Applying a Multi-pronged Approach to Assessing Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 80

qualitative interviews (Patton 1990 ) were carried out in the context of the extreme
events, with national, regional and local level water governance stakeholders and
experts. An open ended interview technique was chosen as being the most suitable
to deploy across the two cases, for providing the most meaningful and deep infor-
mation for the purposes of the research question.
Table 5.1 provides an overview of the experts and stakeholders interviewed
across the different cases areas. Qualitative data consisted of: interviews n = 60;
presentations, workshops n = 15. Water management stakeholders were identified at
different levels from different sectors (both private and public as well as different
water intensive economic sectors) as being most suited to providing insights into the
connections between these different levels of water governance. This allowed
insights to be gathered from both a top down and bottom up perspective, mainly
focusing on the sub basin level, but also on the connections between sub basin level
and other political, administrative and geographical boundaries. Interviewees were
chosen to represent the operational level, as well as the political level and the chal-
lenges of balancing the reality of these two institutional settings.
The semi-structured interviews consist of questions relating to the different
indicators, lasting between 50 and 90 min with a range of individuals with expertise
and experience in water and natural hazards policy and management at the local and
cantonal level. A list of interviewees (Table 5.1 ) and an example of the interview
sheet can be found below. Three sub case areas were identified in the Valais, consist-
ing of six communes that were representative of the different sector interests as well
as the different micro-climates in the Valais. The qualitative data from these inter-
views serve to provide greater insight into the indicators and will be used to opera-
tionalise the criteria of the indicators, as well as assess its mobilisation in response
to the events.
In order to ensure against bias, the mixture of snow ball technique and expert
selection of interviewees aimed to ensure an equal and fair representation across the
different stakeholder groups including government representatives (ministry Level,
commissions, legal experts), NGOs (environmental and human rights groups),
private actors (water users, utilities, hydropower, mining companies) as well as aca-
demic and scientific experts. In summary, the data used for both the governance and
adaptive capacity portions of the research were:

• ~60 semi-structured qualitative interviews

• Swiss-German, French, Spanish & English

• ~15 workshop presentations

• Archival Data

• Legislation & Regulation

• Policy Documents

• Articles & Grey Literature