Governance in the Face of Uncertainty and Change - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 191

Inventories of water infrastructure take place to inform redevelopment of diversity
(Suonen/Canals) as a means of maintaining traditional infrastructure that minimises
impacts in heavy precipitation events. Early warning monitoring networks and
response systems are already in place for many other hazards across the canton, and
are being improved specifically for increases in precipitation events related to
changing climatic conditions.
In both cases, the awareness of impending climate change impacts drives
actor's perception of the need to find solutions for the challenges it will bring. In
the Chilean case, this is however often accompanied by the perception that more
water needs to be captured so that less is lost to the sea. In the Swiss case, there
is an awareness of quality, quantity and seasonality changes from climate change,
as well as dichotomy of extremes (i.e. glacier reduction but more extremes) in
the intensification of the hydrological cycle, particularly among the more techno-
cratic hydropower stakeholders. Recent experiences of major floods and precipi-
tation events had led to a high awareness of this intensification and thus
implementation of technical protection measures (after 1993 event) that pro-
tected them in the 2000 events, but which are already seen as redundant accord-
ing to current observational data. In both case areas, technical fixes are seen as
the main or only means (irrigation efficiency, crop efficiency, irrigation networks,
storage capacity/dams) of facing climate change challenges. In Chile, however,
attention has turned to the importance of improving market transparency and
information so that it may operate better. This is not seen as an adaptation mea-
sure, but as a means of improving the baseline administration of water resources
management to be better prepared for increasing droughts and pressure on scarce
water resources.
Networks
In the Chilean case, cooperation for coping takes place amongst private rights hold-
ers through formalised user based institutions. Rights owners are enabled to take
responsibility to ensure 'coping' in times of stress, through institutional mecha-
nisms for canal based adaptations (i.e. Turno). While the Presidential declaration of
a drought zone provides for increased involvement and connection between user
level and administration level, the incentives for cooperation between actors remain
fraught. The declaration is seen not to bring the financial capacity for investment in
alternative groundwater wells that are needed for increased exploitation during the
6 month period, indicating that without the government's financial assistance, its
increased involvement in the management of drought is extraneous.
In the Swiss case, public-private partnerships (government, university, private
hydro companies) allow for information and burden sharing to improve protection
from flood damage. The partnerships enable collaboration across regional, canton
and local (private) and commune (public) actors. Knowledge networks link local
and regional managers with research institutions (private and public) and universi-
ties, so that scientific information informs watercourse management. Cross sectoral