EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book Adaptive Water Governance and Community Resilience

Download or read book Adaptive Water Governance and Community Resilience written by Rachel Emeline Boucher and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resilience is a concept that is becoming heavily researched in the sustainability and resource management literature. For rural resource-dependent communities, community resilience is the ability to adapt to various drivers of change while maintaining or enhancing community well-being. In recent decades, the field of water resource governance has been transitioning from a reliance on command-and-control institutional structures toward adaptive multi-level institutions, such as adaptive co-management and adaptive governance. These transitions offer potential opportunities for enhancing the resilience and sustainability of resource-dependent communities. However, the relationship between these emerging governance approaches and community resilience is not fully understood. The Cache River Watershed in southern Illinois offers an opportunity for further exploring these relationships. Designated as a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance due to its concentration of high-quality wetland habitat and high biodiversity, the Cache River Watershed is home to over 100 threatened or endangered species. In 1991, the Cache River Wetlands Joint Venture Partnership (CRWJVP) was formed to address various ecological crises in the watershed. While the CRWJVP has made significant progress in restoring and reforesting the corridor along the Cache River, the impact of these management efforts on the resilience of communities in the watershed has not been adequately analyzed. Using the Cache River Watershed as a case study, the purpose of this study was to assess the impacts of ongoing transitions in water governance on the resilience of resource-dependent communities. Based on a qualitative research approach, methods of data collection for this study consisted of key informant interviews, participant observations, and the review of documents. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a deductive coding approach with the aid of NVivo software. The analysis of data on the general resilience attributes of the communities showed that the well-being and resilience of the communities were composed of multiple dimensions that could be represented by the capital assets framework. The results also indicated that the various dimensions of community resilience were dynamic rather than static, interacted with one another in complex ways, and were influenced by multiple drivers of change from the local to the global. The analysis of data on community participation in the governance of the watershed also revealed moderate to minimal levels of involvement. Barriers that were identified in the participation process comprised the lack of awareness and interest among some community members, as well as the lack of resources and opportunities for participation. Finally, the impacts of the CRWJVP management actions on community resilience were analyzed. Although most key informants reported positive impacts of the program on the communities' natural capital, the impacts of the program on other dimensions of community resilience, such as physical capital and economic capital were largely perceived as negative. Key informants recommended the need for a consensus-building approach to managing ongoing conflicts in the watershed, as well as a broadening of the CRWJVP management agenda to include social considerations, such as tourism promotion and flood control. These results highlight the complexity of resource-dependent communities and the urgent need for a transition toward adaptive water governance for enhancing social and ecological resilience.

Book Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance

Download or read book Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance written by Barbara Cosens and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-04-18 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the results of an interdisciplinary project that examined how law, policy and ecological dynamics influence the governance of regional scale water based social-ecological systems in the United States and Australia. The volume explores the obstacles and opportunities for governance that is capable of management, adaptation, and transformation in these regional social-ecological systems as they respond to accelerating environmental change. With the onset of the Anthropocene, global and regional changes in biophysical inputs to these systems will challenge their capacity to respond while maintaining functions of water supply, flood control, hydropower production, water quality, and biodiversity. Governance lies at the heart of the capacity of these systems to meet these challenges. Assessment of water basins in the United States and Australia indicates that state-centric governance of these complex and dynamic social-environmental systems is evolving to a more complex, diverse, and complex array public and private arrangements. In this process, three challenges emerge for water governance to become adaptive to environmental change. First, is the need for legal reform to remove barriers to adaptive governance by authorizing government agencies to prepare for windows of opportunity through adaptive planning, and to institutionalize the results of innovative solutions that arise once a window opens. Second, is the need for legal reform to give government agencies the authority to facilitate and participate in adaptive management and governance. This must be accompanied by parallel legal reform to assure that engagement of private and economic actors and the increase in governmental flexibility does not destabilize basin economies or come at the expense of legitimacy, accountability, equity, and justice. Third, development of means to continually assess thresholds and resilience of social-ecological systems and the adaptive capacity of their current governance to structure actions at multiple scales. The massive investment in water infrastructure on the river basins studied has improved the agricultural, urban and economic sectors, largely at the cost of other social and environmental values. Today the infrastructure is aging and in need of substantial investment for those benefits to continue and adapt to ongoing environmental changes. The renewal of institutions and heavily engineered water systems also presents the opportunity to modernize these systems to address inequity and align with the values and objectives of the 21st century. Creative approaches are needed to transform and modernize water governance that increases the capacity of these water-based social-ecological systems to innovate, adapt, and learn, will provide the tools needed to navigate an uncertain future.

