EVEN Professor Karl Linden successfully lead a new study abroad course located in Chile.
In collaboration with EDC alumni and Universidad Diego Portales faculty member Jeff Walters, Dr. Karl Linden led a course on Sustainable Potable Water Supply Systems in Santiago, Chile (CVEN 4834) in May 2017. Nine students enrolled in the three-week long course that engaged students in classroom lectures, research data collection, and cultural field trips.
This course offered an intensive introduction to sustainable rural water service development, with real-world application to water supply systems in rural Chile. Class sessions covered theory and best practices regarding water quality regulations, source water management, and water distribution and treatment. This seminar type course with instructor and occasional guest lectures was largely comprised of student-led discussions, and project assignments, facilitated by the instructors.
An important component of this course took place outside of the classroom – where students participated in a short community-level case study research project outside of Santiago, Chile. In these case studies, student teams saw water treatment implementations first hand and investigated and critically analyzed aspects that influence long-term water service functionality for their community context. As such, this course not only provided students with a solid background for potable rural water supply in a developing country context, but also gave students the chance to develop and execute a small-scale research project.