building resilience in managing fresh water

1. building resilience in managing fresh water Fred Boltz, Ph.D. COP18 Mountain Day

2. climate adaptation is most urgently about fresh water security

3. rapid climate change in the world’s water towers Nature 2008

4. degradation of freshwater ecosystems

5. fragmentation 2/3 of large river systems moderately or highly fragmented by dams and reservoirs

6. 1890–1922 climate-infrastructure mismatches Dave Meko, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona. most infrastructure and water resource management has been designed for a single climate

7. climate-infrastructure mismatches • infrastructure has a climate-relevant lifetime • if designed for a narrow operational window, it is likely to lose efficiency • adaptability, multiple climate futures must be considered

8. basin-wide threats to food security

9. threats to energy security

10. Ethiopia: one drought lowered growth rates over a 12-year period by 10%; droughts normally happen every 3 to 5 years threats to economies Sadoff & Muller 2009

11. extreme event drought A change in “mean” climate resilience flood extreme event A change in climate variability State-level or stepwise climate change facilitating change resilience resilience under climate-driven environmental change ? Represented in GCMs Changes in variability tipping point Major changes from the paleo record tipping point from LeQuesne, Matthews, et al., 2010, Flowing Forward. Washington, DC: World Bank. FlowingForward.org

12. conserving natural ecosystems is key to freshwater resilience Timing

13. connectivity and environmental flows

14. resilient biodiversity

15. building resilience into infrastructure • designed and managed flexibly, for shifting ecological and economic conditions • ecologically viable over an operational lifetime (or longer)

16. building (human) resilience in fresh water management • integrate ecosystems into adaptation • smart development: design new infrastructure to maintain environmental flows and ecosystem connectivity • approach vulnerability assessment and reduction as a continuous, adaptive process: -- for ecosystems, infrastructure, and institutions

17. AGWA aims to integrate disciplines to facilitate the adoption of climate-adaptive best practices WCC mainstreams science and management guidance into global policies for effective freshwater adaptation enabling dynamic operational decisions, policies and investments

18. Development banks and capacity-building groups The World Bank (co-chair) The Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, KfW, the Inter-American Development Bank, GiZ, the Cooperative Programme on Water and Climate Non-governmental Organizations Conservation International (co-chair), The Delta Alliance, International Water Association, the Swedish Environmental Institute (IVL), the Global Water Partnership, Deltares, Environmental Law Institute (ELI), Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), Organization for European Cooperation and Development (OECD), Stockholm International Water Institute, Wetlands International, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, ICIMOD, WWF, Water & Climate Coalition Government Agencies CONAGUA, Seattle Public Utilities, US State department, NOAA, US Army Corps of Engineers, UN Water, UN Habitat, UNECE, Water Utilities Climate Alliance, WMO Private Sector Ceres, UNEP FI, World Business Council for Sustainable Development The Alliance for Global Water Adaptation