Diagnosing climate change impacts and identifying adaptation strategies by involving key stakeholder organisations and farmers in Sikkim, India: Challenges and opportunities Adani Azhoni a , Manish Kumar Goyal a,b, ⁎ a Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati 781039, India b Discipline of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore 453552, India HIGHLIGHTS • A case study involving key stakeholders in understanding climate change im- pacts and identifying adaptation strate- gies • Demonstrates how the gaps between research, policy and adaptation imple- mentation needs to be narrowed • Farmers with limited climate change awareness benefits from social net- works and adaptation trainings by gov- ernment • Highly relevant for both policymakers and researchers because it identifies re- search needs from stakeholders’ perspectives GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 20 October 2017 Received in revised form 10 January 2018 Accepted 12 January 2018 Available online xxxx Editor: Simon Pollard Narrowing the gap between research, policy making and implementing adaptation remains a challenge in many parts of the world where climate change is likely to severely impact water security. This research aims to narrow this gap by matching the adaptation strategies being framed by policy makers to that of the perspectives of de- velopment agencies, researchers and farmers in the Himalayan state of Sikkim in India. Our case study examined the perspectives of various stakeholders for climate change impacts, current adaptation strategies, knowledge gaps and adaptation barriers, particularly in the context of implementing the Sikkim State Action Plan on Climate Change through semi-structured interviews carried out with decision makers in the Sik- kim State Government, researchers, consultants, local academia, development agencies and farmers. Using Stake- holders Network Analysis tools, this research unravels the complexities of perceiving climate change impacts, identifying strategies, and implementing adaptation. While farmers are less aware about the global phenomenon of climate change impacts for water security, their knowledge of the local conditions and their close interaction with the State Government Agriculture Department provides them opportunities. Although important steps are being initiated through the Sikkim State Action Plan on Climate Change it is yet to deliver effective means of ad- aptation implementation and hence, strengthening the networks of close coordination between the various implementing agencies will pay dividends. Knowledge gaps and the need for capacity building identified in this research, based on the understandings of key stakeholders are highly relevant to both the research commu- nity and for informing policy. © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Adaptation Climate change Spring-water Stakeholders Water Science of the Total Environment 626 (2018) 468–477 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: mkgoyal@iiti.ac.in, vipmkgoyal@gmail.com (M.K. Goyal). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.112 0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv