Water and Geological Risk Engineering
Class: LM-35 - Environmental engineering
Call for Applications (international students) - A.Y. 2023/24 (CLOSED)
- 1st Call: 2 November 2022 - 2 February 2023
- 2nd Call: 2 March - 2 May 2023
- 3rd Call (ONLY EU and equated students): 2 June - 2 August 2023
Floods, storms, and landslides affected about 3 billion people in 1998-2017 and caused about 70% of global disaster-related economic losses: in a changing climate, water-induced hazards will continue to be one of the critical challenges for our society and for engineering science and practice. The Water and Geological Risk Engineering Master Program aims to form the new global leaders in hydrological and geological science and technology, by providing an interdisciplinary background including state-of-the-art skills (satellite, airborne, drone remote sensing monitoring, hydrologic/hydraulic/geological modelling, big-data handling) and a strong theoretical preparation (climate change and the water cycle, water flows in the environment, risk analysis).
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Characteristics and objectives
In a rapidly changing climate and environment, the Water and Geological Risk Engineering (WGRE) Master Program identifies water-induced hazards and their societal impacts as critical challenges for our society and for engineering science and practice in the present century. The WGRE Master Program is founded on an interdisciplinary approach and on the acquisition of knowledge and abilities necessary to interact professionally with technical and non-technical figures characterized by different disciplinary backgrounds: hydrology, environmental fluid dynamics, geology, agro-forest science and technology, socio-hydrology. Graduates from the Water and Geological Risk Engineering Program will be prepared in the analysis, monitoring, and reduction of risks connected to hydrological and geological disasters (floods, landslides, debris flows, droughts, water scarcity, etc.) at the national, continental, and global scales.
All courses in the Water and Geological Risk Engineering program are taught in English. The program consists of 120 ECTS, of which 54 in disciplines from the Civil Engineering area, 30 ECTS from Geological and Agro-forest Sciences, 12 ECTS from eligible courses, 3 ECTS of languages, and 21 ECTS of the final thesis.
Occupational opportunities
Primary work opportunities are professional consultant in the field of risk engineering or a high-level technical profile in the public and private sectors.
A main opportunity is represented by professional roles in the planning and implementation of strategies for risk reduction and management, particularly in the case of flood risk management plans and environmental protection plans in general. Such roles are widely present both in the public administration (e.g. water authorities and civil protection from the local to the national and supra-national levels) and in private organizations. Further occupational opportunities reside in governmental and non-governmental organizations in the field of hydrological and geological risk reduction operating nationally, internationally, and in developing countries, such as United Nations’ offices and departments, the World Bank, the European Civil Protection, Engineers Without Borders, Engineering for Change, ecc. WGRE graduates can also work in the field of consulting for the quantification and management of environmental risk, in the sector of insurance and re-insurance, in international-scale companies active in the real-time hydrological modelling, meteorological forecasting, remote sensing mapping of risk at the global scale.
