Climate change has become one of the biggest environmental challenges the world is currently facing. Recent IPCC projections indicate that climate change impacts will increase as current incremental-based adaptation management approaches are insufficient to deal with climate-induced systemic shocks and climate uncertainties. Despite the use of advanced climate impact assessment models, some uncertainty about the nature, scale and dynamics of these impacts on water systems remain persistent. Due to this uncertainty and the complexity of these systems, a shift to transformative water management, building on transformative adaptation, is needed to accommodate disruptive futures and transformative change. We cannot rely solely on predictive forward-looking approaches that generate likely futures, which argues in favor of the complementary use of normative approaches. Backcasting is such an approach that produces desirable futures, before looking back from these futures to the present in order to develop adaptation pathways that could lead to such desirable futures. Backcasting can provide directionality to transformative change, which can guide actions and small incremental, gradual steps towards transformative change, enabling to explore a diversity of possible adaptation pathways and pathway switching, but more effort is needed to further advance backcasting for transformative water management. Based on recent insights on both transformative adaptation and the use of backcasting for climate adaptation, this paper proposes nine principles for advancing backcasting for transformative water management.

This study investigates the practical merits and limitations of adaptive governance, an approach aimed at guiding the intricacies of climate adaptation in complex socio-technical ecological systems. Despite its recognition as a key strategy, questions persist regarding the potential of adaptive governance as a vehicle for meaningful adaptive change. To address this gap, this paper investigates the governance context of the water-adaptation process to drought and salinity in The Netherlands, with a focus on coastal agriculture in the northern Netherlands. Using an interpretative science approach, the study delves into the experiences and subjectivities of stakeholders engaged in adaptation initiatives combating water-related challenges through semi-structured and conversational interviews. The study presents an exploration of central adaptive governance elements (polycentricity; knowledge and learning; leadership; flexibility and variety; and communication) in theory and relates these to the reality of involved actors. The findings reveal how the aspired polycentric and flexible nature of adaptive governance negatively affects the other elements in practice by affecting collaboration and motivation for adaptation, and observes that (perceived) central leadership is much less influential than expected. The findings contribute to our understanding of the governance of lasting adaptivity, highlighting that the adaptive governance paradigm, although it remains useful, must be re-evaluated for contemporary use. Opportunities for the field are discussed.

Worldwide, deltas are important food-producing areas with increasingly densely populated cities. These water-rich areas are also vulnerable to natural, development and climate change-induced disasters such as floods, droughts, cyclones, sea-level rise and water pollution. Sustaining livelihoods of the delta population now and in the future, is therefore increasingly stressed and with compounding challenges: population growth, urbanization, degradation of the environment, dietary change, and climate change. An integrated approach is necessary to navigate this complexity and to move towards a sustainable but uncertain delta future. We introduce three methodological building blocks to facilitate governance in the delta towards sustainability: A food system approach, co-creation of transition pathways, and scale sensitive governance. We underpin the approach, describing the building blocks while referring to the articles in this Special Issue and other recent research using similar approaches. In this way, the article brings together insights on food systems transitions in deltas from different professional backgrounds and provides insight into and contributes to improving governance in water and food-stressed delta regions.

Climate change means that urban areas are experiencing more extreme weather events. Although effective, grey infrastructure solutions to flooding have been criticised for harming the environment, having a negative impact on place and not delivering social and wellbeing benefits. There is increasing interest in using natural elements, such as rain gardens and green roofs, in combination with a placemaking approach to facilitate solutions to flooding that deliver multiple benefits. However, the means to achieve this is poorly understood. This paper contributes to the limited knowledge base on how placemaking and adaptation measures can be integrated in urban areas to meet the needs of communities. This was achieved through research undertaken in the Dundee local authority area. This area faces threats from groundwater, coastal and surface water flooding and a range of socio-economic challenges. Findings from 24 semi-structured interviews with practitioners and community group members (CGMs) suggest that while placemaking and blue green infrastructure (BGI) can deliver multiple benefits, the realisation of these can be hampered by a range of obstacles. For example, a lack of clear consensus on who is responsible for maintenance and a preference for grey infrastructure solutions. Practical guidance is provided to help overcome the obstacles identified to enhance flood resilient and liveable places. This guidance will be particularly relevant to colleagues in academia, planners, policy makers and a range of practitioners with a remit in flood risk management, climate change and water management and the communities they serve. Ethical Compliance: This study received ethical approval on January 30 2024 from the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Ethics Committee at the University of Dundee, approval number UoD-SHSL-EES-PGR-23/24-001.

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) is the main agricultural production region in Vietnam producing rice, fruits, shrimps, livestock among a variety of crops. The current VMD agricultural production system (APS) is under threat from sea level rise aggravated by climate change causing further inland salinity intrusion. Transition pathways towards increased salinity adaptation in APSs are therefore required to maintain food security. This study assesses the present water sources usage for APSs and associated quality, quantity and food safety issues. Water-related stresses observed by farmers in the coastal Tra Vinh region are described based on a focus group discussion and in-depth household interviews. Multiple water sources were described for agricultural practices (e.g., surface water, deep well, rainwater) which differed per season. Also, farmers reported to be affected by salinity (67.3%) and groundwater shortages (28.8%) hampering current agricultural production. Solutions and adaptations foreseen vary from more efficient irrigation, dropping crops and new practices and in a lesser brackish water farming systems or moving to new places and transfer to new jobs. Subsequently, transition pathways focusing on salinity adaptation to maintain food security are proposed from a water- and soil management perspective and include i) irrigation innovations to produce crops under more scarce fresh water availability, ii) freshwater storage as a buffer in dry season; iii) basic water treatment options to make water brackish/saline water suitable for livestock and iv) increase soil organic content which can improve soil water retention and reduce impacts of salinity on crops. It is recommended to test multiple transition pathways on farm level in representative regions in the VMD through living labs or demonstration farms.

