Digital WORLD WATER CAMP 2024

We are pleased to announce the upcoming Digital World Water Camp 2024 - to be held February - May 2024!

Digital WORLD WATER CAMP 2024 (WWC) is an on-line course aimed at undergraduate and graduate students with interest in environmental issues related to drinking water, wastewater, and climate adaptation.

The course is associated with the International Water Association (IWA) and sponsored by The Grundfos Foundation, Danish Water Forum, and the IWA Denmark National Committee. The course is facilitated by VIA University College and Aarhus University in Denmark.

As a participant of the Digital WWC 2024, you will have an opportunity to build a network across the globe with fellow young water professionals and to gain an international perspective on the many facets of water. Register below to ensure your seat for an exciting experience in an international atmosphere!

What

WWC will provide you with guided learning in selected water topics through a mixture of blended e-learning, weekly live class sessions, discussion with fellow students on wicked water problems and individual assignments.

A select group of enthusiastic water experts from across the globe will guide you in subtopics in each of the three major themes of the WWC: drinking water, wastewater, and climate adaptation.

You will be encouraged to actively contribute with your own experiences and local knowledge to develop and relate to a common global view of water solutions.

Upon completion of the course criteria, you will receive a unique course certificate.

Who

The target group for WWC is students currently or recently enrolled in an educational programme related to environmental issues at bachelor or master level. Students from all over the world are encouraged to register for participation. We heartily recommend taking the course with a friend or even an entire class. This is highly motivating and allows you to get even more out of the course due to additional reflections with each other.

When

The Digital WWC is scheduled for a 4-month period from February to May 2024. During this period, At your own pace materials must be studied weekly and a total of 14 live class sessions will be held on-line. Class sessions are held on Wednesdays at 12.00-14:00 GMT/UTC +0. This means that class is held late in the day in Eastern Asia/Oceania and early morning in Western North America.

Live class session starts February 7 and ends May 15, 2024. There will be no class on March 27. If you reside in a country that observes daylight savings time (such as Europe/North America), the live class time will CHANGE during the semester (since World Water Camp does NOT observe daylight savings time). This means that class will be one hour later in April/May than in February/March .

Registration

Would you like to join the camp?

Registration is open November 1^st 2023 – January 1^st2024.

NEW DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION: February 1^st 2024

Participation Fee of EUR 50 per person.

No more scholarships available – only registration with participant fee can register until February 1^st

Click on the registration link below to complete your registration.

We hope you will join us!

Loren Ramsay

Peder Maribo

Majbritt Lund

About Digital WORLD WATER CAMP 2024

Digital WWC 2024 Format

The Digital World Water Camp is built upon challenges and solutions found in the fields of drinking water, wastewater, and climate change adaptation. Within in each of the three major themes you will meet experts with specialized knowledge as well as local and global perspectives on specific challenges. You will also gain insight into a growing water sector that offers many exciting work opportunities for young water experts.

Each week will focus on one or more subtopics. These will be covered by a mixture of e-learning materials available to be digested and solved “at-your-own-pace”. Activities will include reading materials, short lectures, virtual field trips, expert interviews, exercises including peer-to-peer feedback, quizzes and polls.

One live session will be held each week. Each live class consists of a mixture of short lectures or presentation of cases by guest lecturers as well as exercises or wicked problems to be solved or discussed in breakout rooms and hereafter presented in class. Live sessions require active participation by all campers as there are valuable learning opportunities in sharing views and knowledge with other young water experts.
Course Content
- Week 1: Introduction to Digital WWC, course format and content.
- Weeks 2-5, Drinking Water: Water sources, water treatment and distribution including six attributes of drinking water supply, treatment train possibilities with respect to water quality or the water source and design of process flow diagram (PFD).
- Weeks 6-9, Wastewater: Key challenges and suitable solutions for wastewater management, treatment and discharge including principles of design and functions of sewer systems, components in wastewater and associated environmental problems and key plant components with respect to chemical, physical and biological processes and unit operations.
- Week 10-13, Climate Change Adaptation: Key challenges and suitable solutions for local and regional climate change adaptations handling water scarcity, stormwater management, treatment and discharge including engineered and nature-based solutions, eco-system services and challenges for livable cities.
- Week 14: Summing up and evaluation as well as perspectivation towards IWA World Water Congress and Conference in Toronto in August, 2024.
Learning Objectives
Overall Camp objectives:
- Network with peers from around the globe who are interested in the water sector, thereby encouraging a Community of Practice.
- Participate actively and qualified discussions of wicked international problems and challenges in the water sector.
- Evaluate positive and negative consequences of alternative solutions to complex challenges.
- Contrast water challenges in different regions of the globe and describe their root causes.
- Define central buzzwords within the three course themes.
Drinking water:
- Explain the status of six drinking water supply attributes (availability, affordability, quality, trust, resilience, sustainability) on a global scale.
- Compare groundwater and surface water as sources of drinking water with respect to availability and quality.
- Design a process flow diagram (PFD) for the treatment train of a plant, when given the quality of the water source.
- Describe the main causes of non-revenue water and the potential management practices to mitigate the problem.
Wastewater:
- Describe the basic principles of the design and function of sewer systems and describe and evaluate rain data for the analysis of sewer systems, including hydrological parameters.
- Describe principles for the analysis of existing sewer systems with respect to physical condition and hydraulic capacity.
- Describe the composition of wastewater and the key associated environmental problems.
- Describe key plant components, the main chemical, physical and biological processes, and unit operations of a modern activated sludge WWTP.
Climate Change Adaptation:
- Compare basic principles of climate change adaptation vs climate change mitigation.
- Describe key challenges and suitable solutions for water scarcity and stormwater management/treatment and discharge.
- Describe local and regional climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions, AND eco-system services.
- Describe suitable solutions for urban climate change adaptation including evaluation with respect to positive and negative consequences, co-benefits and added values, ownership and operations.
Main Instructors

Docent Loren Ramsay, VIA University College, Research Centre for Built Environment, Climate, Water Technology and Digitalisation.

