MAEH SUMMARY: “The most pressing challenge, responsibility and opportunity for Europe is keeping our planet and people healthy” (EU Commission 2020 Work Programme). The world population is growing fast and by 2050 the global water demand is expected to increase by 55%, with a consequent increase in ecosystems degradation. Water crises are already consistently listed in the top five global risks with the most substantial impact on human development, and profoundly restrict the implementation of the UN SDGs. The international community takes action with the UN “International Decade for Action – Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028”, the UNESCO IHP strategic plans “Water security: Responses to local, regional and global challenges, 2014-2021”, the EU circular economy approach and the European Ambition “Green Deal” as the new European growth strategy. These visions require a change of mentality to be implemented successfully. University education plays a major role in educating a new generation of professionals with integrative and creative critical thinking and the necessary skills. Water problems are complex and require transdisciplinary solutions. The MAEH consortium was built to combine European expertise from different HEI to address these water problems with an integrated approach. We join our expertise and experience to create a globally unique and innovative master course in Applied Ecohydrology. The course provides student-centered learning and practical field, laboratory and world of work experiences. It merges Ecohydrology, a water sciences sub-discipline that aims to use natural processes to increase ecosystem resilience and restore degraded ecosystems carrying capacity, with water engineering for the harmonized use of water infrastructures and with the integrated water management, as a basis to implement ecohydrological solutions effectively. The MAEH course is open to the participation of academic, professional and institutional associated partners. We bring the professional world of work into the master course, by sharing projects in course modules. We integrate the international academic water science community by bringing national and global associations and organizations and by including the expertise from many scientists and water professionals from around the world through the MAEH webinars. MAEH is in line with the EU EC higher education modernization agenda 2020. We commit ourselves to create a course that can be a reference in the field of water sciences within and outside of Europe.

UNESCO Chair on EHAE signed ERASMUS+ agreements for exchange researchers and students with all MAEH Partners.

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