Programme

Our International Master!

The Darmstadt Master of Science programme “Tropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering” (TropHEE) aims at combining a comprehensive understanding of geoscientific fundamentals with a specific focus on issues of application that are essential in hydrogeology and environmental management. In particular, TropHEE concentrates on methods and modern techniques, enabling the participants to find ways for a sustainable development of tropical and subtropical countries from a geoscientific point of view. Thus, TropHEE offers a comprehensive, research-oriented education in Hydrogeology as well as Environmental Geosciences and Engineering.

General Information

Environmental sustainability

In the areas of environment and development, sustainability is of vital importance. Introduced in forestry as early as the 18th century, the term sustainability has been defined in more recent times in the UN report “Our Common Future” (1987; also known as the Brundtland Report) as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. In other words, a fair sharing of the resources by the present generation and generations to come must be attained.

Water is an essential resource for mankind and nature. One of the specific targets of Goal 7 “Ensuring Environmental Sustainability” of the UN's Millennium Development Goals has been to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”. While this target had been achieved on global scale already in 2010, water supply and water management tasks will be aggravated in the future by climate-change-induced processes, most notably in regions of natural water scarcity, i.e. arid and semi-arid regions.

Many of the most urgent problems in the field of water and energy supply and environmental protection are related to geoscientific issues and require a sound knowledge of the foundation of our material existence: the underground and its special features and processes. Geoscientists investigate the potentials of the subsurface in order to e.g. find fossil fuels, metals and raw materials, exploit groundwater and describe the capacities of different soils and their vulnerabilities, assess land use and planning decisions, etc. Thus geoscientists have the necessary knowledge to balance the challenge of economic growth against ecological needs and social goals.

The Darmstadt Master's Programme “Tropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering” (TropHEE) aims at combining a comprehensive understanding of geoscientific fundamentals with engineering solutions that are essential in hydrogeology and environmental management. In particular, TropHEE concentrates on methods and modern techniques enabling the participants to find ways for a sustainable development of tropical and subtropical countries from a geoscientific point of view. In the broader framework of international development cooperation, TropHEE offers a comprehensive, research-oriented education in Hydrogeology and Environmental Geosciences and Engineering on master's level.

TropHEE started in 2006 under the name “Tropical Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Environmental Management”, after finishing its first accreditation process, and became the first international master's programme at TU Darmstadt with English as language of instruction. With its re-accreditation in 2012, the profile of the course has been stronger focused on water and environmental issues, while omitting strictly engineering-geology-focused issues from the syllabus. In 2021, further development of the programme leads to a stronger engineering component, due to the increased cooperation of the TU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering within the programme.

The students of TropHEE gain a broad assortment of fundamental knowledge and an excellent theoretical and applied knowledge in the fields of hydrogeology, water management, and environmental engineering. Their scientific competence will be complemented by their competence of methods as well as their understanding of systems.

Holding an M.Sc. from the TropHEE course, the graduate

  • developed awareness of the geoscientific problems of his/her home country,
  • comprehends the complexity of problems and tasks in the field of activity,
  • is able to familiarize himself/herself with new methods in the same field or a new field of activity independently,
  • earned to act in a creative and constructive manner to understand and develop new knowledge, methods and solutions,
  • obtained competence of designing and grading open questions as well as the competence of recognizing structures and patterns,
  • bears in mind the consequences of actions and decisions in the light of globalization and internationalization and the potential impact on technical, socio-economic and ecologic developments,
  • works interdisciplinarily and internationally and goes beyond professional, administrative and political limits if necessary,
  • balances various solutions and discusses decisions using facts and comprehensible arguments.

Research fields for TropHEE graduates

The following professional areas and fields of research are open to the graduate:

  • Research in the field of transport and fate of contaminants.
  • Research and development in the field of sustainable groundwater protection.
  • Planning, design and implementation of groundwater protection areas and catchment areas as well as catchment management.
  • Behavior of contaminants in water and soil.
  • Research in the field of soil erosion and protection.
  • Planning, design and implementation of soil protection measures and measures to avert soil erosion.
  • Consulting in the fields of water management.