Users
12.2.6 Managers, Operational and Maintenance Personnel
12.2.7 Educator, Agronomists and Engineers
12.3 Need for New Developments and Research
12.3.1 New Technologies
12.4 Development of Public Awareness of Water Scarcity Issues
12.4.1 Media in General
12.4.2 Advertising
12.4.3 General Public Information |
FORMULA FOR FAIRNESS (3F) PAPERS
Context
1. Distribution of water resources amongst countries that rely on the same source of water is often problematic. This is most likely because the available volume of water is insufficient to meet demand. Unfair distribution of water resources, whether true or perceived, can lead to conflicts. In many situations, an elevated intensity of conflict can lead to violent confrontation.
2. Students will be assigned two readings related to famous rivers and their basins. In each case, countries sharing water resources believe that they deserve more water than the quantity they actually receive.
3. In light of all the factors related to the situation at hand, the questions requiring answers in each of the two papers are: what factors should a Formula For Fairness include; what is the importance (the weight) of the factors they used in developing their formula, and why any of these factors, if any, should exert more weight than others.
4. Students are required to apply the formula they developed to each of the riparian countries of the river under consideration and compare the quantities calculated by their formula with the actual quantities these countries presently receive.
5. Students are expected to detail in their paper why they believe their formula is fair (or fairer than the presently implemented distribution).
Format
Papers must be submitted as a PDF or Word document. There is no minimum or maximum number of pages for the paper.
THE WATER PARADOX TERM PAPER
Subject
- Each student is to choose the paper subject they like to research. Students in this course come from many departments, thus subjects that are closely or remotely related to a student's major are acceptable but the selected subjects must have a relationship with the course's major themes: water and paradox/illogicality/contradiction. Students may wish to address in their paper a case/problem of interest or work on a subject that has intrigued them but is not necessarily related to their major.
- Students can select their subject at anytime during the term but no later than the 6th week of the term.
- All papers must be on different subjects. A given subject can only be used by one student. A student that was the first in selecting a given subject would be the only one entitled to it. The earlier you select a subject, the wider the selection available to you.
- You can drop a subject you selected and select a different one as long as this is done no later than the 6th week of the term (provided that the new subject had not been previously taken by another student.
- Once you settled on a subject, upload to nexus a document with the title of your paper, a brief description of your intended subject, and indicate what the reader will learn from your paper.
Resources
- Students may
collect the materials (technical and non-technical) for their chosen project
from one or more of the following sources (in no specific order): the Internet, publications,
professional journals, magazines, textbooks, movies, documentaries, and all
other credible sources including interviews with knowledgeable and
experienced individuals.
- Students are
required to cite in their paper all the sources they used in their
research in the form of "References", "Bibliography", Works Cited", "Footnotes", or any standard method of citation. Internet sites are cited using the address (URL) of those sites.
All other references are to be cited with the name of author, year, title of
paper or book, page, and publisher.
- Students are
responsible for checking the accuracy of materials obtained from Internet
sources. Many Internet sources are not peer-reviewed and may lack
credibility. Remember that in this day and age, any one can publish anything
on the Internet. This does not qualify published materials to be worthy of
an academic endeavor such as a term paper.
Submittals
The term paper is due before the last week of the term and this as will be announced. The paper should be uploaded to nexus as a PDF or a Word document. There is no minimum or maximum number of pages for the paper. Students may wish to supplement their text with proper photos, pictures, tables, graphs, charts, and figures. Supplementing materials must be referenced at least once in the text of the paper
Paper Grading Criteria
Students taking this course will receive Engineering/Technology/Society (ETS) credit. Classroom presentations and discussion will promote critical thinking to enable students to evaluate evidence, results, and claims related to the natural sciences/engineering/technology and their impact on broader human or societal issues. In their written
paper and in their oral presentation, students are expected to highlight and detail principles similar to
those listed above. The grade in this term paper will be assigned based on the
quality and depth of thought, organization, and relevance of content to the
subject under consideration, understanding, clarity of presentation, and
demonstration of ability to address questions with comprehension.
STUDENTS TAKE AWAY
- Students will develop an understanding that a very precious resource such as water has been and continues to be very paradoxical in the way humans use it.
- Students will learn that water has been the lifeline for ancient civilizations and is presently the fuel that propels modern economies. Life in its known form can only exist in the presence of water and all creatures need it for survival.
- Students will develop a fresh perspective regarding the paradox of the seemingly abundance of water and the scarcity of the same in the sense that over half of Plant Earth inhabitants do not have access to fresh water supplies.
- Students will appreciate the need to regulate the use of water and the importance of fair distribution to avoid conflicts and wars. History is rich with examples showing nations willing to go to war over water resources.
- Students will comprehend that as precious as it is, contaminated water can be an agent for water-borne disease.
- Students will get the opportunity to research as subject of interest related to water and document their findings in a term paper.
SUGGESTED
REFERENCES (possible sources for additional reading)
- Chellaney, B. (2013). Water, Peace, and War
- Fagan, B. (2012). Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind
- Feldman, D. (2012). Water
- Fishman, C. (2012). The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water
- Pearce, F. (2006). When the Rivers Run Dry
- Prud'homme A. (2011). The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century
- Solomon, S. (2011). Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization
- Vajpeyi, D. (2011). Water Resource Conflicts and International Security: A Global Perspective
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