New OECD publications: Water Security for Better Lives and Water and Climate Change Adaptation: Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters

 It has just been announced the release of two new OECD reports on water:

September 2013: OECD report sets out a pioneering risk-based approach to water security
The OECD report Water Security for Better Lives provides a new way to approach water security - setting out a risk-based approach to water policy and the practical steps to implement it. The report notes that water security is ultimately about establishing an acceptable level of water risk by weighing the costs of improving water security against the expected benefits, and ensuring that responses are proportional to the magnitude of the risk. Flexibility is important, allowing acceptable levels of risk to be adjusted to changing situations. For instance, New York City is reassessing its flood protection level following Hurricane Sandy and investing billions to avoid future disasters. Read more.

September 2013: OECD report on water and climate change adaptation surveys countries’ emerging policies

The new OECD report Water and Climate Change Adaptation: Policies to Navigate Uncharted Waters sets out the challenge that climate change poses for freshwater and provides guidance to policy makers on how to improve the efficiency, timeliness and equity of adaptation responses. It sets out a risk-based approach to improve water security in a changing climate and analyses options to improve the flexibility of policy and financing approaches to deal with greater uncertainty. The report also documents key trends and highlights best practice from the OECD Survey of Policies on Water and Climate Change Adaptation, which covers all 34 member countries and the European Commission. Download individual country profiles and read more.