Course Syllabus

Instructor
Bernard Amadei Ph.D., NAE 
Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering
E-mail: amadei@colorado.edu; Tel: 303-929-8167 (cell)

Course Description

Water, energy, land, and food (WELF) are necessary for sustainable community development. In the coming decades, global population, urbanization, and economic growth will sharply increase demand for these resources and related services, such as health, transport, waste management, and communication. The discussion on how to address the four WELF sectors and ensure their respective security has changed over time. The traditional approach has been to examine all four sectors in isolation, regardless of whether one is interested in supply and demand, infrastructure planning and design, resource management and allocation, and/or governance. Since 2011, however, there has been a new emphasis on understanding the interdependency of the four sectors through the so-called WELF nexus. 

To the four sectors, one could add X components, including health, land and soils, ecosystems, climate, transportation, waste disposal, communication, state security, human rights, labor, trade, and many other sectors. This course explores the WELF-Health, Education, and Governance Nexus (Nexus+). It presents a flexible, adaptive system-based methodology and associated guidelines to address the dynamics of the Nexus+ and inform District Development Plans (DDPs)at the community level in Uganda. 

The proposed methodology is intended to guide decision-makers in selecting intervention strategies for managing and allocating WELF-X resources within the broader context of human development and security. The methodology focuses primarily on WELF-X-related issues in small-scale communities where resources are limited and securing them is critical to their short- and long-term livelihoods and development.

Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants should have attained competency in the following areas:

  • participatory decision-making between many parties
  • creation and administration of a community needs assessment
  • creating and analyzing multiple design alternatives
  • determining appropriate technology choices based on the existing knowledge within a partner community
  • determining metrics for project design
  • determining metrics for project success vs. failure
  • understanding of general construction and safety practices within the partner community
  • objective monitoring and evaluation of a built system
  • creation of long-term communication strategies between in-country partners, partner communities, and project teams 

Class Hours: 

Software:

You are asked to purchase the student version of the STELLA Architect software (version 3.7.3) from  https://www.iseesystems.com/store/education.aspx. Several student licenses are available. Select the one that fits your needs.