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Social capital is increasingly recognized as a key determinant of adaptive capacity to climate change. Beyond formal adaptation infrastructure like insurance and public disaster support programmes, it can be difficult to identify the role that informal social capital—such as relationships, trust, and mutual support between community members—plays in climate adaptation. Drawing on a multi-site qualitative study in the Canadian Prairie region, this paper examines how three forms of social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking) shape rural communities’ adaptation to climate extremes. Based on in-depth interviews with 163 community members, the findings demonstrate how social capital contributes to adaptive capacity, particularly in rural areas where more formal supports may be absent or lacking. We examine how social capital is affected by existing socio-economic sensitivities, such as rural depopulation, which can reduce informal social capital while simultaneously increasing people’s dependence on it. The findings indicate the strengths and limitations of bonding and bridging social capital, particularly in the face of future climate extremes that may exceed local adaptive capacity. Further, we find that informal social capital may also reinforce gender inequality, exclusion, and inter-group differences, indicating its limitations for socially inclusive adaptation. Addressing these structural factors can help communities move past coping and toward long-term adaptation. In the face of increasing climate risks, our findings suggest the importance of public supports that are attentive to local strengths, gaps, and social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will increasingly impact large areas of South America, affecting important natural resources and people's livelihoods. These impacts will make rural people disproportionately more vulnerable, given their dependency on ecosystem services and their exposure to other stressors, such as new rules imposed by agribusiness and trends toward the commodification of natural resources. This paper focuses on the vulnerability of rural communities in Andean drylands of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, showing how different economic and political pathways lead to different levels of vulnerability. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the methodological and theoretical concept of vulnerability, which framed the research. Starting from the premise that global environmental change impacts are strongly linked to styles of development, the discussion explores the diverse institutional capital and governance schemes as well as different development styles in the case studies and their role in increasing or reducing local vulnerability to climate and water scarcity. Using a comparative perspective, the exposures and adaptive capacities of rural actors in three river basins are discussed, emphasizing situations that speak for the ways in which development styles counteract or magnify conditions of vulnerability. The analysis considers irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture, water property interests, different productive structures (viticulture, horticulture, etc.), producer typologies (large/small, export, etc.), and geographical location. Finally, the paper offers some insights about development style and adaptive capacities of rural people to overcome those vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expected changes in climate and hydrology in Latin American drylands are likely to affect drinking and irrigation water availability, threatening productive systems and the subsistence of some rural dwellers. Research on the vulnerability of rural communities in watershed basins of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile have shown that drought and diminishing river flows would compromise the wellbeing of the smallest producers of these socio-ecological systems, who are already affected by other stressors, such as globalization, restricted fiscal policies and long established situations of poverty and inequity. Thus, it seems that global environmental change threatens the survival of specific agricultural development models, not those that are more integrated to the agribusiness processes but rather the subordinated, traditional models based on small-scale production and tightly connected to natural cycles. Along with their decline, traditional testimonies and practices related to these models would be lost, including their interpretative schemes and rationales based on values and worldviews different from the prevailing development model. The paper argues that these social and cultural capital losses would entail a drawback in the achievement of development goals—especially for those locally inspired—and that subordinate development models constitute, in themselves, a heritage worth to be preserved. In addition to linking global environmental change to culture loss and to the development processes, the paper suggests the necessity of rethinking the ethics of conservation to promote a new multiculturality paradigm that values small scale productive and lifestyles and understands its connections with nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores changing roles in Canadian water management, by focusing on a case study of agriculture and water in Western Canada. Challenges in water management include unequal adaptive capacity, gaps in water and climate data, locally relevant options, short- and long-term planning, among others. This empirical study offers insight for improved water management decision-making for all regions. There is a need for improving and integrating water management with climate scenarios, collecting more and better water/climate data, improving water governance and long-term planning, and developing strong communication channels between governance organizations and local communities. Positive trends towards effective and adaptive water management include the incorporation of watershed groups, basin planning, and the use of multidisciplinary approaches to guide decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change may pose challenges as well as opportunities for viticulture, and much research has been devoted to assessing the impacts of climate change on quality wine grape production, focusing primarily on the capability of current wine-producing areas to ripen wine grapes under future increases in temperatures. This