Fresno State will be the first university in California to offer a professional science master’s degree in water resource management, if the program is approved for the Fall 2013 semester.

Peter Van de Water of the earth and environmental sciences department said this new professional science master’s (PSM) degree is targeted for working professionals who need to advance their education. The new degree requires students to already have a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) certificate or the equivalent work experience.

Completion of the PSM will take between two to 2 ½ years. There are already nearly 100 students on the waitlist for courses in the fall.

Van de Water said the program has already garnered praise. The program is structured so that people who work in the periphery of water management will be attracted to it.

“It is seen as something that is needed in the Valley,” Van de Water said.

The program is made up 10 courses: geospatial technologies, climatology, water economics, hydrological systems, natural and agriculture uses of water, urban and industrial water systems, water politics and policy, environmental policy for water management, an internship consisting of 150 hours and a report and a project class.

Each class explores important aspects of water management. The climatology class will teach how to obtain water for use on the continents; the hydrology class will demonstrate how to extract water from where it naturally occurs. The water economics class with put a price unit on the uses of water; and the water politics and policy class will focus specifically on water use in California and the western United States.

Van de Water said the Valley is facing a number of potential water problems in the future due to an increase in population and a corresponding increase in water use. The only source of water for the Valley is from the mountains, and climate change is making that source less reliable.

“In going forward, the only option is to be more efficient and smarter. We really need more education,” Van de Water said.

Most of the students who will participate in the program will already be working in a field that has a background in water at their jobsite. Van de Water said the program will be a tool to advance within their organization.

A push for this type of degree began under the direction of the former dean of the college of math and sciences, Andrew Rogerson. Rogerson ran a similar program from a university he formerly worked at in Florida. Since then, a movement at Fresno State for each college to have an online program began.

“This was our answer to that,” Van de Water said.

In 2008, there was a call for proposals from the National Science Foundation, which bore the idea for this program. Although the first push for the program was unsuccessful, in 2010 the program was proposed again, this time in-house at Fresno State.

Currently, the last approval the program must receive is from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The decision to approve the program will not be made until June, providing a small time frame for faculty and students to prepare for courses in the fall.