Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Special Issue on the Governance of Adaptation to Climate Change as a multi-level, multi-sector and multi-actor challenge

A special issue of the Journal of Water and Climate Change on "the governance of adaptation to climate change as a multi-level, multi-sector and multi-actor challenge" has just appeared. I acted as guest editor for this special issue, together with Sander Meijerink and Hens Runhaar.

The special issue can be found on the journal website:
http://www.iwaponline.com/jwc/006/01/default.htm

In this special issue, three crosscutting issues in the governance of climate change adaptation are discussed. These are the multi-scale, multisector and multi-actor challenges in the governance of climate change adaptation. The multi-scale challenge refers of climate change adaptation plays out. This involves issues like framing the scale of the climate change adaptation problem,the institutionalization of responsibilities for climate change adaptation over different levels of governance, and dealing with the tension between the governance scale and the relevant climate change adaptation problem scales. The multi-sector challenge refers to the variety of policy sectors
involved in the governance of climate change adaptation. Given the cross-cutting character of climate
change adaptation, decisions on whether and how to mainstream climate change adaptation over different policy sectors are of key concern here. The multi-actor challenge refers to the roles and responsibilities of actors of public and private actors in the governance of climate change adaptation. This includes questions about modes of governance, the allocation of public and private responsibilities, public–private interactions, and about the specific roles of research institutes and non-governmental organizations.

The Editorial: The governance of adaptation to climate change as a multi-level, multi-sector and multi-actor challenge: a European comparative perspective is open access, and can be found here:
http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.2166/wcc.2014.000

This is the list of articles:
Handling adaptation policy choices in Sweden, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands
Eric Massey, Dave Huitema, Heiko Garrelts, Kevin Grecksch, Heleen Mees, Tim Rayner, Sofie Storbjörk, Catrien Termeer and Maik Winges.......... 9–24
The role of leadership in regional climate change adaptation: a comparison of adaptation practices initiated by governmental and non-governmental actors
Sander Meijerink, Sabina Stiller, E. Carina H. Keskitalo, Peter Scholten, Robert Smits and Frank van Lamoen.......... 25–37
The rationales of resilience in English and Dutch flood risk policies
Mark Wiering, Colin Green, Marleen van Rijswick, Sally Priest and Andrea Keessen.......... 38–54
Adapting flood management to climate change: comparing policy frames and governance practices in the Low Countries
Ann Crabbé, Mark Wiering and Duncan Liefferink.......... 55–70
Do state traditions matter? Comparing deliberative governance initiatives for climate change adaptation in Dutch corporatism and British pluralism
M. J. Vink, D. Benson, D. Boezeman, H. Cook, A. Dewulf and C. Termeer.......... 71–88
Reconciling collaborative action research with existing institutions: insights from Dutch and German climate knowledge programmes
Catrien Termeer, Arwin van Buuren, Joerg Knieling and Manuel Gottschick.......... 89–103