Exploring Water Governance Arrangements in the Swiss Alps From the Perspective of Adaptive Capacity

In times of increasing uncertainty because of climate and socioeconomic changes, the ability to deal with uncertainty and surprise is an essential requirement for the sustainability of alpine water governance. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the adaptive capacity of water governance arrangements in the Swiss Alps and to propose options for reforms. To this purpose, we evaluated the current arrangements and the ways the actors have dealt with water shortages in the past, based on qualitative interviews and a document review. The research revealed that the adaptive capacity of the investigated arrangements is rather high with regard to reactive ways of responding to water shortage problems. However, there is limited capacity to proactively anticipate possible changes and to find prospective solutions on a regional scale. We conclude that with increased environmental and social pressures, forms of proactive water resource governance should be introduced, taking into account the welfare of people in both upstream and downstream areas.

Interdisciplinary assessment of complex regional water systems and their future evolution: how socioeconomic drivers can matter more than climate

Modeling of future water systems at the regional scale is a difficult task due to the complexity of current structures (multiple competing water uses, multiple actors, formal and informal rules) both temporally and spatially. Representing this complexity in the modeling process is a challenge that can be addressed by an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. The assessment of the water system of the Crans-Montana-Sierre area (Switzerland) and its evolution until 2050 were tackled by combining glaciological, hydrogeological, and hydrological measurements and modeling with the evaluation of water use through documentary, statistical and interview-based analyses. Four visions of future regional development were co-produced with a group of stakeholders and were then used as a basis for estimating future water demand. The comparison of the available water resource and the water demand at monthly time scale allowed us to conclude that for the four scenarios socioeconomic factors will impact on the future water systems more than climatic factors. An analysis of the sustainability of the current and future water systems based on four visions of regional development allowed us to identify those scenarios that will be more sustainable and that should be adopted by the decision-makers. The results were then presented to the stakeholders through five key messages. The challenges of communicating the results in such a way with stakeholders are discussed at the end of the article.

MontanAqua: Wasserbewirtschaftung in Zeiten von Knappheit und globalem Wandel Wasserbewirtschaftungsoptionen für die Region Crans-Montana-Sierre im Wallis

Das nationale Forschungsprogramm NFP 61 «Nachhaltige Wassernutzung » des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, wissenschaftliche Grundlagen zur nachhaltigen Wasserbewirtschaftung in der Schweiz zu liefern. Als Teil dieses Forschungsvorhabens wurde im Rahmen des Projektes MontanAqua die Wasserbewirtschaftung der Region Crans-Montana-Sierre (Wallis) untersucht. Es ging dabei darum, in enger Zusammenarbeit mit den in der Region betroffenen Akteuren nachhaltige Wassernutzungsstrategien für die Zukunft zu entwickeln. MontanAqua hat sich vertieft mit den bestehenden Systemen der Wasserbewirtschaftung auf der regionalen Skala (11 Gemeinden) auseinandergesetzt. Dazu wurden die zukünftigen Auswirkungen der klimatischen und sozioökonomischen Veränderungen einbezogen. Das Forschungsteam analysierte die aktuelle Situation anhand von quantitativen, qualitativen sowie kartografischen Methoden und kombinierte diese mit Modellberechnungen. Für die Modellierung der Zukunft wurden regionale Klimaszenarien und vier mit lokalen Akteuren entwickelte sozioökonomische Szenarien verwendet. Dieser Überblick fasst die Resultate des Projektes MontanAqua zusammen. Fünf wesentliche Fragen werden beantwortet und fünf Kernbotschaften erläutert. Zudem sind Empfehlungen für die Verantwortlichen der regionalen und kantonalen Wasserbewirtschaftung formuliert.

Assessing the sustainability of water governance systems: the sustainability wheel

We present and test a conceptual and methodological approach for interdisciplinary sustainability assessments of water governance systems based on what we call the sustainability wheel. The approach combines transparent identification of sustainability principles, their regional contextualization through sub-principles (indicators), and the scoring of these indicators through deliberative dialogue within an interdisciplinary team of researchers, taking into account their various qualitative and quantitative research results. The approach was applied to a sustainability assessment of a complex water governance system in the Swiss Alps. We conclude that the applied approach is advantageous for structuring complex and heterogeneous knowledge, gaining a holistic and comprehensive perspective on water sustainability, and communicating this perspective to stakeholders.

Improved relapse-free survival after autologous stem cell transplantation does not translate into better quality of life in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: lessons from the randomized European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation-Intergroup study

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) medical progress is driven by clinical studies with relapse-free survival (RFS) as the primary endpoint. The randomized EBMT-Intergroup trial compared high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) to observation and demonstrated a substantial improvement of RFS without showing improved overall survival for the transplant arm. Here we report quality of life (QoL) information of the first 3 years following randomization from that study. The main objective was to assess the impact of treatment on QoL over time. Two secondary analyses were performed to further investigate the impact of ASCT and relapse on QoL. In the primary analysis, we demonstrate an adverse impact of ASCT on QoL which was largest at 4 months and continued throughout the first year after randomization. Further, we demonstrated a sustained adverse impact of relapse on QoL which worsened over time. Despite better disease control by ASCT the side effects thus turned the net effect towards inferior QoL in the first year and comparable QoL in the following 2 years after randomization. This study emphasizes the importance of information concerning QoL impacts when patients are counseled about treatments aimed at improving RFS in the absence of a survival benefit.