Water and Climate Education Program

Partner(s): Lisa Goddard The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University Access: Private Released: April 2013

In the Caribbean, most states rely on a single source of water for all domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs. The challenge of managing this limited resource is worsened by variations in precipitation brought on by climate change. Furthermore, the region lacks the skilled water resource and climate risk managers needed to develop effective strategies to cope with these problems.

The Water and Climate Education Program (WACEP) aims to tackle these issues by developing educational programs, research partnerships, and regional collaboration for professionals and upper-level students on water resource and climate risk issues.

The partnership is funded by the U.S. Department of State Office of Economic Policy and Summit Coordination as part of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas and is managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Higher Education for Development (HED).

The project involves three main efforts:

1. Developing short online courses to support water resource and climate change adaptation education at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University;
2. Pursuing a long-term research agenda between the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), UWI, and Columbia University to address specific questions related to these issues; and
3. Building an interdisciplinary community of practice able to address challenges of climate adaptation and water resource management in the Caribbean.

The short online courses represent the collaborative effort of UWI's Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies, CIMH, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and three institutes of Columbia University: IRI, the Columbia Water Center, and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning.

The first online course runs January 13-20, 2014. It is entitled Introduction to Water Sustainability and Climate and will explore water sustainability and the role that climate change and variability play in influencing the water sector.

Related project categories:
Global and Distance Learning | Sciences