WHLab
Water Harvesting Lab
International Online Course on Water Harvesting in Sub-Saharan Africa
The 2025-2026 edition of the online course of the Water Harvesting Lab will be on “Water Harvesting in Sub-Saharan Africa”
The call for applications is open!
Credits “Planting trees to combat desertification with water harvesting ditch ('half-moon'), Dori, Burkina Faso” by Water Alternatives Photos, CC BY-NC 2.0"
Focus and objectives of the training course
The online professional training course will explore Water Harvesting for climate-resilient water management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a strategic geographical focus. Water Harvesting structures are widely used in different parts of the world, from South America to Europe and East Asia, and particularly in Africa. Even if their adoption is widespread, multiple challenges are still to be solved, such as the best siting of new structures, their socio-economic sustainability, the design, the maintenance activities to guarantee an efficient functioning and the possible impacts at watershed level.
The course will support prospective students with general information on the socio-ecological settings of SSA and on Water Harvesting technologies, and will develop specific skills on best siting, designing, project management, and monitoring of such structures.
Upon completion, the participant will be able to:
- Understanding the specific features of agricultural systems, and water- and food-security related dynamics in SSA
- Assessing the hydrological functioning of different Water Harvesting structures and the basic principles of their design
- Choosing the best technologies for each context and performing a site suitability analysis
- Developing adequate design, project management and maintenance planning
- Understanding the social dynamics related to the development of new water harvesting structures
The course will feature guest lecturers from SSA Universities linked to the University of Florence with an International Agreement, as well as international research and development organisations.
Course modalities and price:
The course is entirely online, in English and will be organized over four modules. All the lessons will be streamed live and recorded for the students who cannot attend.
The cost for enrolment is 150 Euros, plus 16 Euros of fees (some free places are available, read below).
Free places are available* for
- Phd Students at the University of Florence (3)
- Research and teaching staff and fellows from the departments that approved the course (3)
- Students at the University of Florence (6)
- Candidates from water-scarce, resource-limited countries (10)
* all candidates will have to pay the 16 Euros of fees. Only Candidates from water-scarce resource-limited countries will also have a waiver for the fees.
In case of a number of applicants for the free places higher than the availability, a ranking based on the country, age, and the CVs will be made. If you are applying for one of the free places, please attach a CV in the application process.
Important note: the course will not be activated if five students paying the full regular fee of the course will not be reached.
Dates and deadline for application.
The deadline for application is 05/06/2026. It is crucial that you start the application process well in advance. It takes time and you may encounter issues, especially if you have not enrolled at Unifi before.
The course will start on 29/06/2026 and end by 30/09/2026. Each of the 4 modules lasts 2 weeks. A calendar of the modules will be published on this page shortly.
Application process:
The application process consists of two consecutive steps. Here are the links to access each of them: Advanced training, vocational training and continuing education courses | Università di Firenze
The first step consists of the registration to the University of Florence (UNIFI) and it only applies to prospective students that have never been enrolled at UNIFI.
The second step consists of the enrolment to the advanced training course “Water Harvesting in Sub-Saharan Africa (DAGRI)”, and it applies to everyone. You need to have completed step 1 (if it applies to you) before you can do Step 2. When enrolling to the specific course you will need to select the course "Water Harvesting in Sub Saharan Africa" from the list of possible courses. If you are applying for one of the free places, please attach a CV.
For more information on the course:
Enrico Lucca enrico.lucca@unifi.it AND copy in cc "giulio.castelli@unifi.it"
For technical questions regarding the application portal: perfezionamenti@adm.unifi.it