title: Screening regional management options for their impact on climate resilience: an approach and case study in the Venen-Vechtstreek wetlands in the Netherlands.
abstract: Freshwater systems provide various resources and services. These are often vulnerable to climate change and other pressures. Therefore, enhancing resilience to climate change is important for their long term viability. This paper explores how management options can be evaluated on their resilience implications. The approach included five steps: (1) characterizing the system, (2) characterizing the impacts of climate change and other disturbances, (3) inventorying management options, (4) assessing the impacts of these on climate resilience, and (5) follow-up analysis. For the resilience assessment, we used a set of 'resilience principles': homeostasis, omnivory, high flux, flatness, buffering, and redundancy. We applied the approach in a case study in a Dutch wetlands region. Many options in the region's management plan contribute to resilience, however, the plan underutilised several principles, particularly flatness, but also redundancy and omnivory for agriculture, and high flux for nature. Co-benefits was identified as an important additional criterion to obtain support for adaptation from local stakeholders, such as farmers. The approach provided a relatively quick and participatory way to screen options. It allowed us to consider multiple impacts and sectors, multiple dimensions of resilience, and stakeholder perspectives. The results can be used to identify gaps or pitfalls, and set priorities for follow-up analyses.
authors.affiliation: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, PO Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wardekker
authors.affiliation: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, PO Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands ; Coöperatieve Universiteit Amersfoort, Geldersestraat 6, 3812 PP Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wildschut
authors.affiliation: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, PO Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands ; Department of Environmental Sciences, Statistics and Informatics, Ca'Foscari University of Venice, 30123 Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stemberger
authors.affiliation: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, PO Box 80115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands ; Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities & Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, PO Box 7805, 5020 Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: van der Sluijs
keywords: Climate change adaptation; Freshwater; Resilience; Rural areas