Adapting agricultural water governance to climate change: Experiences from Germany, Spain and California

Theesfeld, Insa; Schmidt, Oscar; Scheumann, Waltina; Herrfahrdt-Pähle, Elke; Ifejika Speranza, Chinwe (2011). Adapting agricultural water governance to climate change: Experiences from Germany, Spain and California (Discussion Paper 6). Bonn: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

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This study describes and discusses initiatives taken by public (water) agencies in the state of Brandenburg in Germany, the state of California in the USA and the Ebro River Basin in Spain in response to the challenges which climate change poses for the agricultural water sector. The drivers and actors and the process of changing agricultural water governance are its particular focus. The assumptions discussed are: (i) the degree of planned and anticipatory top-down implementation processes decreases if actions are more decentralized and are introduced at the regional and local level; (ii) the degree of autonomous and responsive adaptation approaches seems to grow with actions at a lower administrative level. Looking at processes of institutional change, a variety of drivers and actors are at work such as changing perceptions of predicted climate impacts; international obligations which force politicians to take action; socio-economic concerns such as the cost of not taking action; the economic interests of the private sector. Drivers are manifold and often interact and, in many cases, reforms in the sector are driven by and associated with larger reform agendas. The results of the study may serve as a starting point in assisting water agencies in developing countries with the elaboration of coping strategies for tackling climate change-induced risks related to agricultural water management.

Item Type:

Report (Report)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Critical Sustainability Studies (CSS)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Geographies of Sustainability > Unit Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management (LS-SLM)
10 Strategic Research Centers > Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

UniBE Contributor:

Ifejika Speranza, Chinwe

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics

ISBN:

978-3-88985-535-0

Series:

Discussion Paper

Publisher:

German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

Language:

English

Submitter:

Stephan Schmidt

Date Deposited:

18 May 2015 14:39

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:46

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.68407

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/68407

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