Mainstreaming integrated approaches to sustain lake and reservoir basin benefits in a changing climate

ABSTRACT This paper examines the challenges of institutional inertia and land, water and environmental policy failures in promoting integrated management of lakes, reservoirs, and their contributing basins and aquifers. While we focus on vulnerable lakes and reservoirs, the necessary policy, legal, and institutional reforms apply to many water basins, given the rapidly changing climate. Institutional barriers to more integrated land and water management are discussed that highlight the tension between development and management and the influence of powerful economic interests. Previous lake basin governance reforms to address institutional barriers stressed the value of partnerships and collaboration to overcome sectoral silos hindering the implementation of integrated, place-based approaches and minimizing the impact of climate-related disasters. Simultaneous top-down reforms, including national inter-ministerial partnerships and bottom-up vertical institutional collaboration with community engagement, are critical for overcoming barriers to sustaining benefits from lakes and reservoirs. Recent global water, environment, and climate institutional developments offer opportunities and driving forces for reforms needed to address the `integrated approaches amnesia' before irreversible consequences destabilize more communities. This paper builds on our companion article discussing the accelerated deterioration of lakes and reservoirs due to policy failures and climatic shifts and offers recommendations for collaborative best practices to improve governance.