Addressing the Challenge of Institutional Infrastructure in a Technically Focussed World - Climate Change and Water Governance: Adaptive Capacity in Chile and Switzerland - page 320

regimes (and mechanisms within these regimes) facilitated adaptive capacity in the
water sector; and the key tensions in building adaptive capacity across different
contexts and scales. In answering these questions, primary objectives were to con-
tribute to the conceptualisation and operationalisation of adaptive capacity; better
understand how the governance context and elements within those frameworks con-
tribute to an enabling environment for adaptive capacity; better understand the chal-
lenges in generating adaptive capacity across temporal and spatial scales; and
generate a framing of adaptive capacity that could better serve policy and decision
makers, to guide them through the complex choices in mobilising adaptive
capacity.
In order to meet these goals, a set of determinants of adaptive capacity were
identified and developed, drawing on the body of literature relating to adaptive
capacity across the interconnected disciplines of adaptation, vulnerability, resil-
ience, adaptive governance and adaptive management, as discussed in Part I. These
determinants were used to explore adaptive capacity in relation to extreme hydro-
logical events, through semi structured interviews and questionnaires. Determinants
related to the way actors used and shared information and knowledge, accessed and
utilised networks, the levels at which decisions were made, how different interested
actors were integrated into planning and decision making, the experience and exper-
tise of water managers and decision makers, the access to financial and human
resources as well as the role of individual or institutional leadership. In addition, the
governance assessment allowed for a deeper exploration of the legal, regulatory and
policy framework connected to water, climate and extremes, within which and with
which these governance determinants interacted.

16.2 Summary of Findings

16.2.1 Governance

The aim of the indicator based governance assessment was to develop a better
understanding of the institutional framework within which climate change impacts
will take place. The assessment was a key contribution to the deliverables of the
ACQWA project, and both the summary and full assessments provide a rich and
detailed picture of the governance framework in relation to IWRM and highlighted
the core challenges in each case area to the development and implementation of an
IWRM based approach.
In the Swiss case, despite the fulfilment of accountability, transparency and par-
ticipation indicators, the assessment suggested that there is a significant gap between
the conceptual strands of IWRM in federal laws and policies and their translation at
the regional and local levels. The complex institutional framework, legislative pro-
visions and levels of sovereignty which govern water resources in the Canton Valais
implied a lack of coordination and long term planning amongst the different