Using Participatory Process and Tool for the Assessment of Climate Change Adaptation Options

For better policy planning of adaptation under the influence of climate change, a good process design which engages experts with technical and local knowledge is vital for the success of adaptation since the complexity and uncertainty of the climate change impacts and the inter-disciplinary cooperation necessity for responding to these impacts. The theme of this study is about "adaptation issue of water resource management in Southern Taiwan" and the aim is to integrate upstream climate change related scientific knowledge into downstream policy-making process, whereas different perspectives for the adaptation options from stakeholders can be explored by incorporating a participatory process during the adaptation assessment and then be taken into consideration by policy makers. The participatory process is designed by using a stakeholder workshop. For the preliminary arrangement of the stakeholder workshop, a mapping of resources needed for operating the workshop is conducted, including selection of the workshop participants by identification of the key stakeholders, the collection of state-of-the-art scientific knowledge for climate change in water resource area and the historical and local socio-political context and the related conflicting issues for the problems. Extraction and interpretation of the scientific knowledge are also performed and tested by introducing a training workshop and co-learning activities of core group of stakeholders. An assessment tool named "water diamond" is designed for the stakeholder workshop by integration of policy implementation assessment and outcome assessment dimensions while balances short term view with long term view, to facilitate the different perspective interactions and knowledge exchange among stakeholders. This process and tool could be useful not only in the phase of adaptation assessment to envision different options for the future but also help in the dialogue among stakeholders to explore the most effective adaptation actions.