Curriculum development of a social hydrology course based on a blended learning approach

Water is a vital source of life on this planet. Understanding the interaction of water with society is vital for achieving sustainable water resources development. Many water engineering projects worldwide have provided significant benefits to the community; however, there are examples where ill-planned water projects have undermined the environment and have affected the community adversely due to an inadequate understanding of the interaction of water with the environment and society. This chapter presents an overview of hydrology courses in Australian universities. It has been found that most hydrology courses in Australia are biased towards mathematical computation, and little focus is placed on the interdisciplinary nature and social aspects of hydrology. A new hydrology course is proposed in this chapter to overcome some limitations of the current hydrology courses in Australia. The proposed course focuses on the interdisciplinary nature of hydrology, including its social aspects, in addition to mathematical aspects. It is proposed to initiate a forum of hydrology academics in Australia to design a hydrology course that can meet the need of water users, water industry and research sectors, as well as the need of the society as a whole. A blended learning approach is proposed to design such a hydrology course by developing and sharing resources among various disciplines across different institutions.