CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN WATER SECTOR

Keeping in view the various pressures operating on water resources, this chapter elicits various tools for prioritizing adaptation actions within water sector, evaluates different adaptation options including structural and non-structural adaptation and identify barriers that could undermine the rapid expansion of these adaptation options. Managing precious water resources involve decision making by various stakeholders at various levels and these stakeholders are often challenged to take decisions in short, medium and long term time scales in a rapidly changing global and local conditions necessitating simple and scalable decision making tools that go hand in hand with the multiple objectives these stakeholders are expected to achieve. While many integrated approaches have been in vogue for several years and have been implemented as good developmental practices, this chapter reiterates and finds evidence that these measures could have climate change adaptation benefits as well. Though most cases have been derived from Asia and the Pacific, examples from other parts of the world were also included wherever deemed necessary.