Robert Shibatani
CEO & Principal Hydrologist
The Shibatani Group
USA

Biography
Robert Shibatani is an empirical hydrologist with over 30 years of collective experience in physical hydrology, watershed resource management, and operational water consulting. He is a leading expert in long-range California and U.S. water supply development and an acknowledged international practitioner in global climate change hydrology and its effects on water resource sustainability. Mr. Shibatani regularly advises U.S. Congressional leaders on prescient water supply development, environmental regulatory integration, and domestic water policy adaptations. Mr. Shibatani's current work focuses on future water supply options/development, innovative new reservoir initiatives, private equity investment in new water/power schemes, drought contingency planning, hydrological regime shifts due to long-term climate forcings, and their effects on water rights, allocations, and institutional regulatory fidelity. The SHIBATANI GROUP International is part of a wider global consortium of water experts from partnering firms in Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the EU, working to develop and implement various water governance, transboundary water rights, and river compact initiatives.

Abstract
Climate Change The Real Implications: Spatial and Temporal Regulatory Fidelity

The evidence of a rapidly shifting climate is indisputable. Operating within a regulatory framework that is based on historical hydrology with little or no provision for adjustment or balancing, water managers are increasingly being compelled to change many aspects of their operations. However, where those changes conflict with existing regulatory requirements; that is where incompatibility and the real implications of climate change is becoming evident. In light of climate imposed changes to the hydrologic system, both the regulatory system and water users must strive to develop a more dynamic and amenable system of regulatory compliance; one that is 21st century sensitive. This represents one of the most significant challenges facing global water resources today. Adopting fixed prescriptions, in a non-fixed, rapidly changing world, is no longer appropriate given the extent to which climate change is altering hydrology in both space and time. Indeed, if we accept the notion of climatic shifts, future water resources regulatory oversight must be as dynamic as the environment for which it is attempting to regulate. To be sure, any imposed changes will not be easy, nor necessarily quick, for we are talking of revisiting long-entrenched concepts and yes, even legal principles in water resources management (e.g., water rights). This presentation examines the growing gap between regulatory fidelity and the rapidly evolving hydrologic regime and uses both spatial and temporal examples of regulatory governance to demonstrate this emerging disparity. From a hydrological perspective, the fundamental baseline upon which we have developed our entire water resources management framework is shifting – governance needs to shift along with it or risk regulatory irrelevancy