Adaptation of water resources management to climate change

CORE VALUES OF MODERN WATER MANAGEMENTEquity - water management activities enhance equitable distribution of costs and benefits fromwater resources use and management and explicitly include activities to alleviate poverty and createa gender balance.Efficiency - management of scarce water resources places an emphasis on the most efficient use andreflects the full value of the resource, including market values, ecosystem values and socio-culturalvalues.Sustainability - the water management regime endures and supports self-sustaining changes in watermanagement, including those to adapt to changing conditions.Legitimacy - water management institutions are open, transparent, representative and have a soundlegal basis while their decisions and actions are seen as legitimate and fair by all stakeholders.Accountability - water policies, responsibilities and actions are decided and implemented in atransparent and accountable way and lead to clear, effective, fair and legitimate uses of waterresources.Subsidiarity- water management institutions devolve decision-making authority to the lowestappropriate level, ensuring that the power and resources to make such decisions meaningfully aresimilarly developed.Participatory - all stakeholders are given the opportunity to participate in water resources planningand management decision making and to become involved in reducing water conflicts. 8,9health, for example through the protection of vegetation cover in upper-catchments, themaintenance of river flow for people downstream, or the reduction of pollution for good waterquality.The emphasis on maintaining freshwater ecosystem functionality is not based solely on intrinsicvalues of ecosytems. It stems also from the fact that people benefit directly from the goods andservices these ecosystems provide. Healthy freshwater ecosystems can buffer against heavy rainfallevents and thus help in managing flood risks. Managing upper-watershed forests wisely can reducesediment loads or lower peakflows, which benefits people living downstream. Identifying andzoning high-risk areas is a measure deployed increasingly in some countries to prevent constructionand reduce flood damage. In Switzerland, for example, the relicensing of dams is now being linkedto the development of “green” hydropower. To cover the costs of the minimal upgrades required,dam owners invest beyond this minimum to qualify for green-power certification that wouldincrease the unit price they can charge for the electricity generated. 10 Investing in the maintenanceor restoration of ecosystem services is now recognized to yield significant benefits.18