1. Although Taiwan is surrounded by the sea, its climate and geography leave it with a severe shortage of freshwater. NCUE recognizes the importance of sustainable management of resources and biodiversity, so it promotes sustainable development of water resources, with a focus on protecting freshwater and using it wisely. To address water scarcity, NCUE’s interdisciplinary faculty and environmental educators work with external scholars and local groups to offer free workshops under Ministry of Education programs and to train local seed teachers in environmental education who work together on local environmental issues. Environmental education brings local residents, students, and educators together to raise public awareness of water resource protection and encourage more responsible water use.

2. Cooperating with Communities to Promote Environmental Education and Cultivate Water Use Awareness

The Environmental Education Center regularly offers environmental education courses, including 24-, 33-, and 100-hour professional certification courses that cover freshwater ecosystems, indicator species observation, and water quality testing. The courses are open not only to NCUE faculty and students but also to community members. The courses provide knowledge of water resource management and water quality protection and raise public awareness of water resource protection.

(1) Cultivating Local Environmental Education Talents

The Environmental Education Center trains environmental education professionals. In conjunction with the project “Resilient Changbin: Sustainability of Changhua’s Coastal Environment and Industries under Climate Change”, the Center offered related courses to local and national communities from July to October 2025. Table 1 lists the courses, and Figures 1–3 show the activities.

Course image information (Figure 4) links:

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(2) Integrating USR Projects and Industry-Academia Cooperation to Promote Water Resource Education Courses and Community Participation

(a) Through the project “Resilient Changbin: Sustainability of Changhua’s Coastal Environment and Industries under Climate Change”, NCUE extends water resource and water environment education from campus to Changhua’s coastal communities, local schools, wetlands, and aquaculture industry. Through courses, workshops, volunteer training, citizen science, and field surveys, the project builds the understanding of water quality, aquatic ecology, and sustainable water use among local residents, students, volunteers, and industry workers. In 2025, NCUE offered free courses on water quality testing and surveys, listed in Table 2 and shown in Figures 5-6.

“Resilient Changbin: Sustainability of Changhua’s Coastal Environment and Industries under Climate Change” project activities (Figure 7): https://www.facebook.com/NCUEUSR/

(b) NCUE’s “Changhua Coastal Manila Clam Habitat Survey and Conservation Education Promotional Program” works with local schools and communities through industry–academia cooperation to build awareness of wise water use and water resource conservation. In 2025, NCUE worked with the Changhua County Marine Food Research and Production Cooperative Limited, the Environmental Education Center, Cao-hu Junior High School, Hanbao Elementary School, Fangyuan Elementary School, Houliao Elementary School, and local community groups to carry out water quality and ecological monitoring, manila clam habitat surveys, and marine citizen science education at Xinbao Wetland and other coastal sites in Changhua.

Related activities included the Manila Clam Habitat Survey and Survey Volunteer Training (4 sessions, 50 participants), the Junior Marine Citizen Scientist Series Activities (5 sessions, 146 participants), Outdoor Ecological Survey and On-site Practice (3 sessions, 73 participants), as well as a series of workshops on blue carbon, water quality, intertidal zones, marine environmental education, and marine conservation (see Figures 8-10). The activities covered observation of water quality, dissolved oxygen, sediment, benthic organisms, bivalves, and intertidal biodiversity, enabling participants to understand the connection between water quality and aquatic ecology through hands-on practice.

(c)Through collaboration with local schools and communities, NCUE has

translated water resource and scientific knowledge of water environment into citizen science and environmental education actions that local communities can participate in. The action has enabled community members to move from understanding the water environment to actively participating in surveys, monitoring, and conservation. This has also cultivated awareness of water environment protection and reasonable water use, forming a water resource education promotion model of "university research - school education - community participation - local industry."

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3. Integration into General Education to Expand Water Resource Issues into the Classroom

The Center for General Education offers specialized water resource courses to strengthen students' comprehensive understanding of global and Taiwan's water resource issues.

(1) The course “Water Environment and Human Culture” introduces the water resource challenges in the world and Taiwan (Figure 11). Students explore the historical and contemporary significance of water to human society, its key role in sustainable development, and how changes in water resources have shaped human history. They also learn about sustainable water use and reflect on how individuals and society can conserve water in daily life.

(2) The "Water and Energy Conservation in Modern Life" course introduces students to the basic principles of water resources and power sources to understand their importance and environmental impact, while cultivating students' abilities to conserve water and electricity.

(3) The " Introduction to Marine Life Sciences " course combines off-campus field research and beach cleaning service learning (Figure 12), allowing students to understand the impact of human activities on water resources and the environment from the perspective of marine pollution and coastal ecological conservation, and to practice waste sorting, beach cleaning, and marine conservation actions, further strengthening awareness of cherishing water resources.

