The adaptation deficit in water resource management

Water resource scientists, managers and users are considering how to adapt to the threats posed by climate change. A useful entry point is to assess the practices and policies in place to deal with current stresses arising from increasing demands and from variability in the quantity and quality of supply The record is not reassuring, with conditions deteriorating in many places. Thus there are two adaptation deficits, the current deficit and the projected deficit. Scientists in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and negotiators for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change tend to focus on the longer term, anthropogenic climate change. A broader view of the multiple stresses on water resources shows that there is a need and an opportunity to address simultaneously the current adaptation deficit and to incorporate adaptation to reduce future stresses due to climate change. To this end, the development of a more strict and operational definition of adaptation within the Convention process could provide useful support for progress in current water management.