CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Climate change in many local and regional scales is expected to include climate hazards and extreme conditions rather than shifts or trends in average temperatures. These extreme conditions are expected to include hailstorms, droughts, floods, hurricanes, hail, tornadoes and storms. Droughts and floods are serious climate hazards threatening water supply for human consumption and also agricultural production and irrigation. In Mendoza, Argentina, droughts, hailstorms and heat stress are anticipated; in the Oldman river basin extreme droughts and floods are anticipated. This paper will focus on impacts of drought anticipated in both areas. Both Mendoza and Alberta have irrigated agriculture and their rivers are fed primarily by snowmelt and rainfall runoff from mountainous headwaters. Many similarities exist between water law in the Mendoza river basin, Argentina and the Oldman river basin in southern Alberta, Canada. Water is considered a public good and provinces are primarily responsible for water laws. Rights of use of water generally run with the land. Certain aspects of water management have been further decentralized by the provinces to water user organizations based on river basins. Many differences also exist in water governance between the two areas. This paper will compare and contrast the water governance institutions in the two study areas with respect to their ability to embody processes of adaptation. Water governance is the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that develop, manage, and distribute water resources which involves public and civil society organizations. It is comprised of norms, programs, regulations, and laws relevant to the management of water resources in the context of drought. Adaptive water governance is that governance which enhances the adaptive capacity of a region to respond to climate change. Conclusions of adaptive measures responding to drought will be drawn.