Water Resources Graduate Program

I’m Christina Welch, a master’s candidate for the Water Cooperation and Diplomacy joint degree program. I’ve spent the past year studying not only the physical aspects of water, hydrology and technical management, but also the social aspects including water governance, international water law, conflict resolution, negotiation, macroeconomics, stakeholder dynamics and third party mediation in Costa Rica at the University for Peace and UNESCO-IHE in the Netherlands.  The third part of this joint program is housed at OSU, where I am currently developing my thesis under the supervision of Dr. Aaron Wolf on adaptive management of transboundary aquifers. I am intrigued by the importance of sustainable groundwater management on the international scale. Before coming to OSU, I graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science with a specialization in marine ecology from the University of West Florida. The years in between I gained work experience as a consultant using remotes sensing to map invasive species and water quality gradients in Virginia and Colorado.