Building Resilience at Sub-national Levels
Following the application of the Water Resilience Tracker (WRT) at the national level in Brazil, the next step was to apply the approach in six river basins identified as priorities by the Brazilian Government. This report summarizes the findings across the six basins.
Summary of findings
Brazil’s river basins are facing a wide range of water challenges, from severe drought and water scarcity to floods, growing urban demand and pressure from agriculture, energy and industry. Climate change is making these challenges more uncertain and increasing the need for plans that can adapt as conditions change.
Following an initial application of the Water Resilience Tracker (WRT) at the national level in Brazil, the approach was subsequently applied in six basins presenting a wide range of landscapes, economies, institutions and climate risks. The objective was to understand how well current plans are preparing for these changing conditions at sub-national levels and how they can learn from each other to turn plans into action.
Similar to the results at the national level, the assessment shows that water and climate risks are already recognized in basin planning, but they are not yet consistently translated into future-looking decisions, coordinated action and investment. The main opportunity is, therefore, not simply to produce more information, but to make planning more flexible, inclusive and capable of turning evidence into action. It calls for a progressive agenda and regularly updated instruments.
Beyond the six basin assessments, the work also contributed to the development of an Adaptation Action Basket comprising 189 measures and a methodology for selecting and prioritizing adaptation actions. Together, these outputs provide a structured approach for connecting identified resilience gaps and climate risks with practical adaptation options, supporting more informed planning and investment decisions at basin level.
Across the six basins, eight priorities emerged:
Plan for a changing climate by using climate projections, different future scenarios and uncertainty analysis.
Make governance more adaptive, with regular opportunities to review plans and respond to new evidence.
Strengthen participation and equity, particularly for people and communities more exposed to climate risks.
Connect water planning more closely with decisions in other sectors such as agriculture, energy, industry, cities, health and transport.
Improve monitoring and establish clear signals for when decisions or actions need to change.
Expand the use of contextually appropriate nature-based solutions and environmental restoration as part of water and climate adaptation.
Turn priority actions into well-structured project portfolios that can attract financing.
Invest in continuous learning and capacity building across basin institutions.
The recommendations were discussed with participating basin institutions and other water-management stakeholders, helping identify opportunities to incorporate them into future planning cycles and the funding needed to support implementation.. The WRT Brazil national coordination team is also developing a capacity-building proposal for river basin committees and agencies. The proposed work aims to support the development of flexible portfolios of adaptation actions at the basin level that can be customized through participatory and interactive processes with committee representatives, helping to embed water resilience in basin planning over the long term.