Enabling Adaptive Water Management to Face Drought Risk in a Changing Climate PDF
Preview Enabling Adaptive Water Management to Face Drought Risk in a Changing Climate
SPRINGER BRIEFS IN APPLIED SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY POLIMI SPRINGER BRIEFS Guido Minucci Enabling Adaptive Water Management to Face Drought Risk in a Changing Climate SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology PoliMI SpringerBriefs Editorial Board Barbara Pernici, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Stefano Della Torre, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Bianca M. Colosimo, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Tiziano Faravelli, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Roberto Paolucci, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy Silvia Piardi, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy More information about this subseries at http://www.springer.com/series/11159 http://www.polimi.it Guido Minucci Enabling Adaptive Water Management to Face Drought Risk in a Changing Climate 123 GuidoMinucci DASTU Politecnico di Milano Milan,Italy ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic) SpringerBriefs inApplied SciencesandTechnology ISSN 2282-2577 ISSN 2282-2585 (electronic) PoliMI SpringerBriefs ISBN978-3-030-55136-0 ISBN978-3-030-55137-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55137-7 ©TheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2021 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseof illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilar ordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Foreword This book is about drought, institutional arrangements in developing countries dealing with water management, global economic drivers, poor communities in search of improved living conditions, and showing how all those issues are inter- acting together under changing climatic, political, and socio-economic conditions. Itdoessobydrawingonfirst-handobservationsandanalysisofavailableliterature, documents,andinterviews inthearea ofMunicipalityofTomave belongingtothe Quijarro Province in Bolivia. Bolivia is a relatively remote country in Latin America, for long time excluded from global formal trade connections, suddenly discovering the enormous potential of a seed, the quinoa, particularly appreciated for its nutritional qualities in countries that have internationalized their taste and seeking healthier food. The quinoa production of the quinoa is increasing rapidly, demandingamoreconsiderableamountofwater,attheexpenseofotherplantsand it is creating new problems of sustainability. The latter are experienced not only environmentallybutalsoasfarasthelocaldietisconcerned:whilstthequinoawas traditionally providing the basic food for Bolivian people, its discovery as a lucrative product has turned it into a good for exportation, thus depriving many of its consumption without providing equally valid alternatives. ByenteringintothespecificdynamicsthatcharacterizestheBoliviancasestudy, the author describes how development is somehow forced by international com- petitionoverglobalmarketstotakeunsustainablepathsthatareinthemedium-and longer-term detrimental for the well being and even the survival of communities that are hoping instead to improve their rather poor conditions. It is a rather well-known trend that globalization has somehow stretched to the extreme: unsustainablesocialandlivingconditionspushpeoplesearchingforimprovements thatobeytothelawsoffree,globalmarkets,resultingindecreaseofpovertybutat the expense of environmental sustainability. On the balance, the trade is between livelihood and environmental sustainability, where the impact on the latter means theerosionofthevitalbasisoftheformer.Findinganequilibriumbetweenthetwo should be the objective of what Guido Minucci proposes as adaptive water man- agement and planning. A concept is not new and actually very much debated especially in more recent years. Nevertheless operationalizing it, turning it into an v vi Foreword actual opportunity for finding the balance between contrasting needs operating at differentspatialandtemporalscalesisnotaseasytodoastosay.Infact,onemust be aware that forces that are playing on this ground are shaped across different spatialscales:theconsumersofthegoodsarefarfromwherethedamagetonatural resources is suffered and the marketing campaigns actually promote them as healthierandalsoprovidingthesourceofenhancedlivingstandardsforproducers, whichispartiallytrue.Asforthetemporalscale,thebenefitsarenow,whereasthe harm will be brought in the future, a situation that is common to most environ- mentalhazardsandrisks.Suchcomplexinterrelationshipsmakeitratherdifficultto implement adaptive management only locally, where the goods are produced, or even at the national level, where decision makers see their commercial balance pending on the positive side as for export and GDP. What makes the analysis and theinsightsonthedifferentdimensionpolitical,social,institutional,environmental of the case study so relevant stems from the deep knowledge that the author has developed by living in the area and therefore getting to understand processes and practicesintheeverydaylifeandnotjustasastand-aloneresultoffewvisitstothe area. The experience matured and lived through in the Municipality of Tomave provided him with the possibility to identify specific aspects that can be leveraged on, albeit in a very difficult context, in order to achieve enhanced adaptive water management practices. Thebookisorganizedinaninterestingmanner,asitfirstproposesaframework, named REACT, to combine