San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science

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.