The governance of climate change adaptation: stormwater management policy and practice

Abstract

Urban flooding is a significant climate change risk for cities. Stormwater management (SWM) has emerged as a key policy response to reduce urban vulnerability to flood risk, and it offers an ideal case study for analyzing the governance of climate change adaptation. This article focuses on SWM policy in the Province of Ontario, Canada, with the broader objective of assessing the nature and dynamics of adaptation governance arrangements. The evolution of SWM policy is examined longitudinally to understand how the interaction of policy ideas, actors and institutions have mobilized adaptation principles. The results reveal that, despite consensus on key ideas among policy actors, the institutionalization of adaptation principles into SWM policy lags behind. This finding raises questions about the capacity of regional governments to strengthen local adaptation and underpins the need for further research on the interaction between evolving adaptation priorities and established policy regimes.