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Adaptation to global change in Africa and Asia examines the impact of global change - broadly defined as the impacts of climate change and demographic change influencing global-scale changes in land use, environmental degradation and pollutant emissions - on physical and human environments in Africa and Asia with a specific focus (thread) on water supply. The course deliberately engages issues of climate injustice, equity and adaptive capacity from the local to the global. A distinctive aspect of this course is its engagement not only with the hydrological science underlying the impact of global change on water supplies but also with the pathways and processes of water governance including transboundary issues that inform solutions towards more equitable and sustainable water supplies in a warming world. The course draws from case studies informed by active research programmes in Nigeria, Niger, Tanzania, Bangladesh and India as well as evolving global discussions represented by annual meetings of the COP.

The course will be delivered through a series of lecture-seminars employing focused group discussions and occasional role-playing in, for example, stakeholder fora. Lecture-seminars will employ a flipped-classroom approach in which students will be expected to engage with considerable resources including peer-reviewed publications, grey literature and online sources each week ahead of lecture-seminars. Lecture-seminars will be supported by weekly seminars that will be designed to assist students in the development of practical skills in the form of group presentations of Situational Analyses (formative assessment) and the development of an individual blog (summative assessment). Ìý

The aims of the module are for students to develop: (1) a thorough understanding of both the challenges faced by communities in low-income countries in the tropics to achieve sustainable and equitable water supplies under global change and potential pathways to solutions; (2) analytical skills to assess the physical and human dimensions of a fundamental geographical problem; (3) an understanding of transdisciplinary approaches incorporating principles of climate justice to the study of the relationships among people, water and food under global change.

On completion of this course, students should have developed (1) a thorough understanding of both the challenges faced by communities in parts of Africa and Asia to achieve sustainable and equitable water supplies under global change and potential pathways to solutions; (2) analytical skills to assess the physical and human dimensions of a fundamental geographical problem; (3) an understanding of transdisciplinary approaches incorporating principles of climate justice to the study of the relationship between people and their resources; (4) improved ability to work as a team and develop concise and direct presentations outlining key outcomes from Situational Analyses (formative assessment); and (5) improved ability to present ideas in an accessible blog-based format (summative assessment).