Archetypical opportunities for water governance adaptation to climate change

Abstract

We explore opportunities for climate adaptation in the context of water governance. We focus on opportunities linked to the provision of climate information, raising the question of whether they are limited to incremental adaptation, or can also bring about transformational adaptation. We address this question through an archetype analysis based on 26 peer-reviewed articles. In each article, opportunities are identified, coded using the social-ecological system framework, and then bundled into archetypes that encompass similar opportunities reappearing across multiple cases. Results suggest that the provision of climate information can constitute an opportunity for adaptation that goes beyond purely incremental adjustments to a changing climate. Specifically, two of the six archetypes identified enable transformational adaptation by bringing long-term implications of current impacts into focus and by addressing the issue of capacity of existing institutions to respond to climate change. However, there is a high degree of heterogeneity in the characterization of opportunities, and the six archetypes only cover about one in three of the opportunities identified. This indicates the need for further research to develop more streamlined conceptualizations. In this respect, the archetypes identified herewith suggest some avenues for further conceptual development. We also explore policy implications, raising questions regarding the current development of climate services.

Piped water revenue and investment strategies in rural Africa

“…Archetype analysis has been used to examine a range of socioecological challenges including land use, water resource management, energy production, and climate vulnerability. The approach has been applied to water governance (Gotgelf et al 2020) and municipal water services (Noiva et al 2016, Rahill-Marier et al 2013 but to our knowledge this study is the first time it has been adapted for rural water supply.…”

Avenues of archetype analysis: roots, achievements, and next steps in sustainability research

“…Not all variables are relevant for a particular case, and they can be further refined to higher tier variables if required. First archetype studies build on this set of variables (Oberlack and Eisenack 2018, Gotgelf et al 2020, Villamayor-Tomas et al 2020a (Petschel-Held et al 1999). Methodologically, basic vulnerabilitycreating conditions were synthesized from the literature and hypotheses about mechanisms were deduced (prop.…”

“…Several studies work with original empirical material to identify a whole suite of archetypes to explain or sort out phenomena in their cases (Karrasch et al 2019, Moser et al 2019, Villamayor-Tomas et al 2020b, Wang et al 2019. Other papers identify whole suites of archetypes through meta-studies of secondary sources (Gotgelf et al 2020, Horcea-Milcu et al 2020, Tribaldos et al 2020. A further set of papers use archetypes in a deductive way to design or analyze scenarios (Harrison et al 2019, Sitas et al 2019.…”

“…Different institutional regime types are linked with different adaptation paths. Gotgelf et al (2020) show that the generation of climate information through science-policy-practice partnerships may trigger transformational adaptation, e.g., through archetypical processes of learning about long-term implications of climate change.…”