Skip to main content
"By creating we think, by living we learn" Patrick Geddes
Main University menu
 

Templates Top-Level Menu

Research Subject Areas

The three research areas of the IHP-HELP Centre are as follows: Water Law, Policy, and Science; see our uploaded publications

Our research areas map those of our teaching, which our research is instrumental in supporting.  Our research areas are mutually supporting: our science provides a sound empirical framework for legal research work of the Centre; International Water Law sets the context for permissible National Water Law - practical research tools developed by the Centre, in particular the Legal Assessment Model, allow practitioners to put this theory into practice; and research into the Legal Regulation of Water Services combines consideration of national parameters (i.e. government regulation) and multi-national water service providers. 

The combination of law and science is in fact often achieved here through our focus on Policy issues, an approach that offers our researchers the chance to consider both societal constraints (through, for example, law and economics) and those of the human and natural world.

pat 2 flags in background Professor Dr Patricia Wouters (right), the Director of the IHP-HELP Centre, personally leads the research work. In May 2011,was named as the Distinguished Scholar by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for the July 2011 IUCN Academy of Environmental Law  Colloquium "Water and Law: Towards Sustainability" ; read the full story.

Featured Research from our Network (FRETWORK)

Magazine-style research content from the IHP-HELP Centre and its wider network:


Integrated Water Resources Management

The Centre undertakes a wide range of interdisciplinary research  in line with Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principle. The above example shows our interdisciplinary approach in practice.  Please see our IWRM list of full text publications for download.

Further examples of our Research

researchers groupAn excellent interdisciplinary example of our research is the Special Issue of the Journal of Water Law (vol 20 issue 2/3), guest edited by IHP-HELP Centre staff Dr Sarah Hendry and Professor Patricia Wouters.

The issue includes International Water Law articles by three of our PhD Researchers, one alumna and by the Centre Director; National Water Law articles by four of our PhD Researchers; and an article entitled Bridging the Water Law, Policy, Science interface, Scots flood risk management (full text) written by three University of Dundee academics including Professor Chris J Spray MBE.  

Showcasing (left) the Special Issue of the Journal of Water Law outside the IHP-HELP Centre during the International Water Law Symposium 2010. 

The group picutre (right) shows, from left: