River Basin Management Dear ...

River Basin Management

Dear Stephen,

it is hard to say what is the best way to manage a river basin taking into consideration climate change. Most of the policies and management strategies need to be closely connected to the context of the specific country and river basin and there might not be universal solutions. IWRM can provide a good guidance while, at the same time, some researcher argue that a more appropriate way to tackle this issue is adaptive management. You can get a good overview of the synergies between the two approaches: http://j.mp/KCRIZq

It is even more difficult to tell which is the country that adopted the best policy response to climate change impacts in the water sector. The case of Australia comes to my mind (http://j.mp/PH6qxW) or the strategies that the European Commission adopted to implement the Water Framework Directive (http://j.mp/Md4g8a).

Maybe, instead, the best approach for you would be to screen the FAO database on water: http://j.mp/MonaaB Here you can get all information on current policies and laws in the water sector and assess the level of climate change adaptation embedded in them.

I hope this was useful,

Claudia