Activities

Activities of WENDI

  1. Establishment of comprehensive, interdisciplinary and systematic graduate educational programme in the target fields of water, energy and disaster management. The programme will be a new model of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) provided in Kyoto University.
  2. Identifying courses provided by participating graduate schools and departments to develop certification programmes in water environment, disaster and energy. The completion of the programmes by graduate students or course participants will lead to certifications by the UNESCO Chair.
  3. The Chair will promote integrated research in the field of water-related disaster risk reduction, water resources management, water quality management, energy management, food science, forestry and biodiversity, climate change, and data sciences. The new scientific knowledge obtained will be shared in the education and training programmes including hands-on training in science-based decision-making.
  4. The Chair will enhance the networking among participating institutes, schools, departments, researchers, students and national and international organizations such as ministries of Japanese governments and UNESCO, FAO, UNISDR, UNU and WMO. It also connects participants with other universities and their research institutes such as Nagoya University, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RINH), ICHARM as well as various international organizations or programmes such as IFI, IIWQ, ICL, and GADRI.
  5. The Chair will develop digital educational materials such as OCW and MOOCs. The materials will particularly benefit practitioners in the field in developing countries. The materials are developed through regular training courses starting from the water and environmental fields but cover disaster and energy fields in broader perspectives.
  6. The Chair will organize stakeholder workshops to promote an integrated approach to science and policy making. Previous symposia hosted by Kyoto University include UNESCO International Symposium on Scientific, Technological and Policy Innovations for Improved Water Quality Monitoring in the Post-2015 SDGs Framework in Kyoto in July 2015, and UNESCO-JASTIP Joint Symposium on Intra-Regional Water Security and Disaster Management in the Philippines in November 2017.