Climate Resilient Water Management

The effects of climate change are beginning to impact water quantity and water quality across the globe. However, there is no single action or strategy that any government can implement to ensure a community is resilient to climate change-related extreme weather events while also protecting the natural system. Instead, Robert Brears argues, climate resilient water resources management requires integrated, forward-thinking policies that are not only adaptable to changing climatic conditions but also seek to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner while ensuring the continued health of their ecosystems. This book addresses how several levels of government in different geographical locations, with varying climates, incomes, and lifestyles, have implemented a variety of policies and technologies to ensure communities are resilient to climatic risks, and how these policies preserve and enhance the natural system and its associated ecosystem’s health.

ACT (Action on Climate Today) is an initiative funded with UK aid from the UK government and managed by Oxford Policy Management. ACT brings together two UK Department for International Development programmes: the Climate Proofing Growth and Development programme and the Climate Change Innovation Programme

This book entitled Integrated Resilient Water Resources Management attempts to address the main aspects of integrated management of water resources, climate change and sustainable development in Brazil in recent decades. The book consists of three parts, namely: i) Integrated Resilient Water Resources Management; ii) Climate Resilience in Water Resources and iii) Sustainability in Water Resources.It is a fact that we are living in an era of great uncertainties related to the climate and that we need tools for climate-resilient water management approaches. In recent decades, climate change is accelerating and disrupting the economies of many countries on a global scale and affecting livelihoods, especially through the impact on water and water-related risks. In this sense, it is imperative to incorporate Climate Risks in Decision Making in the integrated resilient water resources management.Thus, the first part of the book (chapter 1 and 2) presents a brief analysis of the current model of integrated water resources management in Brazil, with its advances and implementation problems, in order to present proposals for its improvement. The current water resources management model is discussed with an emphasis on aspects of regulation and social control (seeking efficiency and improving quality and rescuing the public sphere as an instrument for exercising citizenship, among other aspects). We sought to analyze the theme from a theoretical-historical approach to regulation (water management models implemented in Brazil and the genesis of regulatory agencies) and participatory management of water resources, involving the relationship of the State and the public sphere, in especially within river basin committees and water agencies....Therefore, policies related to the management of water resources, the environment and climate change in Brazil are analyzed in a certain way.The Editor.

Resilient Water Services and Systems: The Foundation of Well-Being provides an overarching framework on water and sanitation services and how they are coping with resilience, aging infrastructure and climate change. The Editors present conceptual evidence about resilience backed by case studies that demonstrate resilience in practice. There are 13 case studies, from Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America, providing informative perspectives from around the world. This is a timely collection of historic and contemporary evidence that will have increasing relevance in the coming decades. This volume will be of relevance to both scholars and practitioners. “Resilient water services are the key to water security across the world. Sustaining them is a challenging task in high-income countries where aging infrastructure is a critical issue, and in low-income countries where new infrastructure is needed and ability-to-pay is a more formidable barrier to success. The editors have compiled a succinct analysis and assembled case studies that cover diverse regions and contexts. From this book the reader will gain a wealth of knowledge about water services, as well as rich vicarious experiences from the cases.

This report reviews the main linkages between climate change, water and agriculture as a means to identifying and discussing adaptation strategies for better use and conservation of water resources.

- Water resources management should be assessed under climate change conditions, as historic data cannot replicate future climatic conditions. - Climate change impacts on water resources are bound to affect all water uses, i.e., irrigated agriculture, domestic and industrial water supply, hydropower generation, and environmental flow (of streams and rivers) and water level (of lakes). - Bottom-up approaches, i.e., the forcing of hydrologic simulation models with climate change models’ outputs, are the most common engineering practices and considered as climate-resilient water management approaches. - Hydrologic simulations forced by climate change scenarios derived from regional climate models (RCMs) can provide accurate assessments of the future water regime at basin scales. - Irrigated agriculture requires special attention as it is the principal water consumer and alterations of both precipitation and temperature patterns will directly affect agriculture yields and incomes. - Integrated water resources management (IWRM) requires multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, with climate change to be an emerging cornerstone in the IWRM concept.

This book describes the urgent challenge faced by cities worldwide to become resilient to climate change impacts. This challenge goes further than the ability to resist the impacts of extreme weather conditions. Coping with climate impacts and the ability to recover from them are equally important, as well as the capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change and the ability to transform the entire urban system. The book explores how the resilience journey for coastal cities in particular encompasses using scientific knowledge but also the knowledge of citizens and practitioners. Measures and strategies on different scales are needed, from national scale all the way down to neighbourhood, street level and building level. Representing the holistic nature of climate resilience, this collection contains unique insights from leading scientists and practitioners in areas of expertise such as engineering, social sciences and urban design. It will be a valuable resource for scholars, students, practitioners and policy makers interested in the development of resilient and sustainable urban environments.