ADAPTATION’S THIRST: ACCELERATING THE CONVERGENCE OF WATER AND CLIMATE ACTION

The document advocates for a shift from stationary water management—which relies on historical data—to a resilience-based approach that combines robustness and flexibility to address the deep uncertainties of a changing climate. It proposes an Action Framework for Climate-Resilient Water Management across four domains: governance and participation, information and learning, system diversity and connectivity, and infrastructure and technology. The authors emphasize that water is a systemic resource linking food security, public health, and energy, and argue that economic and financial tools, such as green bonds and index-based insurance, must be updated to value resilience over short-term cost-optimization.

• Climate change is undermining the long-standing assumption of 'stationarity' in water management, where past hydrological patterns were used to predict future risks. This leads to 'brittle' solutions and a false sense of security, as seen in the failure of 1-in-100-year flood defenses during events like Hurricane Harvey.
• Climate-resilient water management requires a strategic balance between robustness—measures that perform well across many possible future scenarios—and flexibility—the capacity to adjust and reorganize as new information emerges.
• The authors propose a four-domain Action Framework for Climate-Resilient Water Management: Governance and Participation; Information and Learning; System Diversity and Connectivity; and Infrastructure, Technology and Management.
• Water-related climate impacts are systemic and cross-sectoral, affecting energy production (with projected reductions in usable capacity for 61–74% of hydropower and 81–86% of thermoelectric plants worldwide between 2040–2069) and food security.
• Traditional economic cost-benefit analyses often fail to justify adaptation because they heavily discount future risks and prioritize short-term optimization. The paper suggests using real options analysis and multi-objective resilience assessments to better value long-term flexibility.
• There is a growing market for certified green and climate bonds to fund resilience, exemplified by the Netherlands issuing a €5.98 billion certified climate bond in May 2019, which was oversubscribed by more than three times.
• To ensure equity, adaptation must incorporate rights-based approaches and balance scientific data with local knowledge, preventing the marginalization of vulnerable groups and ensuring the human right to water and sanitation.
• Digital innovations, such as Water Accounting-plus (WA+) and the South Asia Drought Monitoring System (SADMS), are critical for providing the high-confidence, updated data needed to manage non-stationary water risks.

APA

Smith, D. M., Matthews, J. H., Bharati, L., Borgomeo, E., McCartney, M., Mauroner, A., Nicol, A., Rodriguez, D., Sadoff, C., Suhardiman, D., Timboe, I., Amarnath, G., & Anisha, N. (2019). ADAPTATION’S THIRST: ACCELERATING THE CONVERGENCE OF WATER AND CLIMATE ACTION. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Water_and_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf

Chicago

Smith, D Mark, John H Matthews, Luna Bharati, Edoardo Borgomeo, Matthew McCartney, Alex Mauroner, Alan Nicol, et al. ADAPTATION’S THIRST: ACCELERATING THE CONVERGENCE OF WATER AND CLIMATE ACTION. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Water_and_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Smith |first1=D Mark |last2=Matthews |first2=John H |last3=Bharati |first3=Luna |last4=Borgomeo |first4=Edoardo |last5=McCartney |first5=Matthew |last6=Mauroner |first6=Alex |last7=Nicol |first7=Alan |last8=Rodriguez |first8=Diego |last9=Sadoff |first9=Claudia |display-authors=etal |title=ADAPTATION’S THIRST: ACCELERATING THE CONVERGENCE OF WATER AND CLIMATE ACTION |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2 December 2019 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Water_and_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{smith2019adaptations, author = {Smith, D Mark and Matthews, John H and Bharati, Luna and Borgomeo, Edoardo and McCartney, Matthew and Mauroner, Alex and Nicol, Alan and Rodriguez, Diego and Sadoff, Claudia and Suhardiman, Diana and Timboe, Ingrid and Amarnath, Giriraj and Anisha, Nureen}, title = {{ADAPTATION’S THIRST: ACCELERATING THE CONVERGENCE OF WATER AND CLIMATE ACTION}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = dec, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Water_and_Climate_Adaptation_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }