Maria Carmen LEMOS
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, 430 E. University Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115
This study seeks to understand a few of the factors affecting the use of climate forecasting in policymaking from a comparative perspective. It finds that among the many variables shaping the potential for the use of climate forecasting by water managers in Brazil and the United States, institutional environmental is critical. While water managers in the U.S operate in a mostly fragmented and risk-averse system which constrains the adoption of innovation, decisionmakers in Brazil can afford significant more flexibility to introduce new policy tools as a result of widespread management reforms initiated in the 1990s.