Climate change, water change and the critical role of community resilience 

Dr. Amanda Shankland, Dr. Carolyn Johns, and Gail Krantzberg, explore climate change resilience, water change, and the critical role of climate-ready communitiesClimate change is impacting communities across the globe. For many communities, climate change manifests as water change in the form of floods, droughts, shoreline erosion, water quality degradation, water insecurity, and uncertainty.According to the United Nations, 153 countries have territory and communities within at least one of the 286 transboundary rivers, lake basins, and 592 transboundary aquifer systems (UN Water 2024). Communities worldwide are grappling with water governance challenges induced by climate change – inherently local, complex, and transboundary.The link between community resilience and improving water governance in communities facing climate changeAs part of a new Global Centre for Climate Change and Transboundary Water, a team of researchers focuses on understanding the critical connection between community resilience and improving water governance in communities facing climate change.The Climate Ready Communities and Transboundary Governance (CRTG) Cluster is a research team of social scientists focused on understanding and improving governance structures that foster climate change resilience in communities impacted by water-related challenges.The cluster aims to generate new knowledge that helps communities address climate change impacts at multiple scales. It integrates social science, Indigenous knowledge, and hydroclimate science to develop robust governance models that support resilience across diverse communities.The CRTG’s research is built on recognizing that climate change impacts related to water require comprehensive, multi-level, and multi-dimensional governance strategies. Our primary objective is to explore how governance models can be adapted to support climate change resilience, particularly at the community level. This is achieved by examining how climate science, local knowledge, and community-based frameworks are integrated into decision-making processes at multiple levels of governance.The cluster works to understand what governance approaches best support community resilience and to identify how local, regional, and transboundary governance structures can be integrated and transformed to better govern water challenges in the face of changing climactic conditions.CRTG’s critical research objectivesThe CRTG’s research focuses on several critical objectives:We seek to understand the baseline conditions and factors at the community scale that are critical foundations related to the capacity of communities to adapt to climate change and become more climate-ready and resilient.
We aim to identify and evaluate governance models promoting climate resilience related to water challenges. This involves understanding how governance systems at different scales incorporate both scientific and community-based knowledge.
We aim to assess how communit