The Adaptive Water Resource Management Handbook (A collection of essays)

A book with a long list of contributors and collaborators, The Adaptive Water Resource Management Handbook recounts case studies of seven international water basins that form the NeWater Project. In the context of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and Adaptive Water Management (AWM), the authors define these two concepts, emphasize how Adaptive Water Resource Management reinforces the principles of IWRM, show their benefits and disadvantages, and illustrate through the case studies their application.


The IWRM framework structures the process of investigating natural resource issues with seven steps: "Establish status . . . build commitment . . . analyse gaps . . . prepare strategy and action plan . . . build commitment to action . . . implement framework . . . monitor and evaluate progress" (p. 6). Adaptive Water Management, on the other hand, superimposes the interpersonal and learning dynamics of the organization for effective analyses, activities, and outcomes and a rich collective knowledge base. According to the contributors, AWM benefits stakeholders on issues that contain a large amount of uncertainty, dissent, and  complexity and that require frequent accommodation to change through social learning.


The authors cite the European Community White Paper on Governance as their standard, which advocates "to be transparent and accessible, inclusive, effective, coherent and accountable" (p. 18).  Furthermore, they strive for these outcomes and goals, "flexible, robust and adaptive institutions . . . sustainable, equitable and efficient resource use . . . open, inclusive, effective, coherent and accountable governance system" (p. 19).


To evaluate the case studies detailed in the study, the authors recorded the occurrence of potential outcomes for each of the studies: "management, learning . . . transboundary . . . uncertainty . . . scenarios . . . monitoring . . . farmers' knowledge . . . stakeholders' involvement . . . public participation . . . info management . . . sectoral integration . . . non-technical . . . planning, measures . . . capacity building, awareness raising" (p. 21). In addition, the authors assessed the coverage of relevant topics, such as "water shortage . . . floods . . .groundwater . . . water quality . . . ecosystems, wetlands . . . environmental flows (ecological water requirements)" (p. 21). The list of outcomes offers a useful standard for anyone participating in a collaborative basin management process. Available training material on AWM facilitate the learning process.  The book ends with five recommendations: enabling environment and capacity building . . . commit to uncertainty . . . think twice before deciding . . .dare experiments . . . plan for adaptation.

For a copy of an online version of an Adaptive Water Management guide, go to
http://www.harmonicop.uos.de/handbook.php