Bridges and Barriers to Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 213

Table 11.2 (continued)

Major barriers and bridges to adaptation: Switzerland

Scale Barriers Bridges

Out-migration and shifts in main economic sector (e.g. from farming
to working in industry, i.e. Lonza Factory) means that there are
less people (with fewer financial resources as well) to maintain
the infrastructure (irrigation system - Suonen) which contributed
to the service of evacuating excess flows to the main rivers (e.g.
Saasvispa, Mattavispa, Vispa), aggravating the level of damage
from the precipitation events, as the water just could wildly flow
off the meadows - an issue that is getting worse, as it becomes
less and less viable for young people to become farmers in the
region (convergence of less farmers and more frequent hazards)

Local knowledge and experience - Strong awareness of changes
in local environment and climate impacts, which many have
witnessed over their lifetimes
Diversification across different communes to extend water
connections and utilities beyond the village scale to
multi-village scale
Influence of the tourist trade and resurgence of local farming
products - organic produce etc., SES resilience and
awareness

Water sovereignty at communal level across cantons adds further
complexity and challenges to the implementation of the TRC due
to the rivalries between different communes (e.g. whether to
harvest energy on one river or another), making it difficult to
manage the different interests for each canton
Economic pressures at the local level weaken the implementation of
residual flow provisions by the canton, meaning that often only
the minimal is done, as leaving more water in the streams would
mean that the communes would earn less
Acrimonious disagreements at local level concerning implentation
between agricultural groups and canton and ecological groups;
high differentiation in participative process depending on
commune and interests of local actors (i.e. reports of WWF being
excluded from the process in some areas; denied access to
planning documents, despite legal right to view them)