Framing Water Infrastructure for Climate Resilience: Governance Dimensions and Challenges

Abstract

As the effects of climate change become more acute, the search for solutions to a growing infrastructure crisis becomes increasingly important. In this commentary, we offer some approaches to guide our collective thinking about the importance of governance regimes related to water infrastructure, as well as a framework for ways to think about infrastructure solutions that move beyond traditional “gray” solutions to more natural solutions that can serve to increase resiliency to climate change.

Climate‐resilient water infrastructure: A call to action

“…31 In climate adaptation decisions, nature-based or landscape-based approaches are therefore increasingly considered as addon or alternative to engineering approaches. 51 In the case of adapting to sea level rise and flooding, such decisions could be about choosing between only relying on dikes and embankments to prevent flooding versus allowing more controlled flooding in flood landscapes. In the case of adapting to drought and reduced freshwater availability, it could be the choice between only relying on constructing canals for new supply routes or desalinization of seawater versus saving and storing more rainwater in sponge landscapes.…”