4. Promoting Water Resource Awareness in the Community

(1) Faculty and students jointly participate in water resource field learning

NCUE’s Department of Geography uses the Fuma Canal, the Water Resources Planning Branch, and watershed management in the Wu River basin as teaching materials in its “Hydrology” course to help students understand how water resource development, river management, flood control engineering, and local culture are connected. The course also builds their understanding of sustainable water use through field surveys and hydrological observation. Students can later bring this knowledge into their teaching and environmental education activities to raise community awareness of wise water use, water environment conservation, and sustainable watershed management (Figure 13).

(2) Taipower Daguan Power Plant Field Observation and Hands-on Activity

Through field observation and workplace experience activities at the Daguan Power Plant (as shown in Figure 14), NCUE's Department of Geography cultivates pre-service teachers with professional competence in water resource education. The activity helps them translate issues such as sustainable water resource utilization, hydroelectric power generation, and water environment conservation into teaching content for promotion to elementary and secondary schools and communities.

In addition to gaining first-hand understanding of hydroelectric power generation, reservoir operation, and water resource management, the activity also guides students to consider the balance between energy development, environmental conservation, and sustainable utilization, as well as leading them to learn how to design geography teaching activities incorporating field investigation. By cultivating future teachers, NCUE aims to spread concepts of reasonable water use, water resource conservation, and water safety to communities beyond the campus to enhance public awareness and practical capacity for sustainable water resource management.

(3) Micro-Hydropower Generation and Community Sustainable Development Lecture

NCUE strengthens pre-service teacher students' ability to promote water resource conservation and reasonable water use concepts to communities beyond the campus by inviting industry experts to share cases on micro-hydropower generation and community sustainable development (as shown in Figure 15), so that the students can demonstrate higher education's social impact through knowledge dissemination.

The lecture used the Neicheng Community in Yuanshan Township, Yilan County, as a case study, and explained how wawaTEKand local residents jointly promoted a micro-hydropower citizen power plant. Through community surveys, resident communication, and participatory social design, the project fostered residents' support for sustainable water resource utilization and renewable energy development, while combining micro-hydropower generation with solar systems to create a zero-carbon tourism demonstration site. By sharing this community practice experience, the lecture encouraged future teachers to promote concepts of reasonable water use, water resource conservation, and sustainable development to elementary and secondary schools and local communities and to enhance public awareness and participation in sustainable water resource utilization.

(4) Junior High School Student Camp Promotion:

NCUE's Department of Geography, together with Taichung Municipal Fengdong Junior High School, jointly organized a camp for talented junior high school students and promote water resource education to local communities through inter-school collaboration to enhance young students' understanding of reasonable water use and water environment conservation.

Themed "The Story of Water and Settlements: Exploring Human-Land Relationships through Hydrological Science," the camp combined classroom instruction with field investigation, guiding students to observe river landforms, canal systems, levee, and water resources facilities such as Shigang Dam, and to understand the connections among water resource management, flood control engineering, and settlement development. The camp also encouraged students to reflect on the impact of environmental change and human water use behavior on the environment (as shown in Figures 16-17). Through connection with local sites and hands-on field learning, the camp disseminated concepts of water conservation, water resource conservation, and sustainable utilization to communities beyond the campus, ultimately promoting sustainable water resource awareness among the general public.

(5) Field Survey Guidance for Taichung Municipal Taichung Girls' Senior High School – Environmental Education on Terrain, Soil, and Water Environment in Taichung and Miaoli

On May 24, 2025, NCUE’s Department of Geography helped Taichung Municipal Taichung Girls' Senior High School run a field survey. Faculty members from the department planned the route, wrote the field survey handbook, and guided the entire trip for a total of 30 teachers and students. The route covered the Taichung Basin, Shigang Dam, the Da’an River Canyon in Zhuolan, the Old Mountain Line settlement in Tai’an (Miaoli), Huoyan Mountain in Sanyi, Tiezhen Mountain in Dajia, and the Da’an Sand Dunes. At the Tai’an settlement, students interpreted the layout of the Houli Canal aqueduct and canal routes on site and drew the canal and railway routes on a topographic map. The drawings showed how irrigation facilities in the foothills shaped settlement locations, agricultural land use, and population change and how water resource management relates to local development. At the Zhuolan Canyon, the guide explained how riverbed uplift and downstream sweep erosion caused by the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake affected the river channel and embankments. At Huoyan Mountain in Sanyi, students learned about gully development in conglomerate badlands, the history of landslides burying roads, and the tunnel engineering built in response (Figure 18). At the Da’an Sand Dunes, students observed dune landforms, tidal flats, and coastal wind turbines (Figure 19). Through these field observations, the high school students learned the scientific basis of soil and water resource management and environmental disaster risk.

5. Overall, NCUE promotes more conscious water use through education and community engagement. These efforts have increased awareness of water resource protection among NCUE faculty, students, and community members and have contributed to the sustainable development of water resources in society as a whole.