A great blue heron wades through the shallows along the shoreline of a wetland stalking its next meal

Any student enrolled in a University of Wisconsin–Madison doctoral program can pursue a doctoral minor in Water Resources Management. Meeting the increasing human demand for water while ensuring its future availability and quality is a significant societal challenge. The Water Resources Management (WRM) program prepares students to face the complexities of managing this critical natural resource. Students complete coursework that integrates the biological and physical sciences (which identify and measure problems) with engineering (which provides technological alternatives), law, and the social sciences (which assess needs and potential for institutional response). Each WRM student gains breadth in relevant planning and management areas while developing depth in an area specialty. WRM students participate in a summer group practicum workshop with a water resources management focus.

Admissions

Students interested in a doctoral minor should consult the chair of the Water Resources Management graduate program. 

All Graduate School students must utilize the Graduate Student Portal in MyUW to add, change, or discontinue any doctoral minor. To apply to this minor, log in to MyUW, click on Graduate Student Portal, and then click on Add/Change Programs. Select the information for the doctoral minor for which you are applying.

Requirements

Required Courses

Students select courses in consultation with their doctoral minor advisor and departmental advisor. Students must earn a B or better in courses used to satisfy doctoral minor requirements. Minor and major requirements cannot overlap or double-count.

Students must complete the following courses.
CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  718 Water Resources Management Practicum Planning Seminar II2
CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  719 Water Resources Management Summer Practicum4
Breadth5
Students must complete two courses numbered 300 or above from the categories below. The course lists below are not meant to be all-inclusive, and students are not restricted to the courses listed here. This is a sample of appropriate courses for these categories that are offered through various departments/programs. Breadth courses should complement the doctoral major and academic background as well as address any gaps in training within the curriculum breadth categories.
Total Credits11

Category A: Natural Science & Technology courses

AGROECOL/​AGRONOMY/​ENVIR ST  724 Agroecosystems and Global Change3
AGRONOMY/​ATM OCN/​SOIL SCI  532 Environmental Biophysics3
AGRONOMY/​ENTOM/​F&W ECOL/​M&ENVTOX  632 Ecotoxicology: The Chemical Players1
ATM OCN/​BOTANY/​CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​GEOSCI/​ZOOLOGY  911 Limnology and Marine Science Seminar1
BOTANY 330 Algae3
BOTANY/​ENVIR ST/​F&W ECOL/​ZOOLOGY  651 Conservation Biology3
BOTANY/​F&W ECOL  402 Dendrology: Woody Plant Identification and Ecology3
BOTANY/​GEOG  338 Environmental Biogeography3
BOTANY/​ZOOLOGY  725 Ecosystem Concepts3
BSE 571 Small Watershed Engineering3
BSE/​CIV ENGR/​SOIL SCI  372 On-Site Waste Water Treatment and Dispersal2
BSE/​ENVIR ST  367 Renewable Energy Systems3
CIV ENGR 310 Fluid Mechanics3
CIV ENGR 311 Hydroscience3
CIV ENGR 320 Environmental Engineering3
CIV ENGR 415 Hydrology3
CIV ENGR 500 Water Chemistry3
CIV ENGR 618 Special Topics in Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics1-3
CIV ENGR 619 Special Topics in Hydrology1-3
CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  717 Water Resources Management Practicum Planning Seminar I1
ENVIR ST 901 Graduate Orientation Seminar1
ENVIR ST/​F&W ECOL/​ZOOLOGY  360 Extinction of Species3
ENVIR ST/​GEOG  339 Environmental Conservation4
ENVIR ST/​GEOSCI  411 Energy Resources3
ENVIR ST/​LAND ARC  361 Wetlands Ecology3
ENVIR ST/​POP HLTH  471 Introduction to Environmental Health3
ENVIR ST/​SOIL SCI  324 Soils and Environmental Quality3
ENVIR ST/​SOIL SCI  575 Assessment of Environmental Impact3
ENVIR ST/​ZOOLOGY  315 Limnology-Conservation of Aquatic Resources2
ENVIR ST/​ZOOLOGY  510 Ecology of Fishes3
ENVIR ST/​ZOOLOGY  511 Ecology of Fishes Lab2
GEOG 342 Geography of Wisconsin3
GEOG/​GEOSCI  420 Glacial and Pleistocene Geology3
GEOSCI 875 Advanced Topics in Geology1-3
GEOSCI/​G L E  627 Hydrogeology3-4
LAND ARC 668 Restoration Ecology3
SOIL SCI 301 General Soil Science3
SOIL SCI 321 Soils and Environmental Chemistry3
ZOOLOGY 316 Laboratory for Limnology-Conservation of Aquatic Resources2-3
ZOOLOGY 955 Seminar-Limnology1

Category B: Water Resources Institutions & Public Decision-Making Processes courses

