Public Adaptation through the Backdoor: Can We Move to Adaptive Water Governance?

Date/Time: Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 / 12:00 - 1:15 PM 

In the context of a rapidly changing world, how society coordinates public adaptations is critical. We explore how institutions led to water security provisioning by the agricultural sector within the arid region of Central Arizona. This research explores the extent to which irrigated agriculture contributed to enhancing the adaptive capacity and potential concerns associated with the loss of agricultural land. Our analysis demonstrates the need for decision-makers at all scales to recognize the interdependencies within the system and multiple scales of risk. We argue that common knowledge about all aspects of the system or even establishment of a single goal may not be required in to achieve public good outcomes. We find that current public good provisioning has largely occurred through the “backdoor” without a focus on long-term, coordinated and systematic view of the challenges.  Nevertheless there should be recognition of the need for flexibility and a focus on transformative capacity of a complex dynamic social-ecological system poised to face tremendous stress due to climate change.  Likewise, we see potential to further harness the potential for private provisioning of public goods, but argue that there must be greater social learning about public and private sector and multi-scalar challenges, values, and goals and a focus on anticipatory governance.  

Abigail York received a PhD in Public Policy at Indiana University. York’s works focuses on environmental governance building upon the scholarship of Elinor Ostrom, her dissertation chair. Recently she has examined challenging societal questions regarding rapid urbanization, community management of invasive species, and water policy in the Arizona. York currently is an Associate Professor of Governance and Public Policy at the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University; she directs the Environmental Social Science PhD Program; and she is a Sustainability Scientist with the Global Institute of Sustainability.