Defining “water resilience”: Debates, concepts, approaches, and gaps

Abstract

Resilience is increasingly applied the context of water systems, and water governance more broadly, in response to climate change impacts, hydrologic variability and uncertainty associated with various dimensions of global environmental change. However, the meanings, applications and implications of resilience as it relates to water governance are still poorly understood. Drawing on a systematic scoping review of the peer‐reviewed academic literature, this paper addresses the questions: how is resilience framed in relation to water systems and water governance, how are diverse resilience framings (re)shaping ideas and trends in water management, and what are the associated implications? The analysis found that the resilience‐informed water governance literature remains fragmented and predominantly centered on conventional approaches and framings of water planning, with a predominant focus on engineering resilience in water supply infrastructure. A recently emerging engagement with resilience in the water governance literature, however, draws on more diverse framings and theories and calls for a shift towards more integrative and ecologically‐centered thinking in water governance. Despite this, significant empirical and conceptual gaps remain, particularly around the integration of the various subsectors of water governance and, more importantly, around the institutional and governance dimensions of building water resilience. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance

Urban Hydroinformatics: Past, Present and Future

“…Similarly, robotic technologies Water 2019, 11, 1959 4 of 17 and AI, which have been making great strides in the manufacturing and consumer industries, are starting to find their way to water management, e.g., underground asset inspection [22]. Lastly, the authors argue that with these data, tools and models at hand, the sector is now developing more sophisticated ways of stress-testing new and existing infrastructure, developing new methodological approaches around resilience [23]. In the remaining part of this section, a brief overview of some key literature on the subjects highlighted above is provided and an outline of their current state of art is discussed.…”

A Resilient and Sustainable Water Sector: Barriers to the Operationalisation of Resilience

“…In recent years, the term 'resilience' has seen a sudden and marked increase in use and application, in both academia, and policy discourse, with the term now in common parlance across many facets of society. In general terms, resilience is understood to be the ability to withstand shocks and stresses, whilst continuing to maintain key functions and or structures [16]. Many researchers agree that the etymological roots of the term stem from the ability of a system to 'bounce back' [17][18][19].…”

“…Like many sectors and fields, resilience and its associated properties have seen a marked increase in popularity across fields of global environmental research as a whole [25] as well as more specifically in water management and governance [6,[26][27][28][29], with both resilience and sustainability following similar trajectories in their rise in application and popularity. A study conducted by Rodina [16] found 149 papers related to water resilience published in the first six months of 2017, with zero publications matching the search criteria in 1982. The increase in use and popularity of the term resilience, specifically in relation to environmental resource governance, are attributed to its focus on the ability to manage complexity, emergence and change, which appeals to systems worldwide that are facing ever-evolving, complex threats and challenges [16,30].…”

“…A study conducted by Rodina [16] found 149 papers related to water resilience published in the first six months of 2017, with zero publications matching the search criteria in 1982. The increase in use and popularity of the term resilience, specifically in relation to environmental resource governance, are attributed to its focus on the ability to manage complexity, emergence and change, which appeals to systems worldwide that are facing ever-evolving, complex threats and challenges [16,30].…”

“…In general, environmental resource governance is currently going through a period of change, in which the focus is no longer on managing for efficiency and optimisation, but is instead centred on the ability of systems, independent of their character, to be flexible, adapt and reorganise during periods of stress [16], thus embodying a range of theorised resilience principles. Despite a range of criticism, some of which will be discussed in following sections of this paper, the concept and notion of resilience continues to be a relevant and highly debated topic, with an ever-growing body of literature working to situate resilience within the complex realities of resource governance, resource management, and environmental change [9,16,19,31].…”