Book Adaptive Governance of Disaster

Download or read book Adaptive Governance of Disaster written by Margot A. Hurlbert and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-08-07 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comparative analysis of policy instruments designed to respond to climate change, drought and floods in connection with agricultural producers and their communities in four case study areas: Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada; Coquimbo, Chile; and Mendoza, Argentina. Assessed from the standpoint of effectiveness and adaptive governance, instruments for improving the livelihood capitals of agricultural producers are identified and recommendations to improve the suite of policy instruments are put forward.

Book Climate Change and Water Governance

Download or read book Climate Change and Water Governance written by Margot Hill and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-11-13 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book presents detailed case studies examining the Rhône Basin in the Canton Valais, Switzerland and the Aconcagua Basin in Valparaiso, Chile. In order to understand and assess the interplay of complex and interlinked environmental and socio-economic issues, the author looks beyond the technology, modelling, engineering and infrastructure associated with water resources management and climate change adaptation, to assess the decision-making environment within which water and adaptation policy and practices are devised and executed.

Book Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance

Download or read book Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance written by Barbara Cosens and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the results of an interdisciplinary project that examined how law, policy and ecological dynamics influence the governance of regional scale water based social-ecological systems in the United States and Australia. The volume explores the obstacles and opportunities for governance that is capable of management, adaptation, and transformation in these regional social-ecological systems as they respond to accelerating environmental change. With the onset of the Anthropocene, global and regional changes in biophysical inputs to these systems will challenge their capacity to respond while maintaining functions of water supply, flood control, hydropower production, water quality, and biodiversity. Governance lies at the heart of the capacity of these systems to meet these challenges. Assessment of water basins in the United States and Australia indicates that state-centric governance of these complex and dynamic social-environmental systems is evolving to a more complex, diverse, and complex array public and private arrangements. In this process, three challenges emerge for water governance to become adaptive to environmental change. First, is the need for legal reform to remove barriers to adaptive governance by authorizing government agencies to prepare for windows of opportunity through adaptive planning, and to institutionalize the results of innovative solutions that arise once a window opens. Second, is the need for legal reform to give government agencies the authority to facilitate and participate in adaptive management and governance. This must be accompanied by parallel legal reform to assure that engagement of private and economic actors and the increase in governmental flexibility does not destabilize basin economies or come at the expense of legitimacy, accountability, equity, and justice. Third, development of means to continually assess thresholds and resilience of social-ecological systems and the adaptive capacity of their current governance to structure actions at multiple scales. The massive investment in water infrastructure on the river basins studied has improved the agricultural, urban and economic sectors, largely at the cost of other social and environmental values. Today the infrastructure is aging and in need of substantial investment for those benefits to continue and adapt to ongoing environmental changes. The renewal of institutions and heavily engineered water systems also presents the opportunity to modernize these systems to address inequity and align with the values and objectives of the 21st century. Creative approaches are needed to transform and modernize water governance that increases the capacity of these water-based social-ecological systems to innovate, adapt, and learn, will provide the tools needed to navigate an uncertain future.

Book Water Resilience

    Book Details:
  • Author : Julia Baird
  • Publisher : Springer Nature
  • Release : 2020-09-21
  • ISBN : 3030481107
  • Pages : 307 pages

Download or read book Water Resilience written by Julia Baird and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book synthesizes current knowledge and understanding of management and governance in the context of water resilience; advances theory through synthesis of research and experiences from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The book highlights the implications of theory and experience for innovation in practice and policy; and it explores frontiers and future research. The book further addresses the need for a consolidated, interdisciplinary approach to the theoretical advances and practical implications of water resilience for academics, resource managers, aid organizations, policy makers and citizens.

Book Water Resilience for Human Prosperity

Download or read book Water Resilience for Human Prosperity written by Johan Rockström and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's human population now constitutes the largest driving force of changes to the biosphere. Emerging water challenges require new ideas for governance and management of water resources in the context of rapid global change. This book presents a new approach to water resources, addressing global sustainability and focusing on socio-ecological resilience to changes. Topics covered include the risks of unexpected change, human impacts and dependence on global water, the prospects for feeding the world's population by 2050, and a pathway for the future. The book's innovative and integrated approach links green and blue freshwater with terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem functions and use. It also links changes arising from land-use alteration with the impacts of those changes on social-ecological systems and ecosystem services. This is an important, state-of-the-art resource for academic researchers and water resource professionals, and a key reference for graduate students studying water resource governance and management.

