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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Climate Change and Water in Mountains: A Global Concern by University of Geneva

4.7
stars
293 ratings

About the Course

What is climate change ? How are mountain regions affected by the evolution of water resources and their uses ? What kind of risks need to be considered ? Mountains are recognized as particularly sensitive physical environments where intense and rapid changes have in the past, and may increasingly in the future, place pressure on their resource base. In this context, a team of roughly 100 experts worked from 2008 to 2013 for the European ACQWA project (www.acqwa.ch) which was coordinated by the University of Geneva. The primary objectives of the project were to assess the impacts of a changing climate on the quantity and quality of water originating in mountain regions, particularly where snow- and ice melt represent a large, sometimes the largest, streamflow component. A further objective of the project was to determine the potential disruptions to water-dependent economic activities related to the climate impacts on hydrological systems, and to propose a portfolio of possible adaptation strategies. This particular MOOC is inspired by the ACQWA Project and offers a better understanding of climate change, its impacts on the quality and quantity of water in mountain regions and the risks related to changing water resources. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the participation of twenty-five instructors from five different countries (Switzerland, England, South Korea, India and Nepal) and fourteen institutions (UNIGE, RTS, UNIFR, UZH, ETHZ, Meteodat GmbH, WGMS, Imperial College London, Agroscope, République et Canton de Genève, Yonsei University, IHCAP, ICIMOD, SDC, FOEN) highlights the diversity of both theoretical and practical viewpoints related to these issues. By the end of this course, you will be able : - to define the general concept of climate change in mountain regions - to understand the concepts associated with climate change such as adaptation and water governance strategies - to consider the impacts of climate change on water resources in mountain regions - to identify the impacts of climate change on hydropower, agriculture, aquatic ecosystems and health - to enumerate risks that can occur in mountain areas and lead to disruptions in water availability and use. Your acquired knowledge will be evaluated through multiple-choice quizzes at the end of each unit of the course. This MOOC on “Climate Change and Water in Mountain Regions : A Global Concern” was initiated and financed by the University of Geneva, through its Institute for Environmental Sciences. We look forward to you joining us !...

Top reviews

RD

Nov 11, 2020

It was a wonderful learning experience but it would be more helpful for people like us if the course is free and if we could download course certificate for free upon completion.

PD

Jul 28, 2020

This was excellent course which benefited lot to me.I grateful to suresh Gyan Vihar University and University of Geneva for providing such wonderful platform.

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51 - 69 of 69 Reviews for Climate Change and Water in Mountains: A Global Concern

By Кузнецов Н Р

Jun 29, 2020

noice

By 339_SHRUTI S

Dec 3, 2022

good

By Malshi O G

Oct 13, 2019

good

By H. G D M

Jun 7, 2020

T

By zoeluca

Feb 9, 2021

Thank you for this course, it is very useful for understanding the risks of climate change, the risk management and the vulnerability of the mountain systems and water ecosystems. At times, it's difficult to understand the English of the presenters, but this is also understandable as they are not native speakers but teachers and researchers with a lot of expertise. I believe the course could be better structured as the chapters didn't always seem to be connected, or some of them had very similar/repeated information. I suggest to include some practical exercises every week, so the students can practice the newly learned methods and info. Also, many of the slides have too much info on one page, which is not always fully visible and the speaker is not talking about it. So these slides are very heavy and give the student the impression that h/she doesn't really understand. An example would be the Korean case study. The links to the readings (4.11, 4.12 and 4,13) are now working. Also, the quality of the audio of the call between Prof. J. Balsiger and Dr. Ingold on social network analysis is very low and cannot really be properly understood. I am grateful for the opportunity to take this course for free and I thank everyone who got involved. The course has opened a whole new world for me and I am very interested in this field, I will try to focus more on climate change in my professional life.

By Dr. S M H S

Jun 15, 2020

Climate change will likely modify seasonal and overall water availability and, as a result, there will be increased competition for water. Climate change in the mountain regions studied in this course are leading to modifications in quantity and timing of water resources that have potentially significant ramifications for water governance and management. The investigations on the future changes in both precipitation and temperature extremes showed that the changes might be different in sign and magnitude at different temporal scales. Awareness of this problem is increasing, hopefully this new momentum will be sustained over time. Indeed, it was great course to learn and it will surely benefit the water mangers to cope with such challenges.

By Sergiu M

Jul 13, 2018

This MOOC is a must to accomplish in order to better grasp the findings related to the climate change influence on the Earth system on a regional scale as acknowledged by the Swiss scientific community. It provides a broad and "palpable" proof on how are vital ecosystems and its components such as water (glaciers, lakes and rivers), living organisms and plants affected. Highly recommended for those who seem lost with popularizing the scientific literature with respect to Climate Shifting.

By Alin-Gabriel D

Aug 18, 2019

Things that are good : It's a good overview of mechanism of climate and environmental changes that have occurred and predictions.

I would say that I see the world different now especially if I were to go for a hike as I'm going to search for all the indicators that have been mentioned in this course.

I think it's important for all of us to know our role in the ecosystem to understand the consequences of our actions in the long term, for the generations to come.

By Susnata R

May 12, 2020

Very useful course to understand the climate change scenario on mountainous region. the groundwater recharge process, hazards related to climate change, glaciology etc. are very nicely described.

Thank you

By Carlos B G

Nov 14, 2022

Good course . Some of the lectures are a bit tedious, but good in general. Because of the nature of the subject some content it is a bit outdated.

By Kathryn K

Nov 30, 2018

Overall interesting content. The english of the presenters is often difficult to understand, and the subtitles are sometimes incorrect.

By Felicia W

Apr 11, 2020

Some videos were difficult to understand due to accent and the text was not transcripted properly

By Timothy E P

Jan 2, 2019

A very interesting and topical course

By Richard K

Feb 12, 2019

interesting course and very relevant

By Joseph A

Apr 30, 2022

Nice Course

By SNEKHA

Apr 2, 2019

good

By CRISTIAN A U R

Oct 28, 2020

Some interesting topics are covered, however, the structure of the course didn't convince me. There are a lot of mini lectures, given by different instructors with varying degrees of quality, and what I noticed is that the course didn't have a defined common thread. Many of the lecturers have a rather poor pronunciation, which makes it difficult to follow properly the topics. However, some theoretical aspects about the physical mechanisms of climate change, climate change modeling and the impacts of that change on glaciers and montainous areas in general are useful.

By Catherin T

Dec 8, 2020

I liked the content and structure of the course, the cons for me was the english of some of the lecturers.

By Joy S

Jul 9, 2018

Some good info. Issues were foreign accents, Poor video quality in next-to-last week, hard tests