Water Resources Engineering Education

Abstract

Water resources engineering education may hinder the development of practitioners who must be not only technically proficient, but also capable of managing engineering problems in a social, political, and economic context. Professional water resources engineering requires the ability to communicate in interdisciplinary efforts, to plan public information programs, and to factor legal and social input, as well as technical know‐how, into problem solving. Opportunities to improve water resources engineering education include: (1) New methods of evaluating students that include assessments of communications skills; (2) broadened course requirements linking technical and social science/humanities programs through joint appointments, faculty exchanges, or social science/humanities courses tailor‐made for the engineering student; (3) a shift from traditional graduate training to providing an opportunity for graduate research on open‐ended problems typically found in water resources engineering; (4) nonoptional co‐op experience in the real world; and (5) evaluation outside of the accreditation process to encourage program experimentation. Professional practitioners can only benefit by such educational improvements and should provide substantial external support for basic research evaluating engineering education curricula, as well as support for and involvement in curriculum development.