Environmental Engineering Reference
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is the level at which decisions and plans on water use are made; this tends to be
presidential or ministerial (based heavily on neo-liberal economic prescriptions),
while technical and operational experts are relegated to less prominent and end of
pipe roles in the planning and management process.
The secularism, independence and role of technical and operational experts
become even more important in adaptation issues due to the negative repercussions
of maladaptation and the limited time frame which is now available for mitigation
and adaptation to climate impacts. However, at the same time, political leadership
is required in relation to climate change to ensure that the bigger, more complex
issues are taken on board. This challenge manifests itself in both cases but very
differently. In the Chilean case, regional technical and operational experts are seen
to be handcuffed by central level politicians and central planning ministries, limit-
ing their ability to apply their expertise, data and knowledge to the problems at
hand. In Switzerland, the issue is the inverse of the top down challenge, with the
federal and regional administrations unable to foster watershed based plans that
would more integrally integrate ecosystem and climate concerns in water resources
management.
14.1.3
Networks
Networks
are important to both reactive coping (in terms of relationships and levels
of trust between different water stakeholders) as well as longer term adaptability, in
terms of the ability of actors to engage in the 'wider decision environment that will
affect their longer-term resilience' (Tompkins and Adger
2004
) . The connectivity
between actors is influenced by levels of trust, modes of negotiation and incentives
for cooperation, all vital since connectivity alone does not lead to a willingness to
cooperate during extreme climate stress. Knowledge networks are also vital for the
integration of scientific data and information into long term planning and decision
making processes, as well as for time sensitive access to monitoring data requisite
for managing extreme events such as drought and floods.
Networks disseminate and share information and data as well as build or erode
agreement and cooperation within institutions responsible for assessment and moni-
toring. Universities have been cited as important venues for dialogue and debate in
order to facilitate learning across different sets of stakeholders (Garmestani and
Benson
2010
). Collaboration and information sharing across different actors and
levels elucidates the extensive and pervasive challenge of getting stakeholders to
cooperate and collaborate either formally or informally and the need for balance in
power, authority, agency and autonomy across different sectors and levels of gover-
nance for effective coordination and collaboration to long term complex challenges
as well as mobilising for ad-hoc extreme events.
There are challenges and impediments in both case areas to the effectiveness of
existent networks for challenges relating to climate change. In the Chilean case,
while there is a willingness to cooperate on single projects for shared benefits that
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