The graduate program of the Department of Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering was founded in 1972. It began with specialized courses through partnerships with important national universities. In 1975 the department began offering a master’s degree, in Water Resources as the sole area of concentration. In 1994 an additional focus within the master’s program, Environmental Sanitation, was opened. The following year, the department began offering a doctorate in Water Resources. In 2003, the department began offering a doctorate in Environmental Sanitation and in 2010 the master’s in Geotechnics, bringing the department to its actual size. According to evaluations conducted by CAPES (National Coordination of Skilled Professional Development) the program is considered of international caliber, holding a score of 6 (out of 7). The Civil Engineering program, with areas of concentration in Water Resources, Environmental Sanitation, and Geotechnics, has three primary objectives: 1) To train highly competent researchers, lecturers, and professionals; 2) to investigate the core areas of water resources, environmental sanitation, and geotechnics; 3) to involve the entire society, including public sector, private sector, and the community at large, in the quest for scientific and technological solutions to environmental challenges. The program parallels its domestic and international counterparts and is structured with a multidisciplinary vision, meaning that it actively seeks out professionals of diverse backgrounds such as engineering, biology, geology, chemistry, and physics. To meet the goals of bringing together experts in various fields, the program covers a wide range of topics, spanning from basic to advanced scientific courses in specific areas. A core component of the program is research, focused on climate and water resources. These projects seek to answer questions about climate change and variability, development of institutional governance models for water resources, ecotoxicology, and water re-use techniques, among others.