Risk, vulnerability, resilience and adaptive management in the water sector

Abstract

Developments in the theories and applications of risk, vulnerability, resilience and adaptive management within the context of urban water services are described and evaluated, facilitating consensus on their interpretation and subsequent management approaches. A synopsis of current thinking in the literature and the models, tools and techniques used in the application of risk, vulnerability, resilience and adaptive management concepts is presented. Representatives from two European water service providers were interviewed to explore whether and how these concepts are understood and interpreted within their organisations. This report presents evidence that the concepts of risk and (perhaps to a lesser extent) vulnerability are more widely applied and embedded in the water services sector than resilience and adaptive management. Discrepancies in how resilience is characterised were also observed. The engineering-based approach to resilience focuses on improving ?critical infrastructure resilience?, whereas the socio-ecological approach seeks to improve flexibility and foster creative re-organisation of complex systems. A case for further exploration of the latter, socio-ecological, concept and its operational aspects in the context of urban water services is provided.