An Integrated Water Resources Vulnerability Assessment for the Columbia River Basin: Tools for Targeted, Community-Based Adaptation

Levels of certainty regarding climate variability and climate change impacts on hydrology at the regional and local scale are invariably limited. Stakes are high as water resources are inextricably tied to functional and... [ view full abstract ]

Levels of certainty regarding climate variability and climate change impacts on hydrology at the regional and local scale are invariably limited. Stakes are high as water resources are inextricably tied to functional and sustainable environmental and social systems across the Columbia River Basin (CRB). A question that is central to current research in adaptation is, “how can best available science be most effectively utilized at the community scale?” This question lies at the heart of our attempts to understand and represent climate change vulnerability for the CRB holistically. Vulnerability is a concept that crosscuts environmental and human dimensions of climate change, yet these spheres have traditionally been studied separately and isolated within different disciplines (Füssel et al. 2006). However, significant social and biophysical data are readily available and, when used together, may help to paint a clearer picture of the spatial variability of vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change-induced water resources loss. We draw from principles of hydro-climatology, geography, and social science, and we use a Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework to consider the spatially explicit, embedded and reciprocal relationship between natural resources and human societies (Ostrom, 2009). There are current gaps in trust and communication among decision makers and (especially) the rural communities they serve. This study acknowledges place-based, socio-environmental system dynamics to tell a more complete story of the opportunities and challenges facing the Basin.