This introductory course on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), from the United Nations University (UNU), provides a brief historical background and overview of IWRM and gives an overview of the various aspects of IWRM, from integration, capacity building to applications and case studies.

IWRM has been defined by the Global Water Partnership (2000) as a process, which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. An important aspect of any IWRM program is therefore, research, planning and action at the river basin level.

This course has been divided into the following 10 modules:

• Definitions and Introduction
• Water resources planning and management: History & Development of IWRM
• Integration - what needs to be integrated?
• Capacity Building for IWRM
• Governance and Community Approaches for IWRM
• Organizational and Management Issues in IWRM
• Procedures for a Successful IWRM Planning Process
• Filed Examples and lessons learnt in IWRM
• Application of IWRM in Drylands
• Summary

View the course here, on the UNU website. You can directly download the course material here, from the UNU website. For more information about this course, please click here.

For more courses from the UNU, please see here.