Adaptation of water resources management to climate change

people and countries are involved, a sense of a wider responsibility is growing. Climate changecan bring a global solidarity to water management. This could help to promote innovative solutionsthat offer more than those that have traditionally been applied.“CLIMATE CHANGE CAN BRING A GLOBAL SOLIDARITY ANDINNOVATION TO WATER MANAGEMENT.”A second dimension is the factoring of climate change into water management. Finding waysto deal with greater uncertainty in water management can act as a catalyst for innovation. Newtechnical and social approaches will need to be developed and tested that will require a shiftaway from simple demand-and-control approaches. These new approaches will help improveadaptive capacities, maintain and strengthen social capital, develop social learning and supportconflict management processes.THE RESPONSE OF NORTH AMERICAN FARMERS TO CLIMATE VARIABILITYBetween the 1920s and 1980s, the boundaries of winter wheat production shifted northwards to alocation about 3.5 o C cooler and 15% dryer than its original area in the US Mid West. At the sametime the southern boundary areas have experienced a 2 o C warming. These US farmers maintainedand increased production by diversifying the wheat varieties use. In addition, better use of fertilizers,nitrogen and improved water management led to increased productivity. Other farmers in thesoutheastern US developed and maintained animal feed stores to keep their operations diversifiedto minimize loss from rainfall variability. In addition they diversified cropping to reduce weatherrelatedproduction risk, for example in Illinois, where farmers cultivate maize, oat and clover ratherthan just maize alone. They also used technical measures to manipulate the timing of cropping orsupplemental irrigation in arid and semi-arid regions. Adapting production to other climatic conditionsis thus possible, in particular when using a variety of approaches and techniques. 19,20Sandbags along river dike in Senegal river delta, Mauritania27