2011 Program: Watershed Management in the face of EPA's New Numeric Nutrient Criteria for Florida Waters
The goal for the inaugural Water Institute Graduate Fellows cohort is develop the new knowledge, and creative engineering, management and policy solutions needed to establish and achieve numeric nutrient criteria (NNC) for Florida’s waters. The education and research of each Fellow evolves from specific problems and research questions related to management of Florida’s water and watersheds under NNC. The unique cross-disciplinary environment of our program allows an integrated whole that reflects disciplinary facets associated with this complex problem. Current components include Paleolimnology, Nutrient Best Management Practices, Hydrologic Processes, Riverine Nutrient Processing, Ecologic Consequences of Nutrient Enrichment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy and Governance and Systems Modeling. Elements of the program include:
Education - We cultivate an educational experience to complement the disciplinary focus of each student’s research. The educational experience blends experiential learning, academic course work, research, training and service. Each student is required to take a set of interdisciplinary core courses. A special seminar, involving both faculty and students, focuses on social, ethical and scientific domains as they relate to the program’s focus.
Research – Each Fellow has a disciplinary home and will craft a dissertation around a topic and disciplinary facet of interest to them while contributing to the team’s overall research theme of watershed management and policy in the face of Numeric Nutrient Criteria. Research will be conducted in an intellectual environment of shared learning that fosters integrative thinking and cross-training in engineering and the biophysical and social sciences. Each participating faculty and fellow bring her/his disciplinary expertise to the team and are fully committed to developing an integrative, cross-disciplinary approach to problem solving and management.
Service - We foster ethical responsibility and civic involvement through core coursework and the special seminar. Undergraduate students will be involved in classes, research and field activities under the mentorship of Fellows. Fellows engage in outreach activities as part of the Water Institute’s Programs and Symposia.
Click here for archived 2011 Application Procedures
