Water, territory and participation: approaches to river basin management
COORDINATION:
Abel Durán Chico and Leidy Johana Pinzón Robayo (UPN, Colombia)
Home: 26 / 08 / 2026 | Registration: 02/06/2026 al 25/08/2026
Modality: Virtual with live classes and exclusive materials
Workload: 90 hs
Duration: 2 weeks
The intensive online seminar "Water, Territory, and Participation: Approaches to Watershed Management" proposes a conceptual and practical approach to the watershed as a key unit of analysis for understanding geographic space, territorial appropriation, and the integrated management of water as a common good. From a critical and situated perspective, the course integrates contributions from geography, social sciences, and environmental education to understand the multi-scalar dynamics that shape territories, considering the interaction between biophysical, social, productive, and political processes. It emphasizes the value of the knowledge, wisdom, and practices of the communities that inhabit the watersheds, recognizing their everyday experience regarding the use, access, exploitation, and governance of water resources. The watershed is addressed as an analytical platform for interpreting socio-spatial conflicts, environmental impacts, territorial resilience, and transformations linked to changes in land use, erosion, sedimentation, and alterations in hydrological cycles. In line with SDG 6 “Clean Water and Sanitation”, the course promotes intersectoral and transdisciplinary water governance approaches, aimed at reducing socio-environmental inequalities in rural and peri-urban contexts in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Class 1: Presentation of the program.
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Class 2: The river basin as a geographical space: conceptual and methodological approaches.
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Class 3: Components, processes and characterization of river basins.
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Class 4: Ecosystem bioindicators, an ecological reading of the basins.
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Class 5: Integrated water resource management (IWRM) and community planning.
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Class 6: Territorial planning and environmental zoning of basins.
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Class 7: Local environmental systems and main ecological structure.
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Class 8: Water and socio-environmental conflicts: global and local debates.
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Class 9: Biodiversity, watershed delimitation and agroecological systems.
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Class 10: Closing of the course. Sharing of projects and final reflections.
The course will be delivered online, combining synchronous and asynchronous sessions. Over the two weeks, a total of ten classes will be taught, eight of which will be live and two will be available as recordings for asynchronous viewing.
Live classes will be held via the Zoom platform on the following days: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 16:00 PM to 19:15 PM (COL/ECU/PE) / 18:00 PM to 18:15 PM (MEX/Central America) / 21:00 PM to 15:15 PM (ARG/UY/BRA)This will allow for direct interaction between participants. In addition, students will have access to exclusive materials, available in the virtual classroom, to complement the content covered in each session.
| Early registration (until 08/07) | General registration (May 6th to May 10st) | Registration without discount (11/08 to 26/08) | |
| Full or Associate Member Center | $100 | USD 150 | $200 |
| No link | $150 | USD 225 | $300 |
Queries: [email protected]
