Building water resilience in a changing climate – A paradigm shift in integrated water resources management
This factsheet summarizes how Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) must be revisited to address emerging problems in water systems amid stress from climate impacts. Climate change and climate variability is affecting water availability in both quantity and quality, and this can be felt through variations in precipitation as well as occurrence of more extreme weather events. Water is a key driver of social and economic development and water issues cannot be managed in isolation. IWRM encompasses a broad and interconnected approach to water management, and is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment.
This paper notes that in assessing the changes to the water systems, extrapolating historical records to plan and manage the future us necessary. However, increased frequency of extreme events and uncertainties in predicting climate change will affect some of the basic aspects of IWRM which need to be revisited. Changing the understanding of the specific water regime from being based on records of historical events/data (facts) to predictions based on models, and associated uncertainty, needs to be incorporated in IWRM for the future.