Session> 23582> Social-Ecological Resilience,

Climate Change and Adaptive Water

Governance of Regional Scale Water Systems
in the United States
Lance Gunderson 1, Barbara Cosens
1 : Emory University
Dept. of Environmental Studies 400 Dowman Drive Atlanta, GA 30322 USA - tats-Unis
* : Auteur correspondant

We propose an interdisciplinary dialogue that will discuss findings and progress on integrating resilience,
climate change and governance in five case studies in the US; Columbia River, Platte River, Klamath River,
Rio Grande River and the Everglades of Florida. The session will discuss barriers and bridges to integrating
ecological theory with legal and governance frameworks in the context of a changing climate. The results
are an outcome workshops supported by the US Social Ecological Synthesis Center (SESYNC).
Water, in addition to its role in sustaining human life, supports ecosystems that provide many of the
services society relies on. In order to provide a reliable set of services, most United States water based
systems are heavily managed and characterized by aging infrastructure, degraded ecosystems, multiple laws,
rules and regulation as well as a complex set of institutions that govern these systems. Our past and current
governance of these major water systems has not placed them on a path toward sustainability, as these
systems are characterized by crisis and gridlock and continued erosion of ecosystem services. While climate
change accelerates the potential for conflict, it also presents a window of opportunity in which policy
makers may feel sufficient need for response. Resilience thinking provides a bridging concept between
knowledge of the biophysical system and governance principles to move systems of water and society to a
more sustainable future. Facilitating sustainability should involve the development of new models of law
that merge concepts of ecological resilience with social processes that are viewed as legitimate, equitable
and just by the participants in a democratic society, recognizing the need for pragmatic linkages between
current governance systems and new approaches. Achieving this level of integration between ecological
concepts and governance requires a dialogue across multiple disciplines, including ecologists with expertise
in ecological resilience, hydrologists and climate experts, with social scientists and legal scholars.

23916> Rebuilding Windows of Opportunity:

Adaptive governance and creative disturbance
in the Klamath Basin, USA
Brian Chaffin 1,
1 : Oregon State University (OSU)

Adaptive governance (AG) is increasingly called upon as a type of environmental governance used to build
resilience or shape transformation in social-ecological systems (SESs). Mounting empirical evidence
suggests that AG is often catalyzed during a period of SES reorganization following a major disturbance or
crisis. The context dependent and non-linear genesis of AG structures and processes such as informal
networks, polycentric institutions, and collaborative organizations makes a transition toward AG hard to
characterize, but in essence, it consists of a transformation toward a more preferred state of environmental
governance through leveraging opportunities and managing legacies of a failed system. Governance legacies
can serve as learning opportunities or direct constraints to achieving AG often manifested as reoccurring
disturbances. Theoretically, the defining structures and processes of AG are adept at both managing these
continued disturbances and creating further disturbances that produce windows of opportunity to overcome
constraining legacies of failed governance systems. Using empirical evidence from a case study of a SES in
transition toward a regime of AG, this presentation analyzes AG structures and processes not only as
managers of disturbance, but also as creators of disturbance in order to facilitate further governance
transformation. Specifically, this speed talk highlights a series of social and policy transformations within
the Klamath Basin bioregion of Oregon and California, USA. Analytical emphasis is placed on the roles of
stakeholder collaboration, shadow networks, and polycentric policy direction as both sources and sinks of
disturbance in an ongoing conflict over governance of water, threatened and endangered species, and land
use.

24175> Trans-boundary Headwater Governance

in Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH): Need for Building
Regional Geo-political Resilience for Adaptation
to climate change in South and East Asia
Prakash Chandra Tiwari 1, Bhagwati Joshi 2,
1 : Kumaun University, Nainital, India (KU)
Department of Geography, DSB Campus, Kumaun University, Nainital 263002, Uttarakhand, India - Inde
2 : Government Post Graduate College, Rudrapur, India (GPGC)
Department of Geography, Government Post Graduate College, Delhi Road, Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, India - Inde
* : Auteur correspondant

Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) constitutes headwaters of some of the largest trans-boundary basins of planet
that sustain more than one-fourth global population dependent primarily on subsistence agriculture in South
and East Asia. However, water resources of the region are currently facing severe threats from multitude of
drivers of global environmental change, particularly climate change. Global warming is resulting into rapid
retreat of glaciers, decrease in permafrost and changes in seasonality of run-off. Besides, during recent past,
Asian monsoon has shown sweeping changes resulting into erratic rainfall and increased frequency and
severity of extreme weather events. These changes have stressed hydrological regimes of HKH headwaters
through disruption of groundwater and decreased stream-flow. In view of this, regime of water resources in
South and East Asia is likely to change rapidly, with respect to discharge, volumes, availability and access to
freshwater both in up-streams and down-streams thus exacerbating region's limited capacity to cope with
projected decrease in availability of water for drinking and food production. This may increase proportion of
water, health, food and livelihood insecure population in South and East Asia which includes some of the
poorest people of the world with access to less than 5% of planet's freshwater resources. This will have
enormous regional implications for fundamental human endeavours ranging from poverty alleviation to
environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation, and even to human security and peace in the
region. A regional headwater cooperation framework is therefore highly imperative not only for adaptation
to long-term impacts of climate change, but also for regional security and peace in the region.
Paper aims at engineering geo-political resilience for regional cooperation for adaptive governance of transboundary headwaters in HKH. Comprehensive study of available literature and media reports, interpretation
of people's responses obtained through interviews, interaction with political leadership, government officials
and institutions across the region formed basis of this study. It was observed, increasing power of some
countries and political instability in other states, internal and external security threats, weak leadership, and
long standing inter-state conflicts are important reasons for weakening geo-political resilience in regional
water cooperation in the region. However, there is growing realization and demand by scientific community,
intellectuals, NGOs and civil society organizations and regional institutions for building geo-political
resilience in the region for trans-boundary river-basin management in HKH. Climate change has provided
opportunity to foster regional cooperation, and therefore demands building of geopolitical resilience in the
region. An effective regional water co-operation framework need to be evolved based on: (a) sharing of
hydro-meteorological information for early warning; (b) sustainable headwaters development for mitigating
and moderating risks of climate change induced disasters both in uplands and lowlands; and (f) integrated
watershed management in upland river basins to increase availability of water for drinking and food
production both in upstream and downstream. A number of regional institutions working in South-east Asia
are willing to play meaningful role in initiating trans-boundary headwater governance. Furthermore,
perspective of regional economic cooperation may help in evolving conducive institutional mechanisms for
regional headwater cooperation.

24447> Developing resilient, adaptive water

management systems through a bottom-up
participatory technology development
process - A case study in four Indigenous
communities in Canada
Rachael Marshall 1, Khosrow Farahbakhsh 1,
1 : School of Engineering, University of Guelph
* : Auteur correspondant

Indigenous communities in Canada have faced many challenges over the past century, including socioeconomic crises, geographic isolation, a lack of political voice, and failing infrastructure. A lack of synergy
between Indigenous ways of knowing and scientific/technical worldviews has been identified as a primary
contributing factor to many of these issues. The pronounced dichotomy between these perspectives has
resulted in systems that are neither resilient nor meet the unique needs of Indigenous communities. Policies
and procedures that exclude Indigenous worldviews have inhibited effective decision-making processes and
meaningful community engagement.
Water management systems provide a clear case of inhibited decision-making processes in Indigenous
communities. Outdated design and decision-making processes developed and tested in southern, urban
environments are imposed on these communities. The resulting infrastructure is prone to frequent failure,
marked by routine boil water advisories, jeopardizing the health and safety of Indigenous communities.
Indigenous governments and communities must constantly respond to crisis, providing no room to plan for
long-term, appropriate, and resilient water management systems. Compounding these crises are the many
vulnerabilities, including climate change, energy insecurity, and socio-economic and political uncertainties.
We will be presenting the outcomes of an interdisciplinary (Engineering, Sociology, Anthropology, and
Native Studies) research project with four Indigenous partner communities to develop long-term plans for
resilient and adaptive water management systems that fit their unique circumstances. The aim is to build
adaptive capacity to transition these water management systems from complex to complex adaptive.
Embedded in post-normal science, this project has developed appropriate methodologies and tools for
community engagement; gathering local knowledge; characterizing local context; understanding the
complex system of management; and developing long-term scenarios that are informed by both Indigenous
ways of knowing and established scientific and technical knowledge bases.
In particular we will focus on the following aspects:
Methodologies and tools for exploring the synergies between differing knowledge systems
(Indigenous and Western) and to facilitate community engagement;
Application of the narrative approach to design and planning in Indigenous communities;
Application of the adaptive cycle to learning and capacity development; and
Development of a framework for meaningful interdisciplinary research that is both informed by and
informs the community engagement processes.

