Legal systems, while establishing boundaries and fostering economic and social goals, are nevertheless inherently adaptable and responsive to new challenges. In the context of climate change, law provides a pragmatic perspective on how we might alter water governance to better prepare for accelerated rates of change and surprise as the water-related impacts of climate change unfold. The Adaptive Water Governance Project (AWG Project) is a synthesis project with the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center under funding from the (U.S.) National Science Foundation. The AWG Project explores the role of law in achieving water governance that is capable of facilitating management, adaptation and transformation in the face of climate change. It builds on the work of resilience scholars, proponents of adaptive governance and climate scientists, by asking four questions concerning the role of law in adaptive governance.

1. What is the role of law in setting boundaries by identifying approaching thresholds or tipping points in a resource system?
2. What is the role of law in creating either a disturbance or window of opportunity in which adaptive forms of governance may emerge?
3. What is the role of law in presenting barriers to adaptive forms of governance?
4. What is the role of law in actively facilitating adaptive forms of governance?

This talk will focus on the application of the project to the Columbia River Basin shared by the United States and Canada. The project is taking place in the face of a key window of opportunity for change in the basin brought about by expiration of certain provisions of a treaty between the United States and Canada, and a review process underway in both countries. The intersection of this window with climate change places the basin in a unique position to consider more adaptive governance mechanisms in its framework for transboundary management for the next century.

Please visit the  the Kirby Seminar Series 2015 Echo Centre for a copy of this recording.