Director of the Water Resources Management Program
Dr. Lucía Beatriz Aguilar Rocha
Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University
Integrated watershed modeling and the hydrology of tropical lake systems.
Flagship Program · School of Engineering & Sustainable Infrastructure
Water Resources Management
The interdisciplinary degree at the heart of NIGA's founding mission — engineering, policy, and environmental science converging on the freshwater systems that will define Central America's coming decades.
B.S.M.S.Ph.D.
Program Overview
A degree designed for the work itself.
Water Resources Management is the flagship program of NIGA University and the academic centerpiece of the institution's founding mission. The program was designed in consultation with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Autoridad Nacional del Agua, and a consortium of regional research institutions, with a single conviction at its heart: that the responsible stewardship of Nicaragua's freshwater systems is the defining civic, scientific, and economic challenge of the coming century.
The curriculum is rigorously interdisciplinary. Students move between the laboratory and the policy seminar, between fluvial geomorphology and transboundary water law, between hydraulic engineering and environmental economics. Graduates emerge with the capacity to model a reservoir, draft a watershed management plan, negotiate a binational accord, and explain the trade-offs of each to a minister or a community assembly.
Anchoring the program's identity is Lake Cocibolca — Lake Nicaragua — the largest freshwater body in Central America, and one of the most consequential and contested freshwater systems on the isthmus. Field instruction extends to the Río San Juan, the highland watersheds of Jinotega and Matagalpa, and the Pacific coastal aquifers.
Degrees
B.S. · M.S. · Ph.D.
Anchor System
Lake Cocibolca
Affiliated School
Engineering & Sustainable Infrastructure
Partner Ministries
Environment · Water Authority
Sample Curriculum
Fifteen courses across three tiers.
Foundational
- WRM 101Introduction to Hydrology
Principles of the hydrologic cycle, precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater recharge.
- WRM 110Watershed Science
Physical and ecological foundations of watershed function, basin delineation, and integrated catchment analysis.
- WRM 120Foundations of Water Policy
Frameworks for water governance, regulatory institutions, and the political economy of resource allocation.
- WRM 130Environmental & Resource Economics
Valuation of natural assets, externalities, and economic instruments for environmental management.
- WRM 140Geographic Information Systems for Water Resources
Spatial data, remote sensing, and GIS-based analysis of hydrologic and infrastructure systems.
Intermediate
- WRM 210Water Treatment & Sanitation Engineering
Unit processes in potable water treatment, wastewater management, and sanitation infrastructure design.
- WRM 220Irrigation Systems & Agricultural Water Use
Design, operation, and policy of irrigation, drainage, and on-farm water management.
- WRM 230Transboundary Water Law
Public international law of shared rivers, lakes, and aquifers — case studies including the Río San Juan.
- WRM 240Climate Adaptation & Water Security
Hydrologic implications of climate change, adaptive management, and resilience planning.
- WRM 250Water Quality & Aquatic Ecology
Chemical, biological, and physical parameters of water quality, with applied monitoring and modeling.
Advanced
- WRM 310Sustainable Infrastructure Design
Integrated design of reservoirs, distribution networks, and nature-based water infrastructure under uncertainty.
- WRM 320Lake Cocibolca: Integrated Basin Studies
Advanced seminar on the science, history, and governance of Lake Nicaragua and its watershed.
- WRM 330Water Security Policy Seminar
Faculty-led seminar on national and regional water security strategies, with guest practitioners.
- WRM 340Hydraulic Modeling & Decision Support
Computational modeling of surface and groundwater systems for planning and operations.
- WRM 399Capstone Project in Water Resources Management
Year-long applied project conducted in partnership with a ministry, agency, or community partner.
Founding Faculty
Scholars at the intersection of engineering and policy.
Professor of Water Law & Policy
Dr. Tomás Fernández Solórzano
J.S.D., Yale Law School
International water law and the governance of shared freshwater resources in the Americas.
Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering
Dr. Adriana Carolina Mendoza Lacayo
Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, ETH Zürich
Water treatment systems and sanitation infrastructure for low- and middle-income contexts.
Career Outcomes
Where graduates go.
The degree opens doors across the public, multilateral, private, and research sectors that govern and steward water in the Americas.
- 01
Senior technical and policy roles within the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Autoridad Nacional del Agua
- 02
Programme officer and specialist positions with UN-Water, UNESCO-IHP, and the United Nations Environment Programme
- 03
Water sector economists and project leads at the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration
- 04
Senior consultants at international engineering and environmental consultancies serving public and private water clients
- 05
Programme leadership at NGOs working on watershed conservation, rural water access, and climate adaptation
- 06
Research scientists in national laboratories, universities, and international research consortia
- 07
Advisory roles in transboundary river commissions and regional water cooperation bodies
Why Nicaragua, Why Now
An extraordinary inheritance. A defining responsibility.
Nicaragua holds an extraordinary inheritance of fresh water — Lake Cocibolca, Lake Xolotlán, the Río San Juan, the Coco, the Escondido, the great Caribbean lowland rivers, and a network of highland watersheds that sustain agriculture, hydropower, and millions of households. That inheritance is also a responsibility. Climate variability, agricultural intensification, urban expansion, and unresolved questions of transboundary management make the careful stewardship of these systems the defining policy challenge of the country's coming decades. Nicaragua has the opportunity to lead Central America in setting the standard for how a nation governs, protects, and develops its waters — and NIGA exists, in part, to prepare the women and men who will exercise that leadership.
Inaugural Cohort · Fall 2026
Apply to the flagship program.
Applications for the inaugural cohort of the Water Resources Management program are open through 15 June 2026. Decisions released by 15 July 2026.