The Water Informatics in Science and Engineering (WISE) Centre for Doctoral Training

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 2721–2738, 2021 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-2721-2021 © Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Hydroinformatics education – the Water Informatics in Science and Engineering (WISE) Centre for Doctoral Training Thorsten Wagener1,2,9, Dragan Savic3,4, David Butler4, Reza Ahmadian5, Tom Arnot6, Jonathan Dawes7, Slobodan Djordjevic4, Roger Falconer5, Raziyeh Farmani4, Debbie Ford4, Jan Hofman3,6, Zoran Kapelan4,8, Shunqi Pan5, and Ross Woods1,2 1Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK 2Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK 3KWR Water Research Institute, Nieuwegein, the Netherlands 4Centre for Water Systems, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK 5Hydro-environmental Research Centre, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK 6Water Innovation and Research Centre, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, UK 7Institute for Mathematical Innovation and Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK 8Department of Water Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands 9Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Correspondence: Thorsten Wagener ([email protected]) Received: 15 September 2020 – Discussion started: 5 October 2020 Revised: 17 April 2021 – Accepted: 23 April 2021 – Published: 20 May 2021 Abstract. The Water Informatics in Science and Engineer- 1 Introduction ing Centre for Doctoral Training (WISE CDT) offers a postgraduate programme that fosters enhanced levels of innovation and collaboration by training a cohort of engineers and The global water cycle consists of a complex web of interact- scientists at the boundary of water informatics, science and ing physical, biogeochemical, ecological and human systems engineering. The WISE CDT was established in 2014 with (Gleeson et al., 2020). Management of this complex cycle funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Re- has been practised for decades, but new challenges lie ahead search Council (EPSRC) amongst the universities of Bath, due to climate change, growing population pressure, increas- Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter. The WISE CDT will ultimately ing urbanisation and other human-caused environmental dis- graduate over 80 PhD candidates trained in a non-traditional turbances. These challenges can only be addressed through 4-year UK doctoral programme that integrates teaching and fundamental changes in how we interact with our environ- research elements in close collaboration with a range of in- ment, both in perspective and in practice. The recent fo- dustrial partners. WISE focuses on cohort-based education cus on the role of water security in addressing ecosystem and equips the PhD candidates with a wide range of skills de- services and sustainability has further emphasised the need veloped through workshops and other activities to maximise for new approaches to achieve this dual goal (UNEP, 2009, candidate abilities and experiences. We discuss the need for, 2011, 2017). In the UK, the government’s 25-year Environ- the structure and results of the WISE CDT, which has been ment Plan (2018) clearly signals the importance and value ongoing from 2013–2022 (final year of graduation). We con- of the environment, including “reducing our carbon emis- clude with lessons learned and an outlook for PhD training, sions and building resilience against the extreme weather as- based on our experience with this programme. sociated with climate change.” Infrastructure is considered equally important as evidenced by the UK National Infras- tructure Assessment (2018), which regards water and waste infrastructure as being essential for health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and economic stability, and which Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 2722 T. Wagener et al.: Hydroinformatics education – the WISE Centre for Doctoral Training points to investment of GBP 44 billion in the water sector. et al., 2020). Process-based models – increasingly with un- At the European level, the EC sponsored ICT4Water cluster precedented resolutions – will also demand better computa- has published its Digital Single Market for Water Services tional skills of their users to utilise them effectively and thus Action Plan (2018). Supporting these efforts in turn requires influence training and education (Hut et al., 2017). new, whole-system, multi-faceted, data-intensive, interdisci- In its 2030 vision document The Value of Water, Water plinary approaches to research, training and innovation – ap- Europe, as the recognised stakeholder platform of the Euro- proaches which take advantage of the information explosion pean water sector, promotes a future-proof European model and leading-edge technologies of the 21st century (Blöschl et for a water-smart society that requires a paradigm shift in al., 2012; Ceola et al., 2015; Habib et al., 2012; Jonker et al., how water is managed (Water Europe, 2020). Bluefield Re- 2012; King et al., 2012; Montanari et al., 2013; Ruddell and search assessed that the smart water sector in Europe and Wagener, 2013; Seibert et al., 2013; Thompson et al., 2012; the USA is increasing rapidly, estimating that by 2025 it will Wagener et al., 2010, 2012). be worth USD 11 billion and USD 12 billion respectively. A As the capabilities of digital devices soar and their prices total of 61 % of companies offering digital water solutions plummet, sensors are providing greater amounts of infor- in the US market have been founded since the year 2000 mation than ever, at lower costs and with greater reliabil- (Smart Water Magazine, 2020). The need for this shift, and ity than previously possible (Mao et al., 2018). Opportuni- the tremendous market opportunity it brings, is set against the ties for real-time monitoring and management are increas- backdrop of widespread concern for the future of the water ing dramatically; so is access to far more powerful infor- sector and its workforce, as for example reported for the UK mation and communication technology (ICT) tools and de- in a recent employer survey (CIWEM, 2016). The survey vices (ICT4Water cluster, 2018). These tools enable “peo- found that 81 % of employers saw increased staff turnover ple as sensors” (crowdsourcing, citizen science), bringing to- and 70 % said that skill shortages had reduced their capacity gether the skills of humans to observe and interpret with the to deliver projects. Hence the requirement for hybrid skills interconnection of the Internet to enable new types of infor- and expertise in water and informatics will grow with the mation to be crowdsourced (Seibert et al., 2019). Combin- need for increasingly intelligent systems. New water indus- ing these trends provides opportunities to address both old try roles such as digital e-service delivery, smart water net- and new problems in innovative ways to meet emerging chal- works and big data analytics are misaligned with established lenges around the water cycle. Globally, it is estimated that single-discipline postgraduate programmes and require new savings of USD 7.1 billion to 12.5 billion per annum (SEN- hybrid skill sets not normally taught as a package. SUS, 2012) may be realised through the adoption of smart For society to take full advantage of leading-edge tech- water technologies to minimise operational inefficiencies and nologies we need to provide training for hydroinformati- to maximise the effectiveness of capital and operational ex- cians, i.e. scientists and engineers capable of working at the penditure. interface of traditionally separate disciplines of informatics, Management of the water cycle, a system characterised science, and engineering to manage information and water by inherent complexity, heterogeneity and uncertainty (not cycles effectively (Fig. 1) (Popescu et al., 2012; Merwade least because of linked social, natural and engineered sys- and Ruddell, 2012; Makropoulos and Savic,´ 2019). Reports tems), has already gained from advances in computing, ICT by the Council for Science and Technology (CST, 2009), the and hydroinformatics resulting in new technologies deployed UK Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE, 2012), and the in engineering practice (Romano et al., 2014). The increas- UK Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE, 2012) have high- ing non-stationarity of the global climate system, and the lighted a particular shortage of engineers and scientists in subsequent implications for the terrestrial water cycle, will industries of national importance for the UK, such as en- significantly change how we approach the problem of long- ergy, water, sanitation, communications and IT systems. In term planning and of estimating hydrologic design vari- response to the projected skill shortage in the IT sector in Eu- ables (Brown et al., 2015; Milly et al., 2008; Sivapalan and rope, the European Commission has launched a grand coali- Blöschl, 2015). So, while new data become available as men- tion to tackle this shortage (CEDEFOP, 2018). It is difficult tioned above, historical data will lose some of their value for to see how the need for skilled engineers working at the in- long-term analysis, e.g. if catchments have undergone signif- terface of IT with water science and engineering can be met icant land use change, experience more extreme rainfalls than by IT graduates alone –

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