Challenges for water management for climate change adaptation in Latin America

It is not always simple to get those managing water resources in touch with the latest science and thereby to motivate their implementation in current planning processes. Education can help secure inclusive and resilient development around water resources. In the EU funded Project WATERMAS, it was hypothesized that dissemination and promotion of scientific knowledge using students as central agents to transfer the theoretical knowledge into practice is an efficient way to address this difficulty. In this study a test of this hypothesis by leveraging water management education development in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region with focus on representative case studies is carried out. A literature review is used to map the potential gap in research and education around water resources across the LAC region in comparisons with other global regions. The analyses show educating students as well as adopting students for knowledge and information transfer and to use students as agents to bridge the gap between the global state-of-the science and local water resources management can be an efficient way to avoid to "leave behind" the LAC region.