Expert Workshop on Adaptation Financing and Implementation, Putting Priorities into Practice in OECD Countries, Paris, 18-19 June, 2014

1. MAINSTREAMING ADAPTATION INTO WATER
RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Expert Workshop on Adaptation Financing and Implementation
OECD Headquarters, 18-19 June 2014
Kathleen Dominique, Environmental Economist

2. Trends: progress on adaptation for water
Water figures prominently: scarcity (droughts), excess (heavy downpours; floods),
water quality, water supply and sanitation, and freshwater ecosystems.
Climate change actively mainstreamed in water policies, plans. Can drive reform.
A cross-cutting theme vital for other sectors (energy, agriculture, health, etc.).

3. Implementing adaptation: policy levers
“Know”
• Risk and vulnerability assessments, research programmes,
boundary organisations
• Adaptation guidance, flood risk maps, public campaigns on
water saving
“Target”
• Revising flood protection standards
• Revising abstraction limits (ground and surface water)
“Manage”
• Water trading, pricing, environmental taxes
• Spatial planning and regulation, building codes
• Investments in structural flood protection, urban drainage,
green infrastructures

4. Adaption in action across OECD
In Chile, glaciers act as strategic water resources. In 2008, a
Glaciology and Snow Unit was established to inventory, study and
monitor glaciers, and to identify adaptation strategies for different
climate scenarios.
In Germany, there are awareness raising campaigns underway at
the Länder level with the goal to increase the percentage of people
and businesses with voluntary insurance against natural hazards.
All 98 municipalities in Denmark are required to develop a
climate change adaptation plan before the end of 2013, including a
risk-mapping of the entire surface in each municipality for flood
events from all water sources (e.g. rain events, sewer systems,
creeks, sea and groundwater).

5. Adaption in action across OECD
Since the implementation of the Lerma Chapala Surface Water
Allocation Agreement in Mexico, the lake levels have shown
remarkable recovery, reducing water stress and countering the
adverse effects of climate change.
The Netherlands is revising its flood protection standards, in
light of current and future challenges, including sea-level rise due
to climate change.
France has established a new procedure for determining
abstractable volumes to ensure that the demand does not exceed
the local supply in sub-basin areas.

6. Adaption in action across OECD
In Australia, water trading allows access to water resources to be
reallocated over time in responses to changing conditions and
allows scarce water resources to be transferred to their most
productive uses.
In the United Kingdom, a real options approach has been
applied to flood risk management for the Thames Estuary to
incorporate the uncertainty of climate change and the value of
flexibility into decision making.
Denmark is tapping ecosystem-based approaches by restoring
wetlands to provide flood protection for low-lying, densely
populated areas.

7. Thank you
Contact: Kathleen.Dominique@oecd.org
Publication: Water and Climate Change Adaptation:
Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters
Country profiles from the OECD survey of policies
www.oecd.org/env/resources/waterandclimatechange.htm