Riesgo Climático y la Seguridad Hídrica
en el Continente Americano
Climate Risk and Water Security in the Americas
TALLER DE CIENCIA Y POLÍTICA
SCIENCE – POLICY WORKSHOP
San José del Cabo, México
Feb. 27 – Mar. 2, 2011
Working Definitions of Key Concepts
Presentation by Robert Varady
Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy
University of Arizona
• Water Security
• Integrated assessment
• Co-generation & use of knowledge
• Adaptation, coping, and scale
Water security
Environment and security
A post-realist perspective
• Environment and security are closely intertwined, esp.
where water is scarce & in transboundary regions
• “Realist” view of security focused on national sovereignty:
Environmental conflicts = threats to security, stability, wellbeing.
• “Post-realist” or non-traditional view of security:
– More holistic
– Includes social, economic, demographic, agricultural & naturalresources matters
– Includes food security & poverty, climate variability & change,
water security, energy security, environmental quality,
vulnerability to extreme events
– Sees tradeoffs between security & other values
– Promotes cooperative approaches to environmental conflicts
Drivers of environmental change
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Water scarcity
Cattle
Mining
Industrialization
Urbanization
Institutions, incl. legal systems, property rights,
policies
Integrated Assessment
What we mean by
‘Integrated Assessment’
Interdisciplinary process of combining, interpreting, and
communicating knowledge
• From diverse scientific disciplines
• So that entire set of cause/effect interactions of a problem can
be evaluated together such that:
(i) There should be added value
(ii) Information is useful to decisionmakers
Kloprogge and Van der Sluijs, 2006
Integration
in our work includes
Sectoral perspectives
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Management (of water, emergencies, disasters)
Farming & ranching
Industry
Urban & rural issues, including demog. Change
Institutional perspectives
Diverse disciplinary perspectives
― Physical, natural & social sciences
Transboundary collaboration
Co-generation & Use of Knowledge
Co-generation and transfer
of knowledge
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Involves scientists, managers, decisionmakers, civil society
Emphasizes contexts and governance
Renders knowledge more germane, useful, usable
Stimulates “adaptive pathways”— i.e., more adaptive,
“climatic thinking” in operations & planning
― Helps formulate research agendas
― Aims to influence public policy
Assessing Collaboration
• All collaborations are not created equal!
• General agreement that:
− People from various viewpoints should come together to
discuss intractable problems, find workable solutions
− Only face-to-face engagement can produce trust, shared
experiences, positive relationships, empathic
understanding leading to innovations in governance
Wilder et al. 2010; Pelling et al. 2008; Lemos and Morehouse 2005; Cash et al., 2003
Adaptation, Coping, and Scale
Adaptation and coping
A working definition
• What do we mean by ‘adaptation’ to climate variability and
change (CVC) ?
Actions that reduce vulnerability of a system.
What is adaptive capacity or adaptability to CVC?
The ability of a system to:
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Adjust
Reduce or moderate potential damages
Take advantage of opportunities, or
Cope with consequences
Elements of adaptive capacity include knowledge, institutional capacity, and
financial & technological resources.
Romero Lankao, P., and D. Gnatz, D. In press.
Adaptation and scale
All elements of context are subject to scale—spatial,
temporal, and institutional (e.g., location, culture,
moment in time, levels of govt., robustness of
institutions, level of infrastructure. . . .)
• What is the relationship between adaptation and scale?
• Do some policies or strategies work at some scales, but not
at others?
• At what scale is adaptation likely to be most effective?