25413> Symbiosis or Exploitation? Assessing

the Ramifications of Rural-Urban Water
Transfers in Tamil Nadu, India.
Shanmuga Priya Gnanasekaran 1, Thomas Clark 2,
1 : PhD Candidate, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver.
2 : Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning and Policy Development, Department of Planning and Design College of
Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

Transferring water from rural agriculture use to urban municipal and industrial use by administrative
decisions is widely practiced in many water-scarce regions in India. There have been numerous for' and
against' arguments on rural-urban water transfers. Water transfers are justified on the basis of more efficient
use of water, as farmers are often seen as getting a disproportionate share of water and wasting water.
However, opponents of water transfers argue that mostly short term economic gains play a major role in
shaping water transfers, ignoring the broader political economy and environment. Ideally, planning and
implementation of such water transfers should be carried out with the understanding of the trade-offs
involved, as there is economic, social and environmental interdependence between urban and rural areas.
The processes and critical impacts of rural-urban water transfer are not well researched or understood (Celio
et al., 2010). Past empirical inquiries on water transfers focus on just a few variables, ignoring the
intervening or modifying mechanism, such as characteristics of the water supplying region and response
capacities of preexisting water users, and present contrasting results. Hence, to understand the trade-offs
involved in the rural-urban water transfers, the analysis needs to take a holistic approach that considers the
complex and interdependent ecological and socio-economic processes and feedbacks. In this context, it
would be beneficial to adopt a complex Social-Ecological Systems (SES) approach, as the existence of
trade-off, losing one quality or aspect in exchange for another, is one of the fundamental aspects considered
in the analysis of SES.
This study analyses a selected water transfer case in totality deploying a SES framework (Ostrom, 2011)
and presents the results. Water transfer process is examined from a broad systems perspective,
conceptualizing the water supplying region in the selected case as a complex SES. Chennai Water
Augmentation Project I is chosen for the detailed analysis. This project was implemented in 2004 to convey
water from the Veeranam Lake to the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, through a 230 km pipeline. The
Veeranam Lake, constructed in the 11th century, irrigates an area of 18,152 ha benefitting 128 villages.
This study draws upon both qualitative and quantitative data derived from surveys, key informant
interviews, field observations and secondary data, and investigates the nature of changes in the supplying
region. Socio-economic characteristics, agricultural productivity, land use and water availability before and
after water transfers are analyzed to determine the changes in the supplying region . The analysis reveals the
following trends: increase in well irrigated and rain-fed agricultural lands; a shift from agriculture as the
main source of income and employment; temporary migration of agricultural workers.
Based on the study findings, the water transfer policy and planning processes can be optimized to balance
the trade-offs between and within the rural and urban regions.
References:
Celio, M., Scott, C. A., & Giordano, M. (2010). Urban-agricultural water appropriation: The Hyderabad, India case.
Geographical Journal, 176(1), 39-57.
Ostrom, E. (2011). Background on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework. Policy Studies Journal, 39,
727.

