NeWater - New Approaches to Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty | Umweltbundesamt

The climate change values according to the IPCC's 3rd Assessment Report (2001) are taken into account, as are other aspects of global change and changes in the stresses on ecosystems.

2100

The consequences for the river run-off patterns and the water quality of river basins will be investigated.

The vulnerability of river basins will be examined. The developed strategies for an IWRM took the socio-ecological vulnerability and the adaptive capacity of the individual river basins into account. An adaptive management can contribute to increasing the adaptive capacity of river basins and reducing their vulnerability. To this end, a vulnerability matrix will be created, in which climatic, environmental and socio-economic stresses, together with the associated exposure units, such as natural resources (river ecosystems), economic infrastructure (power stations, private assets) and stakeholders, as well as the natural and social adaptive capacity will be linked.

Through the assessment of the vulnerability and resilience of river basins, the ability of the water management system to deal with the uncertainties of the climate change will be improved. Integrated water management serves to reduce vulnerability and increase the adaptive capacity.

The development and implementation of an integrated water resource management has the following objectives:

1. Improvement of governance in water management through stakeholder participation;
2. Increase the sectoral integration in spatial planning, in climate change adaptation strategies and cost-benefit analyses;
3. Development of methods for the solution of water resource use conflicts across borders;
4. Improving the information management through multi-stakeholder dialogue and monitoring systems for decision systems in water management;
5. Development of innovative methods for increasing river basin buffering capacities and water storage as a strategy for adaptation to climate variability and climate extremes;
6. Implementation of financial and risk mitigation strategies in water management
7. Finding new ways ways of bridging science and politics, in order to implement an integrated water resource management.

The synthesis of the results of the project has yielded the following products, among others:

1. Prototype of a conceptual framework for management and change processes (Management and Transition Framework, MTF), including databases on management processes, learning processes and general system descriptions of the various river basins.
2. "Uncertainty Guidelines", which detail the findings on approaches to dealing with various forms of uncertainty in adaptive management processes.
3. Evaluation of water resource scenarios for the case study regions that take into account the latest results from climate projections.
4. Comparison of the adaptation strategies in the different regions to illustrate the differences in the level of awareness and in the climate change strategies used.
5. Special publication on civic participation, in which the diversity of participatory approaches in research and management practice will be presented.
6. NeWater adaptive water management handbook, in which the benefits, results and experiences will be presented.
7. Online academic curriculum for supplying teaching materials on the subject of the adaptive management of river basins.