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CC WaterSecurity Syllabus Final 031021

This document provides information on a course titled "Climate Change and Water Security" offered as part of a Master's program in Water Resources Engineering. The course aims to provide students knowledge and skills related to climate change impacts on water resources, including detection and attribution of climate change, impact assessment, and approaches for achieving water security. The course objectives are to help students understand fundamentals of climate change and water security issues, assess climate change impacts, measure water security, and identify response strategies. The course outline covers topics like the climate system, quantifying climate change, impact assessment, water security, and responding to climate change through adaptation and mitigation. It includes both lectures and practical sessions involving tools for data analysis, modeling, and measuring

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33 views

CC WaterSecurity Syllabus Final 031021

This document provides information on a course titled "Climate Change and Water Security" offered as part of a Master's program in Water Resources Engineering. The course aims to provide students knowledge and skills related to climate change impacts on water resources, including detection and attribution of climate change, impact assessment, and approaches for achieving water security. The course objectives are to help students understand fundamentals of climate change and water security issues, assess climate change impacts, measure water security, and identify response strategies. The course outline covers topics like the climate system, quantifying climate change, impact assessment, water security, and responding to climate change through adaptation and mitigation. It includes both lectures and practical sessions involving tools for data analysis, modeling, and measuring

Uploaded by

sandeep parajuli
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Tribhuvan University, Institute of Engineering

Master Degree in Water Resources Engineering Program

<Course ID> Climate Change and Water Security | Credit: 60 hrs (3-1-0)

Year/Part: I/II

Rationale

Climate and water are intrinsically related. Impacts of climate change in many sectors are manifested
through water. The body of knowledge on climate change as well as water are increasing over time.
All water-related projects these days are expected to assess risks related to climate change and ensure
those risks are minimized through appropriate design of the project. Therefore, it is of paramount
important that graduate students of water resources engineering program are aware on fundamentals
of climate system, climate variability/change, impacts related to climatic changes and water security
issues; visualize links between climate change and water security; develop knowledge and skills on
applying various climate information tools; trained on assessing climate change impacts; and
understand various pathways for achieving water security in the changing climate.

This course therefore aims to provide knowledge and skills on detection and attribution to climate
change; climate change impact assessment; quantifying uncertainties associated with climate
projection and impact assessment; evaluate economics of climate change; measuring water security
in changing climate; and responding to climate change.

Course Objectives: After the completion of this course, the students will be able to – i) understand
fundamentals of climate system, climate change/variability, and water security issues; ii) detect and
attribute to climate change; iii) assess climate change impacts on water sector; iv) measure water
security and its link to climate change; and v) understand various ways for responding to climate
change.

Pre-requisite(s): None

Course Outline:

1. Climate system, climate variability/change, and drivers [6 hrs]


1.1 Global climate system and energy balance – atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere,
lithosphere, biosphere, global energy budget, greenhouse effect.
1.2 Interaction among the climate components – interaction between atmosphere and
hydrosphere; interaction between atmosphere and lithosphere; interaction between
atmosphere and biosphere; interaction between atmosphere and cryosphere.
1.3 The Hydrological Cycle and its interaction with climate variability/change – storage, fluxes,
and resident times
1.4 Natural drivers of climate variability and change – ocean-atmosphere circulation and
interactions; Earth-Sun-Moon interactions; Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols; etc.
1.5 Anthropogenic drivers of climate variability and change – human-induced increase to
greenhouse gases and enhanced greenhouse effect; human-induced increase to aerosols and
other pollutants; land use/cover change (including urbanization)

1
2. Quantifying climate change [9 hrs]
2.1 Detection to climate change –Analysis of climatic indices, trends, and climatic extremes
2.2 Attribution to climate change – partitioning changes to natural or anthropogenic sources
2.3 Climate models (e.g., general circulation models, regional circulation models), various future
scenarios (e.g. SRES, RCPs, SSPs)
2.4 Future climate projection- statistical and dynamic downscaling, bias correction, decision-tree
analysis
2.5 Estimating uncertainty in climate modelling and projections – sources, methods

