Resilient Governance of Water Regimes in Variable Climates: Lessons from California’s Hydro-Ecological Zones

Jeff Romm,Inger Måren,Esther Conrad

doi:10.3390/w10020196

Jeff Romm, Inger Måren + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/w10020196

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Abstract

Highly variable water regimes, such as California’s, contain distinctive problems in the pursuit of secure timing, quantities and distributions of highly variable flows. Their formal and informal systems of water control must adapt rapidly to forceful and unpredictable swings on which the survival of diversified ecosystems, expansive settlement patterns and market-driven economies depends. What constitutes resilient water governance in these high-variability regimes? Three bodies of theory—state resource government, resilience and social mediation—inform our pursuit of governance that adapts effectively to these challenges. Using evidence drawn primarily from California research and participation in the policy and practice of water governance, we identify two stark barriers to learning, adaptation and resilience in high-variability conditions: (1) the sharp divide between modes of governance for ecological (protective) and for social (distributive) resilience and (2) the separation between predominant paradigms of water governance in “basins” (shared streamflow) and in “plains” (minimized social risk). These sources of structural segregation block adaptive processes and diminish systemic resilience, creating need for mediating spaces that increase permeability, learning and adaptation across structural barriers. We propose that the magnitude and diversity of need are related directly to the degree of hydro-climatic variability.

Highlights

IntroductionThe Governance Problem in High-Variability Water Regimes
To illustrate collaborative mediating responses to frequent drought, flood and longer-term climatic trends, we examine the cases of the Sierra Nevada Ecosystems Project (SNEP), the California Delta and the statewide Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) program
The greater Klamath River illustrates the structural tensions in governance for ecological protection and for social distribution of water in the context of California’s highly variable climate

Summary

Introduction

The Governance Problem in High-Variability Water Regimes. Variable climate and water regimes present distinctive problems in the pursuit of security in timing, quantities and distributions of flows. Formal and informal systems of water control must adapt rapidly to dramatic swings in water regimes on which the survival of diversified ecosystems, expansive settlement patterns and market-driven economies depends. They must do so with the distinctive challenges of governmental and financial structures that typically are rooted in less stressful environments, technologies and institutions that embed past strategies in landscape and society and insufficient scientific capacities to mobilize for specific needs and times across their diverse conditions. Long-term climate change furthers the need for resilience [1,2,3] and adaptability [4,5]

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