Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1942587 May 19, 2011 [RESILIENCE E&S: COSENS, WILLIAMS] 1 Resilience and Water Governance: Adaptive Governance in the Columbia River Basin Barbara Cosens, Professor University of Idaho College of Law Waters of the West Moscow, Idaho 83843 208 885-6298 bcosens@uidaho.edu Mark Williams, Fellow Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Human Right to Water and Sanitation Program Harvard Kennedy School of Government 79 John F. Kennedy St. Cambridge, MA 02138 ABSTRACT Political boundaries are drawn without consideration of river basin boundaries. Over the next decade, several contributing factors could trigger rapid change and social and economic instability in these multi-jurisdictional watersheds, placing greater demands on competing water interests and a greater need to cooperate across jurisdictional boundaries. The degree of uncertainty surrounding the drivers of change complicates efforts to predict and manage under traditional approaches that rely on historic ecosystem responses. Using work on the type of adaptive management/governance required to foster ecological system resilience, the paper will discuss means to delegate more flexible and adaptive authority to water management entities, while retaining legitimacy in governance. It will apply this approach to adaptive management/governance to the Columbia River Basin, a complex, multi-jurisdictional setting, by exploring an early failed attempt at adaptive management in salmon recovery, discussing why the current rigid structure has resulted in litigation gridlock, and proposing alternative forms of adaptive management/governance with a broader application. INTRODUCTION Political boundaries are drawn without consideration of river basin boundaries, as illustrated by the fact that 276 surface water resources cross international boundaries (Oregon State University, Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database), and the many more that cross sub-national jurisdictional boundaries. Over the next decade, several contributing factors could trigger rapid change and social and economic instability in these international watersheds, placing greater demands on competing water interests and a greater need to cooperate across jurisdictional boundaries. These contributing factors include: climate change, continued population growth, a