Climate Change Adaptation in River Management

"This book contributes significantly to the literature on comparative climate adaptation and shows how and why understandings of best approaches to water management are changing. It will be of interest to those concerned with the effects of climate change, evolving water management policies, and the ways in which water management is being viewed in major economies in Europe and in Asia. The book is an important and fascinating read."
- Miranda A. Schreurs, Professor of Environment and Climate Politics, Technical University of Munich, Germany
This book examines the approaches to climate change adaptation in water governance taken by South Korea and Germany. By comparing their political decision-making processes, this book explores the factors behind their differences. Adaptation to the changing climate is critical to human society and water is the principal medium through which climate change will affect us. Due to high levels of industrialization and population density, flood control is a high priority in both countries’ adaptation plans. While South Korea has maintained its engineering-oriented flood control policy for river management, Germany has turned its direction from its long-standing technical approach to more nature-based solutions. The evidence of this study indicates that policy change and stability is the result of discourse and institutional interaction, and thus emphasizes the validity of discursive institutionalism. This book clearly explains why certain policies are adopted for water management and it will be an invaluable contribution to the expanding literature on the socio-political aspects of climate change adaptation.
Yi hyun Kang is a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles, Belgium. She earned her PhD at the Technical University of Munich, Germany with her dissertation on climate change adaptation policies of South Korea and Germany. Yi hyun's research interests focus on thedecision-making process of environmental politics. These research interests developed from her professional work experiences in journalism, research, and international development sectors.