25736 > The role of social relations and local

power structure in managing drinking water
stress after natural extreme events
Raju Sarkar 1, Joachim Vogt,
1 : Institute of Regional Science (IfR) - Site web
Kaiserstrae 12 D-76131 Karlsruhe - Allemagne

This paper aims to find out the functionality, scope, and limitation of post-disaster communal response and
communal capacity to adopt with disaster adversities; implicitly concentrating in drinking water aspects in
south-western rural coastal areas of Bangladesh. The intensity of difficulties in drinking water sector in the
study area is mainly influenced by the spatially varied availability of drinking water sources and related
seasonality aspects. Tube well, ponds with or without adjacent filtration facility and household based
rainwater harvesting plant are the main drinking water sources available here. Because of high salinity in
shallow aquifers, particle size of the soil, thickness of aquifer, availability of potable water layer in small
pockets and significant concentration of arsenic and iron, success in terms of tube well installation is limited.
People can drink pond water mainly in the monsoon season because of the tolerable limit of salinity but it is
subject to microbiological contamination. Possibility to collapse for the above mentioned drinking water
supply system remains always high after natural extreme events, because of an outbreak of epidemics and
other forms of secondary impacts. The southwestern coastal inhabitants have experienced such incidence
during the last devastating cyclone Aila' in 2009.
After this incidence, along with inter and intra communal initiatives; a temporary water supply programme
has been put into action by different NGOs to face the challenge, where water has been distributed as
disaster relief material. Information regarding the distribution programme, other forms of coping strategies,
and related problem features has been collected through structured questionnaire survey, in depth interviews
and case studies. The results show that the communal resilience in managing drinking water stress after
catastrophic destruction is limited due to the marginal livelihood security along with geo-spatial constraints,
lack of coordination between socio-political and administrative organizations, the informal interactions of
local power structure and mass level corruption. On the contrary, the social bondage, enthusiasm as well as
voluntary labor offered by the local young generation and the sense of fellow feelings in general to combat
the adversities represents their capacity to cope with such crisis situation.

25183> Linking the participatory evaluation

of the water system vulnerability with
resilience assessment in communal aqueducts
to improve their performance
Gabriela Chaves 1, 2,
1 : Laura Benegas
2 : William Watler

In Costa Rica in 1941, the National Institute of Aqueducts and Sewage Systems (AyA by its Spanish
acronym) was created, with the main purpose to improve access to drinking water and population health.
However, in the 90's decade AyA was unable to cover the water demand of the whole country, and
delegated through a norm, the administration and distribution of water for human consumption to the
Administrative Associations of Communal Aqueducts (ASADA). An ASADAs is a rural nonprofit
organization for public service.
Decentralization, understood as a good strategy to promote local organization led to the creation of more
than 2000 ASADA to the present. Nevertheless, this process lacks a suitable governmental planning,
capacity building and economic support for a good performance of the ASADA. Nowadays, these
organizations are highly dependent of the government in economic terms, which, together with the complex
bureaucratic system, paradoxically generates a new centralization, and permanent problems of water
management for the ASADA.
In 2012, with the financial aid of the Commission for Handling and Management of the Reventazn Basin
(COMCURE), the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) did the
participatory evaluation of the vulnerability of 25 ASADA located in the Reventazn basin in Costa Rica.
The results showed evident problems which were diverse and at different scales, such as the lack of
synergies especially among the governmental institutions and the ASADA, water quality issues related to
actual land uses, aqueducts affected by intensive rainfall, lack of continuity in the processes due to changes
in the ASADA's members every second year, absence of incentives to aid participation into this associations,
and weak adaptive capacity.
The evaluation of vulnerability gave the knowledge of the actual situation of these ASADA, where 80%
prioritized the problem of acueducto management -These are the key issues equivalent to the disturbances
and uncertainties to what they have to build their resilience. Since we also know the projected water
availability for all these system, ranged from 0, 5 to 3 l/sec. However the methodology does not elaborate on
the different scales of analysis, and thresholds to improve resilience to disturbances
Given this situation, there is a need to assess and relate such problems from another perspective, not from a
negative nature anymore, but from a possibility of problem's overcoming, where members of the ASADA
can develop capacities to cope and recover from disturbances. With this goal, it will be used the approach of
socio-ecologic systems, that is to say, of resilience to be able to do an integral management of water
resources from the local knowledge of these aqueducts.
That is why recently initiated a new research from the resilience approach ASADA socio-ecological system
will interact considering the different scales of analysis to generate the construction of systems that are able
to resist, we will present the thresholds and interactions synthesis build for each aqueduct, at the conference.