Book Water in Himalayan Towns  Lessons for Adaptive Water Governance

Download or read book Water in Himalayan Towns Lessons for Adaptive Water Governance written by Anjal Prakash and published by IWA Publishing. This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing urbanization and changing climate are two critical stressors that are adversely affecting the biophysical environment of urban areas in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. The book discusses various choices and options – from demand management to supply enhancement, understanding ecological footprints of towns to managing water at a bioregional scale. In doing so, it is vital to address issues of equity and empower local institutions in managing water. The focus for the future must be on building urban resilience by strengthening the adaptive capacities of affected communities while also understanding the limits to adaptation. In Focus – a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.

Book Water Governance in the Face of Global Change

Download or read book Water Governance in the Face of Global Change written by Claudia Pahl-Wostl and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-09-04 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of multi-level water governance, developing a conceptual and analytical framework that captures the complexity of real water governance systems while also introducing different approaches to comparative analysis. Applications illustrate how the ostensibly conflicting goals of deriving general principles and of taking context-specific factors into account can be reconciled. Specific emphasis is given to governance reform, adaptive and transformative capacity and multi-level societal learning. The sustainable management of global water resources is one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century. Many problems and barriers to improvement can be attributed to failures in governance rather than the resource base itself. At the same time our understanding of complex water governance systems largely remains limited and fragmented. The book offers an invaluable resource for all researchers working on water governance topics and for practitioners dealing with water governance challenges alike.

Book Adaptive Governance

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ronald D. Brunner
  • Publisher : Columbia University Press
  • Release : 2005
  • ISBN : 0231136250
  • Pages : 346 pages

Download or read book Adaptive Governance written by Ronald D. Brunner and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing case studies, the authors of this work examine how adaptive governance breaks the gridlock in natural-resource policy. Unlike scientific management, which relies on science as the foundation for policies made through a central authority, adaptive governance integrates other types of knowledge into the decision-making process. The authors emphasize the need for open decision making, recognition of multiple interests in questions of natural-resource policy, and an integrative, interpretive science to replace traditional reductive, experimental science.

Book Resilience and Water Governance

Download or read book Resilience and Water Governance written by Barbara A. Cosens and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1964 Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada is currently under review. Under the treaty, the river is jointly operated by the two countries for hydropower and is the largest producer of hydropower in the western hemisphere. In considering the next phase of international river governance, the degree of uncertainty surrounding the drivers of change complicates efforts to predict and manage under traditional approaches that rely on historical ecosystem responses. At the same time, changes in social values have focused attention on ecosystem health, the decline of which has led to the listing of seven salmon and four steelhead populations under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Although adaptive management is considered one approach to resource management in the face of uncertainty, an early attempt at its implementation in the U.S. portion of the basin failed. We explore these issues in the context of resilience, taking the position that while adaptive management may foster ecological resilience, it is only one factor in the institutional changes needed to foster social-ecological resilience captured in the concept of adaptive governance.

Book The Oxford Handbook of Governance

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Governance written by David Levi-Faur and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 828 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Oxford Handbook will be the definitive study of governance for years to come. 'Governance' has become one of the most popular terms in contemporary political science; this Handbook explores the full range of meaning and application of the concept and its use in a number of research fields.

Book Adaptive and Integrated Water Management

Download or read book Adaptive and Integrated Water Management written by Claudia Pahl-Wostl and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-12-15 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable water management is a key environmental challenge of the 21st century. This book presents the very latest studies, methods and innovations for managing our water resources from the first International Conference on Adaptive and Integrated Water Management, held in November 2007 in Basel, Switzerland. The book addresses a wide interdisciplinary audience of scientists and professionals from academia, industry, and those involved in policy making.

