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/