This paper investigates the prevalence of water scarcity discourse in Jordan’s policy indicators and examines potential implications of such metrics on the achievement of sufficient, clean water for household needs. The research utilises concepts of household water security and indicator bias to unpack policy-related assessments of domestic water allocation performance and compare them with end-user experiences of system outcomes. Stakeholder perspectives were collected in two northwestern districts, Irbid Qasaba and Ramtha, with a focus on vulnerable Syrian refugee and Jordanian households. The study reveals that the indicators used in policymaking measure allocation performance based on average supply per capita at the governorate level, which inaccurately presumes accessibility and equitability of service across the studied districts and individual households. Syrian refugee and Jordanian end-users in Irbid reported significant variations in their experiences of household water security, highlighting the importance of factors such as frequency of network delivery, tank storage capacity, and assets for alternative sources like private tanker trucks. These point-of-access differentiators are found to be largely unrepresented in policymakers’ data and unaddressed in national or regional management strategies. Instead, simplified indicators in Jordan’s water policies appear to reinforce the national discourse of water scarcity and prioritize supply-driven management practices that insufficiently alleviate insecurities of vulnerable Syrian refugee and Jordanian end-users. The paper emphasizes the need for critical reflection on scarcity data and indicators, urging a shift towards more inclusive and accurate representations of household water access in policymaking processes.

While Bangladesh is reported as doing well in food production, there is increasing concern that this essentially deltaic and highly climate-vulnerable country will face steep challenges in food governance and productivity. Anthropogenic drivers shaped by narrow economic goals and sectoral policies have deeply altered Bangladesh’s food systems since the early 1960s and partly led to adverse outcomes. By combining policy and institutional analysis and primary research in Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira district in the southern coastal deltas, we revisit two key transitions, poldering and commercial shrimp farming, to reveal how diverse economic, social, and political factors have reshaped the efficiency, inclusivity, and sustainability of agri-food systems. These complex interactions between agrifood systems, the broader ecology, and heterogeneity in poverty, gender, and other social identities are poorly understood and accounted for in policies and program interventions. This has resulted in unequal conflicts and contestations around critical resources, which impact most marginalized groups, also because policy incoherence encourages collusions between local elites and local decision-makers (all men) for resource appropriation and control. Conceptually, a social-ecological systems (SES) framework would identify these complexities. However, SES approaches tend to be technocratic and overlook the overtly economic framing of natural resources governance, diversity amongst local communities, and the politics of resource appropriation. This gap can be remedied by merging SES thinking with a critical political ecology lens to trace the historical, scalar, and deeply intersectional nature of socio-ecological relations.

Successful governance of groundwater is process, people, and policy implementation working in tandem. While its success may be measured in desired outcomes, sustaining those outcomes depends on the interaction of these three elements. This paper reports the results of interviews conducted with local groundwater district Directors and district Managers in the state of Texas who make policy decisions and implement those policies, respectively. New paradigms of groundwater governance see public engagement as social capital that results in more effective groundwater management outcomes. The focus of this paper is to test this paradigm by presenting groundwater management and public engagement from the perspective of the professionals and practitioners in groundwater management. I conduct thirteen interviews with groundwater Managers and Directors in Texas. Three themes emerge from a qualitative analysis of these interviews. First, sharing Information and expertise with the public is seen as a public service by groundwater Managers that augments their professional roles. Second, this sharing is an informal, two-way exchange with those who have local experience and knowledge. The two-way exchange is built on social networks that form social capital, lowering the transaction cost of implementing policy by Managers. Third, factors beyond the control of Managers can also affect transaction costs of groundwater management. The transaction costs of groundwater management include coordinating user activity and managing the conflict or tensions that arise over groundwater supply and demand. This paper contributes to the literature on the importance of social capital to groundwater management. Results of the study illustrate the importance of user, well-owner, and stakeholder group engagement to effective and efficient groundwater management and policy outcomes.

Watershed Development Programmes (WDP) in India primarily focus on improving ecological landscapes in semi-arid regions, despite policy guidelines that call attention to improving community-level participation. Local level hierarchies based on caste and gender inhibit equal participation for all in decision-making, access, and distribution of programme benefits. This paper presents evidence from drought-affected rural Bundelkhand, in Central India to critically examine how participation is practiced at the ground level. We find that systemic efforts are needed to make participation meaningful for all and to achieve the twin goals of social and environmental development through WDP.

Immigrants in western democracies are becoming an important social and demographic group. The extent to which water governance processes and structures are positioned to create space for engagement for these newcomers is not well-understood. We employ a systematic review of the literature to determine the extent to which participative (including collaborative) water governance approaches incorporate voices from immigrant communities. We conduct a systematic search of the relevant literature on participatory water governance over the five-year period 2015-2019 to assess the nature of participation by immigrants in water governance. Results from review of articles that directly focus on participatory to water governance indicate that the water governance research community has been slow to recognize distinctive immigrant voices in research. We discuss how such lack of attention is closely tied with issues of justice and fairness as well as its implications for effectiveness of policies aimed water sustainability.