Goals & Objectives:

The overarching objective of the project is to highlight the extent of climate resilient water management in the Latin America and Caribbean region and define measures on how successful practices can be scaled up to facilitate transformative adaptation and long-term resilience. Specific research questions upon which the objectives will be formulated in consultation with the University team are listed in the Specific Activities & Duration section below.

Theoretical Justification, Social Benefit, or Significance:

Background

Knowledge gaps establish bottlenecks in identifying and implementing successful measures of adaptation to climate change. Despite a growing body of knowledge, knowledge gaps remain persistent and re-occur prompting the need for an enhanced alignment of the demand of, and supply for, adaptation knowledge to facilitate the bridging of these gaps.

In response, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat through the Nairobi Work Programme (NWP) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through its Global Adaptation Network (GAN) launched the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI) as a collaborative effort to enhance adaptation action by closing priority knowledge gaps in all countries, in particular developing countries, including the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDs).

In line with the objectives of the Pairs Agreement, the NWP – the knowledge-to-action hub on adaptation and resilience of the UNFCCC collaborates with its network of over 450 partner organizations to facilitate the scaling up of adaptation action in countries through various institutional and operational modalities including the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme and the thematic expert groups. Collaborations seek to enhance adaptation action by closing knowledge gaps identified by Parties, in particular developing country Parties, including the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDs).

Regional focus and knowledge gaps

The LAKI has been implemented in 7 sub-regions1 across the world, including the Andean region. Here the LAKI covered 5 countries – Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. However, the gaps identified may be prevalent in other countries across the Andean region and possibly the Caribbean region given the similarity in physical and socio-economic conditions among some countries.

The LAKI in this region identified 13 priority knowledge gaps featuring various themes such as scientific research and climate observation, land use, planning and risk management, impacts on production sectors, capacity-building and participation, and public policies and institutions.

The proposed topic will focus on 1 of the 13 priority knowledge gaps detailed below.

Water and climate change

The recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group II report (chapter on water) 2 highlights the centrality of water to most system transitions towards climate-resilient development. As a critical resource for sustainable development, risks to water security often emerge as global challenges and curtail the achievement of most SDGs – sustainable development goals (Ait-Kadi, 2016). Indeed, the recent Global risks reports from the World Economic Forum have consecutively listed the water crisis among the top five risks (WEF, 2015; WEF, 2016; WEF, 2017; WEF, 2018; WEF, 2019; WEF, 2020). Moreover, with insufficient adaptation, the World Bank (2017) and the Global Centre on Adaptation – GCA (2019) further project lower global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rates by mid-century with low- and middle-income countries as most affected.

Populations across the world are grappling with various climate-induced and water-related impacts such as increased intensity in precipitation accelerated melting of glaciers, and droughts, among other challenges, which often have secondary effects. Climate change not only has spatial and temporal effects on fresh-water availability but also influences water requirements for various water uses further exacerbating existing societal challenges (Bijl et al., 2018). The most critical sectors affected by these climate-induced and water-related challenges are food and energy, especially for most developing countries.

Accounting for 60–70% of total water withdrawals and the greatest significant proportion of consumptive water, agriculture and irrigation are heavily impacted by changes in hydrological components of climate change (Hanasaki et al., 2018; Burke et al., 2020; Müller Schmied et al., 2021).

Indeed, since 2014, over 60% of all climate adaptation responses documented since 2014 are toward water-related hazards such as droughts, floods, and rainfall variability (Berrang-Ford et al., 2021), and adaptation in the water sector is featured prominently in most nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – Global South (GWP, 2018). Adaptation entails among other practices, irrigation, water and soil moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting, changes in crops and cultivars, and improved agronomic practices aimed at reducing the impacts of water-related hazards. Interestingly some of the climate adaptation measures have several mitigation co-benefits that can be leveraged. 

Sustainable low-emission and climate-resilient water management is, therefore, a priority for most regions including the Latin America and Caribbean sub-region.

Specific Activities & Duration:

The table below outlines the key research questions and the respective methodology. The exact scope, methodologies and final output will be further defined by team members (students) once a team is formed. This could also involve collaboration with a local University or University in the sub-region chosen.

Key research questions
1. What are the current water management practices/techniques and technologies practiced/utilized in this region?

        a. How best can these practices be categorized?

                  i. rudimentary/local

                  ii. modern

                  iii. hybrid technologies (both local and modern)

                  iv. Sustainable/efficient/effective/low cost/climate resilient/low emission?

        b. For what purpose are these water management practices/ practices/techniques and technologies employed and why?

                  i. Food production – agriculture and food security

                  ii. Biodiversity and ecosystems

                  iii. Domestic water supply – household and communities

                  iv. Cultural and aesthetic purposes

2. What facilitates the adoption of the identified water management practices for the respective purposes? – you may choose to focus on the most prominent use.

        a. How much knowledge is available on climate resilient water management practices/ techniques and technologies?

        b. How could this knowledge be categorized?

        c. How is this knowledge being utilized?

        d. Who are the main actors promoting this knowledge and practices/techniques and technologies?

        e. How are these actors promoting this knowledge and practices/techniques and technologies?

        f. What successes have been registered to date?

        g. How are means of implementation – finance/capacity/technology affecting the adoption of these practices/techniques and technologies?

        h. How are governance and polycentric approaches being applied?

        i. How are cross-cutting aspects such as gender, equity, social justice, and inclusion of youth, people with disabilities as well as local communities and indigenous knowledge integrated?

        j. What other factors influence the adoption of these water management practices/techniques and technologies?

3. What still needs to be done to ensure the scaling-up of sustainable and climate-resilient water management practices in this region?

        a. Which new actors need to be engaged? /Which existing partnerships need to be strengthened?

        b. Which means of implementation need to be enhanced?

        c. How can these means of implementation be enhanced?

        d. How could this information be best disseminated to the key actors?

Note: The actual objectives will be formulated around these questions and suitable methodology will
be defined accordingly

Integrative Approach:

Each of the research questions requires different expertise. For instance, question 1 requires skills in qualitative data collection methodology and question 2 and 3 require mixed-method data collection and analysis skills. The specific thematic knowledge and skills required are elaborated below.