the clear identification, description of the problems entailedbycurrentwatermanagementpracticesmakingexplicitthedifferentdrivers actingatdifferentscales,withtheproposalofsolutionsthatresultfromaprocessto betriggeredamongstavarietyofstakeholders.Suchprocessputsatthecentreaset of capacities including collective and individual learning, sharing of information, improved practices of decision-making and negotiation. Then the framework is tested in the case study of Bolivia, revealing the many obstacles that it would face in case of adoption. In the concluding chapter, the author provides ideas grounded on evidences from the field on how the framework can still provide a significant addedvalueandpotentiallyleadtomuchmoresustainablesolutionsandpracticesif local actors who are facing the consequences of ill-water management are able to innovatefrominsidecurrentgovernancepracticestriggeringaseasonofreforms.It isacknowledgedthatthelattercannotbeachievedallatonce,butprioritiesmustbe set based also on what is achievable and what can be used as a leverage to trigger more vertical and horizontal coordination amongst social groups and institutions. One way to do this is perhaps working to improve drought early warning systems that address immediate issues that are already experienced by all (or most) stake- holdersandthendemonstratethatbetterwatermanagementcansignificantlyreduce thenumberofwarnings,bypushingawaycriticalthresholdsfromthemostfrequent conditions ofseasonswith scarce rainfall. The entire bookisinfact based ontheI believe correct assumption that whilst drought is a natural phenomenon, water scarcity isexperiencedprimarilybecauseofill-designedwatersystemsandlackof adaptation to climatic conditions, even without fully considering the impact of climatechange.And,correctlytheauthorbeginswithamultifacetedandarticulated Foreword vii explanation of drought that differently from other “natural” hazards does not cor- respondtoanagreedupon,univocaldefinition.Thisapparentlyoddsituationstems fromthefactthatdroughtisconceivedandperceiveddifferentlyupontheusagesof water rather than referred to indisputable precipitation values. It is also the result of the nature of drought that differently from floods or storms is a creeping and long-termdurationhazardbothinitsoutbreakandintheconsequencesitproduces in social and natural systems. Byinterlacing adisasterrisk reduction with anadaptivewater managementand planning perspectives, the present book provides a useful contribution to a field of research and practice that is at the frontier of various disciplines and organizations thathaveattheendnootherchoicethancooperateforthesurvivalofcommunities andecosystemswithoutwhichalsotheconditionsthatpermittosometogetricher and better are severely undermined. Milan, Italy Scira Menoni Preface Droughtisasevereweather-relatednaturaldisasteraffectingtheextendedareaand ranking first among all natural hazards in terms of the number of people affected, putting society and environment at risk in many regions of the world. Droughts of even greater intensity will likely increase in the coming years, and other stresses related to global market-driven transformations and population growth will com- pound the effects of climate variability and change on water resources. The traditional water management is now considered inadequate to respond to uncertainties and extremes expected with climate change and other contextual conditions. As a result, water management has shifted towards iterative and inte- grated management practices, more aligned with concepts of adaptive water management. The book examines the drought risk characteristics and the specificities of the impactsof droughts firstly. Then it explores the current challenges and thecontext ofhighuncertaintyandhighrisksforwatermanagementaswellastheinterlinkages between drought and water management. The book focuses on the challenges to water organizations, requiring the ability to adapt to such changes and implement adaptive water management. The characteristics of the adaptive capacity regarding organizations and insti- tutions have been identified and investigated through a critical review of the rele- vant literature. Reframing such characteristics, the book proposes a conceptual framework to assess organization’s adaptive capacity, named REACT. The developed framework has been tested within a case study in Bolivia. The book analyzes the barriers hindering the adaptive capacity of organizations thatadministerwater toadapt,suchasalowleveloforganizational andindividual learningcapacity,alackofsharingandnegotiating,leadershipandresources.Italso investigates the socio-cultural and economic barriers in the water governance for applying the AWM strategies that include institutional legacy and fragmentation, lack of resources as well as corruption and elite pressure. ix x Preface The book describes how to enable adaptive water management to face current and future drought risk by integrating it with drought risk management, for instance, promoting policies that endorse watersheds protection and drought plans strengthening water management capacity within water users and managers. Thefindingsoutlinethatanadaptiveapproachtowatermanagementintegrating drought risk management facilitates a context with flexible and open water man- agementorganizationsandgovernancesystemsthatallowforlearningandincrease adaptive capacity to embrace climate and non-climatic drivers uncertainties in decision-making and design solutions that reduce vulnerability to ensure sustain- able development. Milan, Italy Guido Minucci
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