I have a background as chemical engineer. I am working as a specialist in drinking water treatment, soil and groundwater contaminations, groundwater chemistry as well as in engineering didactics.

” While preparing course material for the Digital World Water Camp, we have found that experts from all over the world are happy to share their insights with us for inclusion in the course. This has made our own efforts especially rewarding, since we are learning too – and from the best!”

Ass. Prof. Peder Maribo, Aarhus University, Dept. of Civil and Architectural Engineering

I have a background in the wastewater industry in designing and optimising wastewater treatment plants around the world. I have a passion for water treatment processes, and I am engaged in work and teaching within hydraulics, water chemistry, wastewater treatment and environmental management, mostly at our Urban Water Diploma Engineering programme.

” Water has never been more relevant globally than now. Luckily, we have fantastic tools available for managing water for both human needs and a better environment. The Digital WWC provide an overview to the key problems, how they connect, and how we can address them”

Ass. Prof. Majbritt Lund, VIA University College, Research Centre for Built Environment, Climate, Water Technology and Digitalisation.

I have a background in geology and materials sciences. I have a passion for water and climate adaptation challenges. I am engaged in work and teaching within water quality, water treatment technologies and environmental management especially in water projects involving applied sciences, developments and demonstrations.

” Students participate with high diversity in water backgrounds and geography. This diversity returns valuable peers and discussions at the camp i.e. working with wicked problems on needs and perspectives on climate change adaptations – and build water-professional international network”
Certificate Requirements

To receive the Certificate of Completion, the following requirements must be fulfilled:

Live participation

Participation in the weekly class sessions (participation in minimum of 10 classes is required). Recordings of the class sessions will be provided should you occasionally be unable to participate live. However, viewing the recordings alone is not sufficient for passing the course.

Completion of asynchronous modules

You must complete all 14 of the “at-your-own-pace” modules. Each module includes a number of activities such as watching videos, participating in polls, taking quizzes, reading material, etc.

Turn in assignments

During the course there will be 4 assignments (one general assignment and one assignment for each theme) that must be completed and turned in.

Pass the examination

At the end of the course, there will be an on-line examination. A passing grade of 80% must be obtained.

Please note that the course is a full one-semester course which is expected to require approximately 125-150 hours of work by each student. In addition to the Certificate of Completion, you may be able to receive credit for the course at your educational institution. However, this depends entirely upon your institution. If you are interested in applying for credit, we suggest that you supply your institution with the Learning Objectives, the Requirements for Certificate as well as your Certificate, once you have completed the course.
History of WWC

The World Water Camp began during the Corona pandemic. The original idea was to carry out a tailored, physical water camp for students in connection with the 2020 IWA International Congress and Exhibition which was to be held in Copenhagen, a kind of “conference within a conference”. The Corona pandemic, however, first delayed the IWA conference in Copenhagen and subsequently forced the format to change to a virtual platform. Therefore, the first World Water Camp was held in 2021 as a purely digital event.

The following year, the IWA Conference was held as a physical event in Copenhagen, with about 9,000 participants.

The World Water Camp was present in a physical format with students from around the globe for a very exciting and full week of breakfast lectures, daily tasks, conference participation, field trips and social events.

You are currently invited to register for the Digital World Water Camp for the spring semester of 2024. As before, this course will include 14 weekly live classes (virtual) as well as loads of asynchronous material to be carried out at your own pace. More information about this course is found on these pages.

For your information, a physical World Water Camp will be held in connection with the next IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition to be held in August 2024 in Toronto, Canada. If you are interested in this extraordinary experience, the physical Camp requires separate application to the team in Canada for the limited number of seats. However, if you first successfully complete the digital World Water Camp and receive the certificate, your chances for being selected for the physical camp will increase.
Digital WWC sponsors

We are pleased that the Digital World Water Camp 2024 will again be sponsored. This allows us to offer the Camp at a fraction of the cost that would otherwise be necessary.

Torben Lund Skovhus is Docent and Project manager at VIA University College in Research Center for Built Environment, Climate, Water Technology and Digitalisation. Torben work as a specialist in industrial microbiology, applied biotechnology, corrosion management, biocorrosion, water treatment and safety. He is project manager for the digital world water camp and takes care of the contact with the project’s sponsors.

Our sponsors are as follows.

The Grundfos Foundation

The Grundfos Foundation is a Danish commercial foundation, created by Grundfos’ founder, Poul Due Jensen, in 1975. The foundation’s philanthropic activities are divided into three strategic areas: Water, Research, and Inclusion.

DWF – Danish Water Forum

WF is a network organisation that works to promote cooperation and knowledge sharing in the water sector. Activities aim at spreading information about Danish water technologies and expertise globally.

IWA – International Water Association

The IWA Denmark National Committee with its 50+ members was the official organizer of the IWA World Water Congress and Exhibition in Copenhagen, and it continues to organize other events.

Clean

Clean is The Danish Water and Environment Cluster and our vision is for Danish companies to be world leaders in the water and environment sector.

We are a private-public company co-financed by the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, the Danish Business Promotion Agency and the European Union. Through projects, innovation and strong partnerships, we work with Danish water and environmental technology companies.

We connect companies, utilities, knowledge institutions and the public sector to market-driven green innovation in Denmark and abroad.
Contact

If you have any questions about the camp, please contact Loren Ramsay, lora@via.dk