The Value of a River Basin Approach to
Climate Adaptation
Judy Oglethorpe, Sunil Regmi, Ryan Bartlett, Bhawani S. Dongol, Eric Wikramanayake and
Sarah Freeman
13 January 2015
Hariyo Ban Program, Nepal
• Discuss advantages doing climate adaptation using a river basin approach
• Outline the challenges of river basin approach
• Drawing on vulnerability assessment of the Gandaki basin in Nepal as an example, using ‘Flowing Forward’ methodology
The Gandaki River Basin in Nepal, showing major rivers and bio-geographical zones
Flowing Forward methodology • Designed for large drivers of change at the landscape scale in a
data-poor environment
• Assesses vulnerability of landscape features using background information, peer-reviewed and gray climate science literature, a participatory stakeholder assessment workshop, and scenario planning for an uncertain future
• Enhanced by information from local level vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning in selected parts of the basin
Resilience
(sensi vity)
Exposure
(ImpactSeverity)
Vulnerability
SocialAdap ve
Capacity
Adapta on
Planning
Iden fyAnalysis
Units
FF workshop framework
Nepal’s Imja Glacier, 1956
Nepal’s Imja Glacier, 2006
Climate change impacts
5
Often exacerbated by non-climate stresses
Focus Area Highest Vulnerability Systems and Species Region
Forests Subtropical Broadleaf Siwalik/Churia Range
Semi-desert Coniferous Trans-Himalayan Region
Freshwater Spring Sources Siwalik/Churia Range
Floodplains Basin-wide
Species Migratory Birds Basin-wide
Gharial Siwalik/Churia Range
Agriculture Pakho (rain-fed agriculture) Mid-hills
Tar (irrigated agriculture) Mid-hills/Siwalik
Rivers Seti Basin-wide
Rapti Basin-wide
Infrastructure Rural Settlements Basin-wide
Local Roads Basin-wide
Most vulnerable ecological and man-made systems in the Gandaki river basin
Focus Area Proposed Interventions
Forests
Promote alternative energy to reduce fuel wood demand
Promote “climate-smart” community based forest management, especially fire
control and afforestation in denuded areas
Freshwater Enhanced monitoring for freshwater systems, especially on glacial extent and
snow line, and snow-water equivalent in higher altitudes; water quality lower
down
Sub-catchments Install early warning systems in floodplain communities that regularly experience
flooding, alongside climate change sensitization and disaster preparedness
programs
Species Identify and conserve important winter/nesting areas for altitudinal migrant birds,
based on projected habitat changes
Work with upstream watershed communities to reduce fertilizer and pesticide
use and promote soil management to reduce runoff and siltation.
Agriculture Increase funding for agriculture extension services, including on climate-smart
farming techniques and overall climate change awareness
Improve access to seasonal climate information for farmers, including suggested
planting dates and weather forecasts
Infrastructure Mandate climate vulnerability assessments for all proposed large infrastructure
developments; undertake environmental flows analysis
Eliminate unplanned road construction through incentives for “green road”
construction that have proper drainage and gradation.
Major proposed adaptation interventions in Gandaki basin
Advantages of taking a holistic river basin approach
Maintaining ecosystem services for people and nature • Ecosystem services can play important roles to buffer climate
effects, for example:
• Forests can reduce the risk of local flash floods and landslides in the face of more intense localized rainfall and help to maintain dry season water supplies as monsoon patterns become increasingly unpredictable.
• Functioning floodplains can absorb floodwater and reduce the risk of floods downstream, while also providing critical nutrients for flood dependent vegetation and agriculture
Reducing flood risk with bio-engineering
Enabling upstream-downstream cooperation • Often need to tackle upstream
issues, e.g. deforestation
• upstream stakeholders may risk
maladaptation if they do not
consider downstream
consequences
• In Gandaki basin, Hariyo Ban
Program is facilitating dialogue
between upstream and downstream
communities
Maintaining connectivity and enabling species shifts in river basins
• Altitudinal gradients in river basins can provide corridors for
freshwater and terrestrial species to shift upstream/uphill
• Special management for areas that are natural climate refugia can help conserve species that may disappear from surrounding areas.
Using river basin as a planning unit for infrastructure development
• Infrastructure development occurring on a large scale in
Nepal, especially roads, hydropower, irrigation
• Environmental standards not always adequate or enforced, and information not easily available
• Environmental issues likely to be exacerbated by climate change
• Design needs to take climate change into account, including more intense storms, changing precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, increased erosion risk
• Multiple dams on same stem of the river need to coordinate
• Recognition that dams can exacerbate climate hazards compared to free-flowing rivers (e.g. Palmer et al (2008); recent Indian Supreme Court ruling)
• Hariyo Ban planning environmental flows study for Gandaki basin with scenario planning for dams and climate change
• River basin approach can enable more strategic road development Reduces adverse impacts of roads on other infrastructure development
Handling climate uncertainties and risks
• River basin approach gives more flexibility
• Enables scenario planning, and phased development in light of uncertainty about climate change
Facilitating integration of human and ecosystem adaptation in river basins
• Most activities occur within the boundaries of the basin – enables ecological, economic and social analysis and decision-making
• Enables multi-disciplinary approaches and collaboration (horizontal integration)
• Enables working at different scales (vertical integration – bottom-up and top-down)
• Facilitates working in short and longer term • Helps most vulnerable people
Challenges • River basin boundaries often do not coincide with
administrative and political boundaries • Institutions are better aligned for community
adaptation than ecosystem adaptation • New, accountable institutions may be needed at river
basin level • Policy environment may need strengthening/
harmonizing • Conflict resolution and trade-offs are necessary • It takes time! Long-term investments are needed for
the process; and flexibility of donor funding • Ecosystem changes tend to take longer than
community changes to appear • Need to be flexible in the face of increasing climate
uncertainty, be innovative, monitor, learn and adapt.
We would like to thank all those who have worked on the Hariyo Ban
Program and contributed to the results presented here. We are grateful to the Government of Nepal and its line agencies for continued support and guidance.
Hariyo Ban Program is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this presentation are the responsibility of World Wildlife Fund, Inc., and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Hariyo Ban Program http://www.wwfnepal.org/hariyobanprogram/