Wellspring: Source water resilience and climate adaptation

This report is designed for those working in the fields of water resources management and natural resources conservation who want to consider new patterns of source water protection in light of ongoing climate change. Here, the authors present the insights and evidence to suggest what aspects of management should be continued, reprioritized, or shifted. The report aims to provide readers with strategic guidance that can impact institutional decision making.

The authors begin by describing the language of climate change, including some of the principles that define many of the core concepts of water resilience. The authors then describe some of the negative climate impacts to water infrastructure and aquatic ecosystems before discussing the emergence of a coherent approach to resilient source water protection. The paper also summarizes some of the members of the water community who have ownership over the spectrum of source water resilience decisions. Even when these actors have found consensus, however, arranging financing often remains a challenge, so this topic is explored as well. Finally, the authors address what for many — especially for conservationists — remains an important component of their work: the sense of loss associated with climate change. Managing for resilience is not managing for conservation, and reevaluating the meaning of sustainability — given the forces out of human control — requires courage and strength.