1. People, Water and Climate: Case Studies in Nei Mong, China and Jaipur, India
Sarah Opitz-Stapleton
Institute for Social and Environmental Transition

2. Framing Adaptation Research or Processes?

3. Who defines the Problems or the Goals?
Autonomous
Planned
Households, Sm Business
State/Prov Govs
Citizen Groups
City Govs
Med Business
Blocs
Nations
Transnat’l
Corps
TIME
SPACE
SOCIETY

4. Engage Early and Often

5. Adapting to Climate Change in China (ACCC)
Wikicommons
Funded by: DfID, U.K. Ministry of Energy and Climate Change
& the Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation

6. Adapting to Climate Change in China (ACCC)
Climate Impact Assessments
Scoping
Vulnerability and Risk assessments
Identification of adaptation options
Analysis and Evaluation of Options
Prioritization of options
We will know…
Strengths and weaknesses for planning
Key stakeholders and resources
Current institutional adaptive capacity (baseline)
Metrics for assessing long-term progress
Who is vulnerable and most at risk
Socio-economic drivers of vulnerability
Other vulnerability and risk factors
Systemic thresholds
People’s attitudes towards climate risks
Possible social and environmental impacts
Costs and benefits of options
Cost effectiveness of options
Technical feasibility of options
12th Five Year Plan Recommen-dations
Provincial Adaptation Roadmaps
Steps in Adaptive Planning
New Knowledge
Final Products
Stakeholder Engagement

7. Nei Mong, China Problem statement:
“Through improving research level, this project aims to organically integrate climate change and region's economic and social development, especially on the aspect of grassland animal husbandry development and planning and policies of water resources utilization, in order to provide advices for policies and programs on province level and promote the formulation and implementation of adaptation planning on the nation level for strengthening China's response to climate change.”

8. Urban Water: Jaipur, India
Wikicommons
NOAA SARP NA07OAR

9. Project Phases
Assessing current socio-economic migration processes and projecting plausible future migration patterns (CEDSJ).
Assessing current water-use patterns and projecting potential changes in water use patterns (CEDSJ and ISET).
Statistical downscaling using output from 2 general circulation models, CGCM3 and ECHAM5, to project a range of potential precipitation changes for the Banas River Basin out to 2030 (ISET).
Construct hydrologic scenarios for Jaipur using WEAP to examine the impact of various water demand/ migration/ climate change scenarios on Jaipur’s water supply (CEDSJ and ISET).
Work with city managers to develop water management solutions robust against a variety of shocks and gradual changes (CEDSJ). This phase is iterative and involves ongoing interaction with key stakeholders.

10. The Water Nexus Variability & Climate Change Migration
Formal Governance
The Water Nexus
Informal Water Sector
Livelihood Opportunities
Environ. Degradation

11. Migration

12. Spatial Variability: Monsoon Systems

13. Informal Water Sector

14. Issues in Adaptation
While adaptation frameworks are developed, and adaptation research is undertaken, ultimately the majority of adaptation actions will be carried out at local levels.
Because of this, there is a critical need to understand the factors people perceive to be enabling or constraining their choices for action.
If we cannot deal with immediate, current climate hazards, what makes us think we can plan for unknown climate futures?
What are the tradeoffs of investing in adaptation research and framing?

15. Thank you!