IWRA Proceedings

AbstractThis contribution aims to identify to what extent adaptation strategies are integrated in the water regulation of (selected) islands. Water management in island contexts can be seen as key climate change adaptation strategies to increase communities and ecosystems resilience against climate change impacts. The development of these strategies should take into consideration the impact that climate change has on water as well. It is in this context that water regulation should account for climate change impacts. This consideration should moreover be read in conjunction with one of the main paradigms in water management: integrated water resources management (‘IWRM’). The concept of IWRM aims to put forward an integrated approach to regulate water resources in the various possibly conflicting objectives. This contribution explores whether some jurisdictions that embrace the IWRM concept have also integrated adaptation efforts in their water regulation. To further explore this, we will analyse the regulatory framework of selected islands.