{"pk":62909,"title":"Assessing the State and Efficacy of Climate Governance Research and Practice in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Climate change affects nearly every aspect of the interdependent biophysical and social systems in California’s Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Mitigating and adapting to these effects will require effective climate governance: referring to the actors, rules, and processes through which decisions are made to prevent and respond to climate change. How governance systems effectively achieve these goals has become an increasingly central question in climate social science and climate policy debates, both at global and local scales. This paper reviews the state of science on climate governance in the Delta and investigates the extent to which effective climate governance characteristics operate in this region. The literature on climate governance broadly distills two key dimensions that scholars suggest influence efficacy: the structure of a governance system (e.g., extent of centralization and decentralization and mechanisms for coordination) and the degree of reactivity or proactivity in its processes. We review the available literature on Delta-specific governance, tracing the historical evolution of environmental governance in the Delta, and highlighting current efforts that illustrate different structural and procedural governance elements. Our synthesis finds robust evidence that characterizes the Delta’s governance system as dominantly polycentric and multi-scaler, increasingly participatory, and with a high aptitude for learning and innovation. Nevertheless, the region also faces key challenges around fragmentation and institutional fit, legacy policies that hamper transformational or proactive climate actions, and long-standing conflict among resource users and governing agencies. We conclude that the combination of high polycentricity alongside high levels of conflict and power asymmetries among affected parties in the Delta contributes to what can feel like “governance gridlock” and an inability to change the status quo to navigate new climate regimes equitably and effectively. These findings have implications for identifying steps forward for governance research and practice, both regionally in the Delta and beyond.","language":"en","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"climate change, governance, equity, adaptive governance, transformational governance, polycentric, institutions, actors"}],"section":"The State of Bay-Delta Science 2025, Part 1","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67w3k56z","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Jessica","middle_name":"","last_name":"Rudnick","name_suffix":"","institution":"Current: US Department of Agriculture Forest Service\nChicago, IL 60640 USA\n\nFormer: Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Science Program \nSacramento, CA 95814 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Tanya","middle_name":"","last_name":"Heikkila","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Colorado–Denver, School of Public Affairs\nDenver, CO 80204 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Elizabeth","middle_name":"","last_name":"Koebele","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Nevada–Reno, Political Science\nReno, NV 89557 USA","department":""},{"first_name":"Tiffany","middle_name":"","last_name":"Morrison","name_suffix":"","institution":"James Cook University, College of Science and Engineering\nTownsville, Queensland, Australia\n\nUniversity of Melbourne, School of Resource Management and Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Science \nParkville, Victoria Australia\n\nWageningen University and Research, Environmental Policy Group\nWageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands","department":""},{"first_name":"Chelsea","middle_name":"","last_name":"Batavia","name_suffix":"","institution":"Current: Washington State Department of Ecology\nLacey, WA 98503 USA\n\nFormer: Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Science Program, Sacramento, CA 95814 USA\nSacramento, CA 95814 USA","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2025-03-18T06:03:52Z","date_accepted":"2025-03-18T06:03:52Z","date_published":"2025-03-31T07:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/jmie_sfews/article/62909/galley/48595/download/"}]}