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Adaptive capacity of water governance arrangements: a comparative study of barriers and opportunities in Swiss and US states

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Abstract

Climate variability and change are directly challenging the viability and sustainability of social–ecological systems. This is particularly true for water resources. Effective water governance is at the heart of alleviating water challenges and is thus considered crucial for building adaptive capacity to cope with future uncertainty and impacts from climate change. Despite advances in the conceptualisation of adaptive capacity, there are few empirical examples that look systematically across cases to identify how to implement measures and actions that build and mobilise adaptive capacity. This paper contributes to the understanding of adaptive capacity to climate stress by analysing the bridges and barriers to adaptation across water governance and management regimes in the case of the Canton Valais, Switzerland and the state of Georgia, USA. We find that while there is no single way to build and mobilise adaptive capacity across different scales of governance, the analysis points to a set of common bridges and barriers for building adaptive capacity to a variety of climatic events. Common bridges include trust and actor relationships, regional collaboration, leadership, and regulatory and legislative aspects. Common barriers include political, regulatory and legislative, and perception and cognitive aspects.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge all those who took the time to be interviewed for this research and those who were of great help in setting up successful field trips to the case areas. The work presented from Switzerland was supported by the ACQWA project, coordinated by the University of Geneva under EC contract 212250, and the US work was supported by the Dan David Prize Fellowship and the University of Michigan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Site de Battelle D, Rue du Drize 7, 1227, Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland

    Margot Hill Clarvis

  2. 2011-2012 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington, DC, USA

    Nathan L. Engle

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  1. Margot Hill Clarvis
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Correspondence to Margot Hill Clarvis.

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Hill Clarvis, M., Engle, N.L. Adaptive capacity of water governance arrangements: a comparative study of barriers and opportunities in Swiss and US states. Reg Environ Change 15, 517–527 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0547-y

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