The implementation of the WFD requirements entails facing important scientific and technological challenges in the business and academic fields.

The mission of the Master’s Programme in Water Quality Techniques and Sciences (Master’s IDEA) of the University of Granada is to train professionals and scientific experts able to address these challenges.

The Master’s IDEA will allow the students to obtain: an integrated and substantiated vision of the current state of knowledge; access to methods, techniques, and advanced tools for the efficient implementation of the environmental policy proposed by the WFD; and ability to characterise, assess, and evaluate complex problems related to water masses quality and pollution in all types of water masses defined by the WFD, namely: lotic systems (rivers); lentic systems (lakes and reservoirs); transitional and coastal waters; and groundwaters.

The Master’s IDEA is a programme of 60 ECTS designed to be completed in one academic course. Its academic structure allows the students to choose between professional or research orientation. The students can choose one or the other, and one of three areas offered:

• Biomonitoring Techniques and Development of Strategies for Recovery of Aquatic Systems Under Stress (Area of Diagnosis)
• Water Technologies (Area of Treatment)
• Computer Techniques Applied to Water Quality (Area of Prediction)

• CB.6 - Possessing and understanding knowledge that can provide a base or opportunity to be original in the development and/or application of ideas in a research context.
• CB.7 - The students should know how to apply the acquired knowledge and their ability to resolve problems in new or little known environments within broader environments (or multidisciplinary) related to their areas of study.
• CB.8 - The students should be able to integrate knowledge and deal with the complexity of making judgements from information that, incomplete or limited, will include reflections on social and ethical responsibilities related to the application of their knowledge and judgments.
• CB.9 - The students should know how to communicate their conclusions, knowledge, and underlying reasons that support them to the specialised and non-specialised public in a clear and unambiguous manner.
• CB.10 - The students should possess learning skills which allow them to continue studying in a way that will be largely self-directed or autonomous.

• CG.1 - Ability to conduct multidisciplinary studies for the solution of complex problems and the implementation of detailed research programs in the scope of water quality, on the basis of knowledge, techniques, advanced tools, and scientific methods.
• CG.2 - Ability to lead and perform research projects, technical reports, and collaboration agreements in terms of characterisation of ecological and chemical status, pollution degree, and assessment of quality of different water masses defined by the WFD (lotic and lentic systems, transitional and coastal waters, groundwaters) from an interdisciplinary and integrated perspective.
• CG.3 - Ability to synthesise, develop, analyse, and present conclusions and results at the level of professional and/or scientific reports orally or written, in the scope of assessment, treatment, and prediction of water quality, taking into account environmental and socioeconomic assessments.
• CG.4 - Ability to identify, define, and formulate scientific and technical problems in the areas of diagnosis, treatment, and prediction of water quality.
• CG.5 - Ability to develop competitive proposals at national and international levels that can lead to funded technical or research projects in the areas of diagnosis, treatment, and prediction of water quality.

• CT.1 - Motivation for excellence and responsibility on the basis of ethical commitment and continuing improvement in their skills throughout the professional life.
• CT.2 - Ability for organisation and planning.
• CT.3 - Motivation for quality learning to obtain high-level training that will allow the resolution of complex problems using advanced scientific and technical methods.
• CT.4 - Leadership capacity.
• CT.5 - Creative capacity.
• CT.6 - Ability for teamwork.

• CE.1 - Knowledge about relevant physical, chemical, and biological processes for the characterisation of the ecological status of water masses.
• CE.2 - Ability to use mathematical, computer, and experimental tools to understand and describe quantitatively the movement of water, understood as a determining factor of the spatial-temporal variability of water quality in the hydrosphere.
• CE.3- To understand and describe the structure of biological communities that exist and develop in the waters, the factors that condition them, and identify groups of organisms that constitute these communities understanding their population dynamics and the factors that control them.
• CE.4- Ability to apply concepts and statistical tools in the analysis of information related to water quality and the ecological status of water masses.
• CE.5- To understand differential equations as tools that allow describing and characterising the spatial-temporal variability of physical, chemical, and biological variables related to the ecological status, quality, and treatment of water masses, and be able to find their solutions.
• CE.6- Ability to manage geographic information systems as tools for visualisation, integration, and analysis of spatial data, in tasks of characterisation, management, and prediction of water masses quality, their ecological status, and spatial variability.
• CE.7- Ability to analyse and interpret quality indicators of the following water masses: lotic systems and networks, lentic systems, transitional and coastal waters, and groundwaters.
• CE.8- Knowledge about the multiple current regulations for water quality and the ecological status of water masses, and ability to apply them with a holistic, integrated, and cross-sectional perspective.
• CE.9- Ability to assess ecosystem services associated with water masses.
• CE.10- Ability to identify, assess, and diagnose problems and deficiencies of the ecological status of the water masses, according to the latest requirements of the WFD. * CE.11- Ability to assess the socioeconomic cost resulting from the alteration or loss of quality of water masses and their ecological status, as well as the necessary restoration measures. * CE.12- Ability for spatial-temporal characterisation of physical, chemical and biological variables, and the most significant biotic and abiotic indicators for defining the ecological status of water masses. * CE.13**- Ability to develop, implement, and use techniques and advanced tools in an efficient manner for the characterisation, assessment, treatment, and prediction of the ecological status and degree of contamination of water masses.