Can the Panama Canal withstand the impacts of climate change as drought conditions worsen?

The Panama Canal is one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century. Since its completion in 1914, it has served as one of the world's most important shipping routes, providing the fastest way to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. But far-sighted planners failed to foresee the rapid fluctuations in water supplies that would come with climate change a century later.

“The supply of freshwater seemed endless,” says Matthew Larsen of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.