Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY
Volume 25, Issue -, Pages 73-82Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2012.09.013
Keywords
Adaptation; River basin organization; Adaptive capacity; Climate change; Flooding; Hydropower
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation's Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program [GEO 09-08971]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
River basin organizations serve as potential forums to promote adaptation to environmental change in transboundary river basins. Yet how these organizations adapt is an understudied area of the literature. We explore and compare four examples of adaptation within the Mekong River Commission (MRC), focusing on how the nature of stressors shapes adaptation responses. We measure adaptation responses in terms of adaptive capacity, which includes technical, institutional, social and financial capacity. We find that the uncertainty of the impact of stressors plays a role in shaping the extent of adaptive capacity. We also find that the adaptive response may depend on a river basin organization's pre-existing capacity to address the stressor. Finally, our research suggests that investments in new capacity can create a feedback mechanism that helps reduce uncertainty and foster further adaptation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available