A A E/​ECON/​ENVIR ST  343 Environmental Economics3-4
A A E/​ECON/​ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  671 Energy Economics3
A A E/​ECON/​F&W ECOL  531 Natural Resource Economics3
A A E/​ENVIR ST/​POP HLTH/​PUB AFFR  881 Benefit-Cost Analysis3
ANTHRO 477 Anthropology, Environment, and Development3
C&E SOC 375 Special Topics1-4
C&E SOC/​CURRIC/​ENVIR ST  405 Education for Sustainable Communities3
C&E SOC/​SOC  541 Environmental Stewardship and Social Justice3
C&E SOC/​SOC/​URB R PL  617 Community Development3
CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  717 Water Resources Management Practicum Planning Seminar I1
CSCS 460 Civil Society and Community Leadership3
ECON/​ENVIR ST/​POLI SCI/​URB R PL  449 Government and Natural Resources3-4
ENGL/​ENVIR ST  305 Rhetoric, Science, and Public Engagement3
ENVIR ST 349 Climate Change Governance3
ENVIR ST 402 Special Topics: Social Perspectives in Environmental Studies1-4
ENVIR ST 901 Graduate Orientation Seminar1
ENVIR ST/​F&W ECOL  515 Natural Resources Policy3
ENVIR ST/​GEOG  337 Nature, Power and Society3
ENVIR ST/​GEOG  339 Environmental Conservation4
ENVIR ST/​GEOG  439 US Environmental Policy and Regulation3-4
ENVIR ST/​HISTORY/​LEGAL ST  430 Law and Environment: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives3
ENVIR ST/​JOURN/​LSC  823 Science and Environment Communication3
ENVIR ST/​PHILOS  441 Environmental Ethics3-4
ENVIR ST/​POLI SCI/​PUB AFFR  866 Global Environmental Governance3
ENVIR ST/​SOIL SCI  575 Assessment of Environmental Impact3
ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  843 Land Use Policy and Planning3
ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  865 Water Resources Institutions and Policies3
ENVIR ST/​URB R PL  917 Public Participation for Planning and Policy Making3
GEOG 340 World Regions in Global Context3
GEOG/​HISTORY  932 Seminar in American Environmental History3
I SY E/​M H R  729 Behavioral Analysis of Management Decision Making3
INTER-HE 801 Special Topics in Human Ecology1-3
JOURN 566 Communication and Public Opinion4
LAW 845 Water Rights Law2-3
LAW 848 Introduction to Environmental Law3
LAW/​URB R PL  830 Land Use Controls3
LSC 560 Scientific Writing3
POLI SCI/​PUB AFFR  871 Public Program Evaluation3
POLI SCI/​PUB AFFR/​URB R PL  874 Policy-Making Process3
POLI SCI/​PUB AFFR/​URB R PL  878 Public Management3
PUB AFFR 974 Topics in Public Affairs3
URB R PL 590 Contemporary Topics in Urban and Regional Planning1-3
URB R PL 601 Site Planning3
URB R PL 731 Introduction to Regional Planning3
URB R PL 741 Introduction to Planning3
URB R PL 841 Urban Functions, Spatial Organization and Environmental Form2-3

Category C: Analytical & Design Tools in Water Resources courses

A A E/​ENVIR ST/​POP HLTH/​PUB AFFR  881 Benefit-Cost Analysis3
BSE 571 Small Watershed Engineering3
CIV ENGR 310 Fluid Mechanics3
CIV ENGR 415 Hydrology3
CIV ENGR 416 Water Resources Systems Analysis3
CIV ENGR 515 Hydroclimatology for Water Resources Management3
CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​GEOG  377 An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems4
CIV ENGR 516 Hydrologic Data Analysis3
CIV ENGR/​ENVIR ST/​LAND ARC  556 Remote Sensing Digital Image Processing3
ECON/​PUB AFFR/​URB R PL  734 Regional Economic Problem Analysis3
ENVIR ST/​F&W ECOL/​G L E/​GEOG/​GEOSCI/​LAND ARC  371 Introduction to Environmental Remote Sensing3
ENVIR ST/​GEOG/​LAND ARC/​URB R PL  532 Applications of Geographic Information Systems in Planning3
ENVIR ST/​LAND ARC/​SOIL SCI  695 Applications of Geographic Information Systems in Natural Resources3
ENVIR ST/​SOIL SCI  575 Assessment of Environmental Impact3
F&W ECOL/​STAT  571 Statistical Methods for Bioscience I4
F&W ECOL/​STAT  572 Statistical Methods for Bioscience II4
GEOG 378 Introduction to Geocomputing4
GEOG 500 Qualitative Strategies in Geography3
GEOG 579 GIS and Spatial Analysis4
GEOG 970 Seminar in Geographic Information Science1-3
GEOSCI/​G L E  627 Hydrogeology3-4
GEOSCI/​G L E  724 Groundwater Flow Modeling3
M H R 728 Bargaining, Negotiating and Dispute Settlement for Managers3
PUB AFFR 818 Introduction to Statistical Methods for Public Policy Analysis3
PUB AFFR 819 Advanced Statistical Methods for Public Policy Analysis3
REAL EST/​URB R PL  720 Urban Economics3
SOC WORK/​URB R PL  721 Methods of Planning Analysis3
STAT 301 Introduction to Statistical Methods3
URB R PL 841 Urban Functions, Spatial Organization and Environmental Form2-3

People

Faculty Executive Program Committee

Kenneth Genskow (Program Chair), Francisco Arriaga, Anna Bierbrauer, Paul Block, Michael Cardiff, Matthew Ginder-Vogel, Rebecca Larson, Steven Loheide, Sue Swanson, Anita Thompson, Daniel Wright, Steph Tai (Ex Officio)