The Online M.S. in Environmental Science: Hydrology and Water Security at the University of Oklahoma is a 32-credit graduate degree, completed in about 21 months and delivered fully online. Created through a partnership between the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science (Gallogly College of Engineering), the School of Meteorology, and the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, it is anchored in the National Weather Center ecosystem and designed from the ground up for students who want rigorous training without leaving their jobs or home communities.
The program is administered through the OU Graduate College and OU Online, and maintains an active community presence via social media:
OU Graduate College: https://online.ou.edu/program/mes-in-hydrology-and-water-security/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OUHydrologyOnline
Since launched in 2018, OU HWS Hydrology and Water Security Program has graduated 300+ master’s degree students, currently average 120+ MS. student enrollment, ranked among the Nation’s Top 10 Online program in environmental science.
Water is the quiet engine of economies, ecosystems, and everyday life. It powers our cities, feeds our farms, sustains our rivers, and defines the severity of floods and droughts. In the 21st century, water security is no longer a local concern; it is a global challenge at the intersection of climate, energy, food, equity, and national security.
The University of Oklahoma’s Hydrology and Water Security (HWS) program was created to meet that challenge head-on. Conceived in 2018 as a cross-campus, cross-college initiative, HWS was designed from day one to be both globally relevant and locally grounded—linking world-class science with the real needs of communities, agencies, and industry.
Today, HWS has grown into one of the nation’s leading graduate platforms for training the next generation of water professionals, with:
Since launch, the program has enrolled more than 100 students per year from across the United States and abroad and has already graduated well over 300 master’s students in its first five years—building a rapidly growing network of OU-trained water leaders in utilities, consulting, agencies, NGOs, and the private sector.
The short version:
In an era when water extremes are reshaping landscapes, economies, and societies, the Hydrology and Water Security program at the University of Oklahoma is not just another graduate degree—it is a strategic platform for building the human infrastructure we need to navigate a water-stressed future.
To build an internationally well-known research and graduate education program in Hydrology and Water Security at the National Weather Center that produces future leaders capable of understanding complex water systems and managing them effectively, equitably, and sustainably—while reducing the impacts of water-related hazards such as floods and droughts.
The Mission of the HWS graduate program is to provide unique opportunities for graduate-level learning, research and engagement at the nexus of water, weather, climate, agriculture, energy, policy, and sustainability. Students learn to think across the full “water column”—from groundwater to atmosphere—and across the full “human column”—from individual communities to global supply chains.
Hydrology and water security do not live in a single department, so HWS deliberately does not either. The program is jointly led by:
and is tightly integrated with:
Faculty span hydrometeorology, surface and groundwater hydrology, radar and remote sensing, river hydraulics, water quality, water law and economics, socio-hydrology, risk communication, and natural hazards policy.
The result is an ecosystem where engineers, meteorologists, geographers, lawyers, economists, and social scientists teach and supervise within a single, coherent HWS curriculum.
The HWS portfolio offers multiple entry points for different backgrounds and career stages. The HWS curriculum was built around a simple but powerful idea: water problems are never “just” physical, and they’re never “just” social. The course grid therefore spans:
Students can tailor their path toward careers in:
From its inception, the HWS program has been about more than course catalogs. It is a deliberate investment in human capacity for water resilience.
Graduates occupy roles such as:
Many online students are mid-career professionals who use the HWS degree to step into leadership roles, bringing modern hydrologic tools—remote sensing, modeling, and risk analysis—directly into their organizations.
Because HWS is embedded in a research powerhouse, students are exposed to:
Students and alumni help translate this research into practice: improved flood warnings, smarter infrastructure design, better drought planning, more equitable water policies.
