Assessing adaptive capacity of water governance regimes under climatic uncertainty

摘要

Climate change is a complex, wicked problem which crosses sectoral, disciplinary, temporal and national boundaries. It is increasingly recognised that water will be the prime medium through which climate change impacts will be felt. In mountainous areas, impacts on glacial retreat and precipitation patterns, together with associated changes in runoff regimes are already observed and are projected to magnify (Fig. 1). The changing requirements and contradictory impacts on demand and supply are therefore leading to questions of whether existing water institutional frameworks are robust enough to cope.