Background
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education is working with the International Water Management
Institute (IWMI), the Hydraulics Research Centre (Sudan), the Gender Centre for Training and
Research (Sudan), American University in Cairo (Egypt) and the Amhara Bureau of Agriculture in
(Ethiopia) to develop a methodology for Inclusive Water Accounting (IWA) in its "Accounting for Nile
Waters project".
In evaluation of existing irrigation projects or justification of new irrigation projects, remote sensing images which visualize water/yield distributions are often assumed to speak for themselves. These images say nothing about the how the water/yield distributions visualised comes into being or what the distributions mean to different stakeholders however.
This project aims to foreground different perspectives - of investors, farmers, policy makers - men, women -land owners, wage laborers etc. - on irrigation investments which often remain hidden from view. We do this through linking innovative remote sensing-based Water Accounting tools to ethnographic work on changing livelihoods, income opportunities and ecosystems in three case studies of large scale irrigation investments in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.
For linking and communicating (conceptually and in concrete terms) the different types of data gathered we are looking for creative students who would like to contribute to designing and implementing a web-based platform for Inclusive Water Accounting. Through the platform we aim to further the Inclusive Water Accounting methodology and debates on irrigation investments with water/development practitioners and water students worldwide.
The challenge (both theoretically and practically)
How can we meaningfully present together and link data, perspectives and visualisations on water and water productivity which at first sight seem incommensurable, such as water productivity maps based on satellite images with life stories, pictures and audio by farmers whose lives have been profoundly transformed by the large scale irrigation scheme?
Who we are looking for
Creative students which would like to take up the above described theoretical and technical challenges for their internship/ thesis and are available for at least 3 months in the February - August
2016 period. Specifically we are looking for:
- a web graphic /industrial design student who will develop the graphics and layout/ interface for communicating seemingly incommensurable data across multiple scales on the platform
- a more IT oriented interface designer/web engineer, to set up the IT heart of the platform
- a visual studies/digital culture student interested in thinking about communicating and visualizing water information for 'better' irrigation investments.
- a geo-sciences student who will focus on analysis, management and visualisation of geographic data
What we offer
- Experience in an international and multidisciplinary working environment and project environment in which we work on a new methodology aiming to contribute to better investments in irrigation
- Co-supervision with expertise on water visualization and water governance.
- Reimbursement of travel costs.
Contact
Ask further information and send your CV and a brief motivation email (
) to Emanuele Fantini
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
Integrated Water Systems and Governance Department
+ 31152151783, + 31 6 49529828, e.fantini@unesco-ihe.org