Integrated Water Management (IWM)

Water is vital. Drought, floods and water footprint are crucial topics.

The Integrated Water Management Option was one of the original options of our MSc Environmental Technology course first offered in 1977, and remains at the cutting edge today, with research into the balance between water treatment, energy use, climate change and legislation being the focus of intense interest.

Anglian Water placement

Applications are invited from exceptional students for the MSc Environmental Technology Part-Time Course over two years with a Placement in Anglian Water. We are looking to recruit a highly motivated candidate with the potential to develop a broad appreciation of all aspects of the management of people, engineering, science and policy in relation to water management and technology issues.

The successful candidate will attend the MSc Environmental Technology –Integrated Water Management Option for two semesters, followed by a period of 16 months, during which the student can work on their thesis (total effort of six months full-time equivalent) based at Anglian Water’s Innovation team (total duration two years). Anglian Water is the largest water and water recycling company in England and Wales by geographic area. As a technologist, the student is a full member of the team working on projects aimed at bringing innovation into the business. This will provide them not only with a highly competitive postgraduate degree but also crucial work experience working for the water industry.

The programme provides suitably qualified candidates with an Anglian Water-financed bursary of £12,000 per annum plus the payment of tuition fees (at home fees rate).

If you are interested in applying, please send your CV and cover letter to Chetna Vaghela (Email c.vaghela@imperial.ac.uk). The cover letter should explain why you are interested in this opportunity and why you are a suitable candidate. 

In addition you are required to formally apply to the MSc in Environmental Technology – Integrated Water Management separately. Please appreciate that these are busy times for Registry, therefore please apply to the MSc programme at your earliest convenience.

Aims

The aim of the option is to produce graduates who understand the challenges posed by water supply and meet the demand profile of organisations concerned with the water environment and water technology. These include water companies, regulators, consultancies and research organisations. Major changes in these organisations mean there is an increasing emphasis on management, as well as the traditional emphasis of a broad foundation in the basic concepts of water technology and the water environment. As a result, the Integrated Water Management Option spotlights and develops management techniques, with two extended consultancy-style projects, one run in conjunction with Anglian Water plc. In addition to lectures and tutorials the students develop their research and presentation skills in a dynamic, cooperative and competitive environment.

At the end of the course, the student will understand the basic concepts of water technology and the water environment, and be able to:

• apply this understanding to water management issues
• select and use a range of appropriate management techniques
• communicate effectively with others concerned with water management issues, (for example environmental engineers)
• apply this knowledge and skill to water management issues in both the developed and developing world
• work professionally within an organisation, cooperating with others and communicating ideas in oral and written form

Content

The option comprises a number of modules designed to introduce the student to the broad range of scientific, environmental and management issues relevant to man’s effects on the Earth’s most precious resource.

Water Systems and Technology

This module aims to provide students with knowledge and understanding of water and environmental systems and how they interact with each other; as well as practical skills on integrated water management. The key aim of the Anglian Water Spring Project is to provide an opportunity for students to study a typical problem which could be given to consultants in water management, and for the students to gain experience of the consultancy process in which analysis, synthesis, and teamwork are required to produce a concise quality report and oral presentation. 

Integrated Land and Water Quality Management

To enhance students understanding of the pathways in the environment that pollutants follow from source to receptor and provide students with a working knowledge of the investigation of a contaminated site.  Within the project the key experience of site investigation, chemical analysis, the legislative environment, team working, report writing and presentation to a genuine client will be acquired.

Integrated Management Tools

To introduce students to some of the most important tools and techniques in Integrated Water Decision-Making and Management. Through group work and site visits, students will have the opportunity to discuss latest developments in integrated water management, policy and practice with individuals and organisations involved in their practical implementation and practice skills learned.

Alumni and careers

It is an important feature of our course that the graduates have a very high success rate in achieving well paid employment. This is predominantly in environmental consultancies and to a lesser extent in water utility companies, or the Environment Agency. These high employment rates result from our active and numerous industrial contacts, which are co-ordinated by Professor Steve Kaye (Manager, Anglian Water, Innovation Team) and Professors Jan Gronow and Jane Plant. We also involve our alumni in the teaching and this serves to encourage further recruitment of our graduates.

A unique feature of the option is the range and number of leading practitioners from regulators, water companies, consultancies, research and other environmental organisations who provide lectures and offer points of contact and opportunities for industrial experience in the research project. In addition, the option includes a study tour, seminars and practical coursework assessments that provide experience of contaminated land remediation and strategic investment planning for water supply and wastewater treatment.

The career paths followed by students from the option include major water and wastewater companies, regulatory and legislative bodies and environmental and engineering consultancies both in the European Union and overseas. Graduates from the past three years have taken up positions and careers in the following companies:

• Anglian Water
• Arcadis Geraghty Miller
• CH2M Hill
• Dames and Moore
• Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
• Environment Agency
• ERM
• Mott MacDonald
• Parsons Engineering Science
• Posford Duvivier
• Thames Water

The majority of the graduates enter environmental consultancy both in the UK and abroad usually within the water teachnology areas, or work for water companies, though this is not an exhaustive list. A second path of graduates is to regulatory agencies/government bodies such as the Environment Agency of England & Wales and the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

"The knowledge and skills gained through lectures, team work and the final project greatly aided obtaining a job in the environmental sector, particularly the water industry, and enabled a confident start to my career!" Emily Austin, Water Managment Option 2006-7, currently working at Thames Water.

Coursework

Students undertake two assessed pieces of coursework. One piece of coursework is in collaboration with a water company, Anglian Water and involves a visit to their premises in East Anglia. The other piece of coursework is in collaboration with another of the MSc Options, Environmental Assessment and Management, and requires water and soil sampling on Hounslow Heath in London.

Find out more about the MSc course