Book Understanding the Emergence of Adaptive Water Governance

Download or read book Understanding the Emergence of Adaptive Water Governance written by Jodie Carol Hancock and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sustainable management of coupled social-ecological systems, such as water resource systems, requires institutional mechanisms for managing uncertainties and building more resilient social-ecological systems. Adaptive governance is an outcome of the search for a way to manage uncertainties and complexities within social-ecological systems. The concept of adaptive governance has emerged as a product of resilience theory and theoretical insights on common pool resources management. Adaptive governance refers to flexible multi-level institutions that connect state and non-state actors to facilitate a collaborative and learning-based approach to ecosystem management. As such, it has the potential to integrate social considerations into the decision process while also dealing with uncertainties in complex water resource systems. However, little is understood on how transitions toward adaptive governance systems take place and what criteria qualify a given institutional mechanism as an adaptive governance regime. This thesis presents results on a study that was aimed at understanding the process and outcomes of transitions toward adaptive water governance by using the Cache River Joint Venture Partnership (CRWJVP) within the Cache River Watershed in Southern Illinois as a case study. Qualitative data for the study were generated through key informant interviews among members of the CRWJVP and other knowledgeable actors, document review, and participant observation. The results revealed that the transformation of the governance of the Cache River watershed through the emergence of the CRWJVP was the result of ecological crises that began a citizen-led effort to preserve the Cache River wetlands. Additionally, the transition process was facilitated through trust-building, incentives, leadership, enabling legislation, and the role of bridging organizations. The results also showed that when compared to the attributes of an adaptive governance system, the current governance system of the Cache River watershed does not fully exhibit all the ideal attributes. However, the CRWJVP is moving towards an adaptive governance regime through the recent utilization of decision-making processes for recognizing and managing conflicts and uncertainties in the management of the watershed. Barriers in the transition process and recommendations for overcoming them are also discussed in the thesis. In all, findings from this study should be of relevance to scientists and decision-makers interested in understanding and enhancing transitions toward adaptive governance for the sustainable management of land and water resources in the Cache River watershed and elsewhere.

Book Adaptive Capacity and Environmental Governance

Download or read book Adaptive Capacity and Environmental Governance written by Derek Armitage and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rapid environmental change calls for individuals and societies with an ability to transform our interactions with each other and the ecosystems upon which we depend. Adaptive capacity - the ability of a social-ecological system (or the components of that system) to be robust to disturbances and capable of responding to changes - is increasingly recognized as a critical attribute of multi-level environmental governance. This unique volume offers the first interdisciplinary and integrative perspective on an emerging area of applied scholarship, with contributions from internationally recognized researchers and practitioners. It demonstrates how adaptive capacity makes environmental governance possible in complex social-ecological systems. Cutting-edge theoretical developments are explored and empirical case studies offered from a wide range of geographic settings and natural resource contexts, such as water, climate, fisheries and forestry. • Of interest to researchers, policymakers and resource managers seeking to navigate and understand social-ecological change in diverse geographic settings and resource contexts

Book Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict

Download or read book Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict written by John T Scholz and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Water policy seems in perpetual crisis. Increasingly, conflicts extend beyond the statutory authority, competence, geographical jurisdictions, and political constituencies of highly specialized governing authorities. While other books address specific policy approaches or the application of adaptive management strategies to specific problems, this is the first book to focus more broadly on adaptive governance, or the evolution of new institutions that attempt to resolve conflicts among competing authorities. Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict investigates new types of water conflicts among users in the seemingly water-rich Eastern United States. Eight case studies of water quality, water quantity, and habitat preservation or restoration in Florida were chosen to span the range of conflicts crossing fragmented regulatory boundaries. Each begins with a history of the conflict and then focuses on the innovative institutional arrangements - some successful, some not - that evolved to grapple with the resulting challenges. In the chapters that follow, scholars and practitioners in urban planning, political science, engineering, law, policy, administration, and geology offer different theoretical and experience-based perspectives on the cases. Together, they discuss five challenges that new institutions must overcome to develop sustainable solutions for water users: Who is to be involved in the policy process? How are they to interact? How is science to be used? How are users and the public to be made aware? How can solutions be made efficient and equitable? In its diverse perspectives and unique combination of theory, application, and analysis, Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict will be a valuable book for water professionals, policy scientists, students, and scholars in natural resource planning and management.

Book Rule

    Book Details:
  • Author : Alejandro Omar Iza
  • Publisher : IUCN
  • Release : 2009
  • ISBN : 2831710278
  • Pages : 130 pages

Download or read book Rule written by Alejandro Omar Iza and published by IUCN. This book was released on 2009 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Effective water governance capacity is the foundation of efficient management of water resources. Water governance reform processes must work towards building capacity in a cohesive and articulated approach that links national policies, laws and institutions, within an enabling environment that allows for their implementation. This guide shows how national water reform processes can deliver good water governance, by focussing on the principles and practice of reform. RULE guides managers and decision makers on a journey which provides an overview of what makes good law, policy and institutions, and the steps needed to build a coherent and fully operational water governance structure.