Adaptive Delta Management: Roots and Branches

Deltas are generally recognized as vulnerable to climate change and therefore a salient topic in adaptation science. Deltas are also highly dynamic systems viewed from physical (erosion, sedimentation, subsidence), social (demographic), economic (trade), infrastructures (transport, energy, metropolization) and cultural (multiethnic) perspectives. This multi-faceted dynamic character of deltas is more and more recognized in the international literature and the focus on adaptation science in deltas is broadening from single issue climate adaptation to multi-issue adaptation. The multi-faceted character of delta areas warrants the emergence of a branch of applied adaptation science, Adaptive Delta Management (ADM) that is multi-issue and multi-faceted. This article describes and structures the emergence of ADM in science and its further development by professional in The Netherlands. In this further development of ADM, professionals borrowed and combined multiple approaches from the policy and management sciences and lost track of their roots in science. This article connects ADM back to these roots in order to propel the further development of ADM through advances in adaptation science and facilitate a more structured discussion on developments in ADM.