Adaptive co-management and hydroclimatic change

Examining the voluntary flow management program in the Upper Arkansas River Basin, Colorado

Bibliographic Data

ID21600345
AuthorsApostolos Paul Landahl (Colorado School of Mines), A Kroepsch (0000-0001-7731-8787, Colorado School of Mines, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume67
Issue7
Pages1494-1512
Publication date2024-06-06
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Environmental Planning and Management (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-0568 • E-ISSN: 1360-0559
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09640568.2023.2174089
OpenAlexW4322732233
LanguageEN
References cited38

Adaptive co-management (ACM) has been advanced as a climate change adaptation strategy because of its social learning and collaboration dynamics. But it remains unclear whether ACM facilitates climate change adaptation in practice. Because rivers have been important laboratories for ACM efforts and research, this study examines a 30-year-old flow program on the Upper Arkansas River in Colorado (USA) to learn (a) how it is being impacted by climate change and (b) how participants are responding. The program has been largely successful in achieving its ecological and recreational flow goals, but it is being challenged by two hydroclimatic changes: earlier spring runoff and reduced stream flows. The program’s ACM dynamics are enabling adaptations that include efforts to communicate more proactively (social learning) and to compromise over the use of constrained flows (collaboration). We discuss these adaptations and pose additional questions about the future of the voluntary flow management program

Adaptive Management · Business · Climate change · Compromise · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Political science · Recreation · Engineering · Environmental Science · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies · Psychology · Species Distribution and Climate Change · Ecology

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