3. Climate change impact assessment [12 hrs]


3.1 Impacts of climate change in various sectors – potential impacts and their pathways (water
availability; water demands; water-induced disasters; public health; ecosystem and
environmental health; and agriculture and food security)
3.2 Assessing climate change impacts on water availability and water demands
3.3 Assessing vulnerability and risk to climate change (flood and drought risks)
3.4 Assessing social impacts of climate change: vulnerable social groups and gender
3.5 Economics of climate change – economics of damage and adaptation

4. Climate change and water security [9 hrs]


4.1 Understanding water security – multiple facets of water (or strategic dimensions of water);
contemporary issues on secured use of water; changing concepts of water security; issues of scale
in water security (individual/household level, local/community level, international level, global
level); relevant terminologies and definitions.
4.2 Interdependencies of water security with other security areas – web of sustainable water
security; nexused relationships (water-energy, water-food, water-energy-food, etc.)
4.3 Measuring water security – indicator-based framework for water security assessment (at various
scales).
4.4 Water security in changing climate – interaction of climate change with water security
4.5 Water security pathways – scientific response, policy and governance response, innovation,
hydro-diplomacy, etc.

5. Responding to climate change for water security [9 hrs]


5.1 International frameworks for responding to climate change (e.g. IPCC, UNFCCC, etc.)
5.2 National frameworks for responding to climate change (e.g., NAP, NAPA, LAPA, etc.)
5.3 Climate change mitigation – options, tools and strategies
5.4 Climate change adaptation - types (structural and non-structural), options, tools, and strategies
5.5 Changes in water management practices – typologies of practices; variation of practices across
the location and scales (e.g. on farm-level, using climate data for design and water
infrastructures, etc.)

2
Tutorial/Practical Sessions [15 hrs]
1. Climate trend analysis using tools such as RCLIMDEX
2. Future climate projection by downscaling or correcting biases in global/regional climate model
outputs
3. Assessing climate change impacts on water resources and associated uncertainties using a
hydrological model (e.g., HEC-HMS, SWAT< JAMS-J2000, ABCD, etc.)
4. Measuring water security (e.g. of a Municipality/City or River Basin or a Country)

Text Book(s):

 Shrestha S., Babel MS, Pandey VP (2014). Climate change and water resources. CRC Press, Taylor
and Francis Group.
 Selected materials and lecture notes provided by the instructor.
References:
 ADB (2009): The Economics of Climate Change in Southeast Asia: A Regional Review, ADB
 Bates, B.C., Z.W. Kundzewicz, S. Wu and J.P. Palutikof, Eds., (2008): Climate Change and Water.
Technical Paper of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC Secretariat
 Dawson, B. and Spannagle, M. (2009): The Complete Guide to Climate Change, London:
Routledge
 Fulco Ludwig, Pavel Kabat, Henk van Schaik, Michael van der Valk (2008): Climate Change
Adaptation in the Water Sector, Earthscan Publications Ltd.
 Joel Smith, Carol Howe and Jim Henderson (2009): Climate Change and Water: International
Perspectives on Mitigation and Adaptation, IWA Publications
 Jurgen Garbrecht and Thomas Piechota (2006): Climate Variations, Climate Change, and Water
Resources Engineering, ASCE Publications
 Kirstin Dow and Thomas E. Downing (2007): The Atlas of Climate Change, Revised Edition:
Mapping the World’s Greatest Challenge, Earthscan Publications Ltd.
 Simonovic, S.P. (2008): Managing water resources: methods and tools for a systems approach,
Earthscan Publications Ltd.
 Stern Nicholas (2007): The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, Cambridge
University Press
Ray, P. A.; Brown, C. M. (2015). Confronting Climate Uncertainty in Water Resources Planning
and Project Design: The Decision Tree Framework. Washington, DC: World Bank.

 Nepal, S., Neupane, N., Belbase, D., Pandey, V.P. and Mukherji, A., 2021. Achieving water
security in Nepal through unravelling the water-energy-agriculture nexus. International Journal
of Water Resources Development, 37(1), pp.67-93.

Evaluation: The final grade will be computed according to the following weight distribution: Internal
Evaluation (40 points) & External Evaluation (Final Exam) (60 points)
Instructor(s): Prof. Vishnu Prasad Pandey

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