Participatory Planning for Climate Change Adaptation in the Brahmatwinn Project

The NetSyMoD methodological framework has been designed through a series of research projects and applications over the last decade. The aim of the approach is facilitating the integration of multiple actors’ interests and preferences in decision or policy making processes in the field of natural resources management. The methodology is organised in six main phases, which can be recursively applied in an adaptive management context. Apart from the last phase, focusing on putting in place the selected Actions and Monitoring of their effects, a comprehensive application of the approach was carried out during the Brahmatwinn EU Project, for the development of climate change adaptation strategies to cope with flood risks in the Upper Brahmaputra and Upper Danube River Basins. The paper reports on the experience of implementing the five phases of Actors’ Analysis, Problem Analysis, Creative System Modelling, DSS Design and Analysis of Options, in parallel in the two case studies. Strengths and weaknesses of the approach adopted are presented in light of its further development and application in other case studies in the near future. Insights into the roles of the researchers and the involved local actors and their interactions are derived from a series of participatory workshops over a three years time span.