Summerschool Climate Change Adaptation: Risk Assessment and Design Interventions” in September 2024

The Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT) offers a three-weeks program on Climate Change Adaptation. The program is for young academics holding a DAAD Master's or Ph.D. In-Country/ In-Region scholarship.

Throughout summer school, young academics with a background in natural resources management, climate science and related, have the opportunity to improve their knowledge in designing climate change adaptation interventions. The focus of the adaptation classes is on sustainable interventions in water, land, and the energy sector. In addition, the participants will learn how to consider climatic changes and increasing resource demand resulting from socio-economic development.

The summer school starts with an introduction to basic definitions of climate change and adaptation. Later on, participants will learn more about using an adaptation framework to developing climate change adaptation strategies, climate risk assessments, cost considerations and interventions, and how to use related data tools, while also exploring Nature Based Solutions.

New DAAD project: COWASA (Cooperative Open Science to Support Water Security in Southern Africa)

After the completion of the WASA project, which aimed to enhance collaboration with Africa and foster innovation to strengthen research, the economy, and civil society while prioritizing issues aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals, COWASA (Cooperative Open Science to Support Water Security in Southern Africa) is a new research project coordinated by the ITT, TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences) and supported by various partners.The COWASA-consortium aims to support local decision-making towards water security and drought risk management in Southern Africa by developing high-resolution datasets and information products at local scales that allow the selection of site-specific adaptation measures.

We want to link local and national stakeholders and university partners to our international knowledge community following a multi-scale approach.

We will evaluate open access gridded hydro-climatic and socio-economic data products. These data products will be combined with local information for local water security and drought risk assessments. Based on the resulting information, we will design locally appropriate, cost-effective adaptation measures such as nature-based solutions, integrated water-energy, food-supply technologies, or irrigation concepts and implement them in two pilot regions.

Scholarships available for MSc Program in Integrated Water Resources Management for Latin America and the Caribbean (IWRM-LAC), San José, Costa Rica

The University of Costa Rica (UCR), School of Geography, offers a new MSc Program in Integrated Water Resources Management focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean. The second generation will start in August 2022 and is looking for students from all LAC countries and Germany.

The MSc Program takes place at the UCR. It belongs to the DAAD-funded project "Integrated Water Resources Management for Latin America and the Caribbean – IWRM LAC" in the "Transnational Education - Degree Programs offered abroad by German Institutions" program. The project coordinator is the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ITT), TH Köln, Germany.

The time to completion for the degree is four semesters. The internationally oriented MSc Program allows students from Latin America and the Caribbean to start their studies in San José and spend an exchange semester at ITT, TH Cologne, Germany. Classes in Costa Rica are taught in Spanish and English. The teaching language at the ITT is English. The curriculum of the MSc Program IWRM-LAC follows the structure of the MSc Program: "Integrated Water Resources Management" offered at ITT, TH Köln (LINK).