paper considers the human dimensions of the climate change and viticulture issue and assesses the vulnerability of grape and wine producers to climate change in the context of other stresses via a case study in the Maule Region of Chile. Through interviews, producers revealed that their key sensitivity is income, which is influenced by a variety of factors, including climate and weather, market and currency fluctuations, institutional arrangements and labour availability. Producers make adjustments in order to maintain profitability, with market forces being one of the most important drivers of their decision-making. Climate change does not appear to be a priority in the region, although some adaptation strategies may be beneficial given the projected changes in climate. The ability of producers to adapt to a changing climate is constrained by social, economic and political circumstances, including economic capital, education, institutional arrangements and organizational abilities. These circumstances need to be addressed in order for producers to effectively adapt in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livelihoods in drylands are already challenged by the demands of climate variability, and climate change is expected to have further implications for water resource availability in these regions. This paper characterizes the vulnerability of an irrigation-dependent agricultural community located in the Elqui River Basin of Northern Chile to water and climate-related conditions in light of climate change. The paper documents the exposures and sensitivities faced by the community in light of current water shortages, and identifies their ability to manage these exposures under a changing climate. The IPCC identifies potentially increased aridity in this region with climate change; furthermore, the Elqui River is fed by snowmelt and glaciers, and its flows will be affected by a warming climate. Community vulnerability occurs within a broader physical, economic, political and social context, and vulnerability in the community varies amongst occupations, resource uses and accessibility to water resources, making some more susceptible to changing conditions in the future. This case study highlights the need for adaptation to current land and water management practices to maintain livelihoods in the face of changes many people are not expecting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the successes and challenges of adaptation to climate change focusing on water governance institutions in Saskatchewan, a province located in the western Canadian prairies. Design/methodology/approach – A framework of vulnerability and adaptive capacity to the effects of climate change is employed. Data are obtained through qualitative research conducted through interviews and focus groups with stakeholders and people playing a role in water governance in Saskatchewan. Findings – There have been many positive institutional developments which have improved Saskatchewan's adaptive capacity. The most promising is the creation of local watershed advisory committees that are poised to implement on-the-ground water management decisions. What is lacking, however, is a long-term comprehensive climate change and adaptation plan, with built-in flexibility to address present and future climate variability. Without a long-term baseline plan and vision, Saskatchewan rural communities and the agricultural sector will remain vulnerable to present and future climate-induced water stress. Practical implications – The research shows a need for an increased inter-disciplinary approach addressing environmental issues, and an increased need for academic-government-industry partnerships working towards capacity-building for sustainable climate change adaptation responses. Originality/value – This inter-disciplinary research study is the first of its kind conducted in this region of Canada, and blends contributions from physical and social scientists, government and rural stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts around the multi-purpose water uses of Lake Diefenbaker (LD) in Saskatchewan, Canada need to be addressed to meet rapidly expanding water demands in the arid Canadian prairie region. This study explores these conflicts to advance collaborative planning as a means for improving the current water governance and management of this lake. Qualitative methodology that employed a wide participatory approach was used to collect focus group data from 92 individuals, who formed a community of water users. Results indicate that the community of water users is unified in wanting to maintain water quality and quantity, preserving the lake's aesthetics, and reducing water source vulnerability. Results also show these users are faced with water resource conflicts resulting from lack of coherence of regulatory instruments in the current governance regime, and acceptable management procedures of both consumptive and contemporary water uses that are interlinked in seven areas of: irrigation, industrial, and recreational water uses; reservoir water level for flood control and hydroelectricity production; wastewater and lagoon management; fish farm operations; and regional water development projects. As a means of advancing collaborative planning, improvements in water allocation and regulatory instruments could be made to dissipate consumptive use conflicts and fill the under-regulation void that exists for contemporary water uses. Additionally, a comprehensive LD water use master plan, as a shared vision to improve participation in governance, could be developed to direct the water uses that have emerged over time. This study suggests that these three areas are practical starting conditions that would enable successful collaborative planning for the seven areas of water uses. Focusing on these three areas would ensure the current and future needs of the community of water users are met, while avoiding reactive ways of solving water problems in the LD region, especially as the water crisis in the Canadian Prairie region where LD is located is expected to intensify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which investigated and demonstrated the performance-packed bioreactor for the oxidation of ferrous iron with the use of an open culture of Thiobacillus ferroxidans, an immobilized acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria. List of rotating biological contractors; Significance of suspended biomass; Results and analysis; Conclusions.