Name: Irene Poortinga
Title of Master thesis: Flood risk communication that meets the interest of the public
Date of graduation: 31 of August 2009
Current job: Junior advisor on water issues in the Netherlands at HydroLogic (consultancy in Amersfoort)

The study TWM came to my attention when I was looking for a Master which included both the social and the technical aspects of water management. This study is unique in the fact that you learn about managing transnational waters/rivers on an interdisciplinary way. The central theme of the study is the Water Framework Directive, a very important European policy nowadays. The main issue in the Directive is reaching good water quality (including ecological high standards). The different courses of the study incorporate the required knowledge for the Directive. Therefore study is very up-to-date.

In the Netherlands (Nijmegen) the study mainly focuses on social aspects of water management. It is really interesting to learn how to make compromises when it comes to manage the water with a lot of actors in the field. In Germany (Essen) the focus was more on the technical aspect. Although it was not as technical as I expected, I still learned some basic knowledge on dike constructions and geohydrology.

Fresh water will become a main topic in the next centuries to come. This makes the study very useful, up-to-date, interesting and exciting.