In the face of global climate change, the utilization of various natural resources becomes increasingly complex and diverse within societal systems pursuing sustainable goals. Interdisciplinary integration and adaptation have become challenges that contemporary governments at all levels need to address. Various international trends have given rise to different objectives, shaping a multi-goal direction for the development of natural resource management. To address the complexities of management scenarios, such as urban spaces, socio-economic values, and sustainable development, numerous concepts have been developed. These encompass biodiversity, nature-based solutions, and ecosystem services.
The planning measures in hydraulic engineering unavoidably disturb the structure and biological habitats of natural ecosystems, consequently indirectly affecting human society and ecosystems. The services provided by ecosystems, in turn, contribute to human societal well-being either directly or indirectly. Therefore, in addition to the existing management goals of The Water Resources Agency (WRA), it is imperative to incorporate a multitude of challenges. To mitigate interference, it is crucial to systematically integrate adaptive thinking into planning by understanding major global trends. Within the scales and spaces available in hydraulic engineering planning, it is essential to grasp the spirit of sustainable development and integrate its concepts into planning and design. Recognizing the importance of improving ecosystems to reduce disaster risks and mitigating the threats posed by climate change to human society, optimizing the functions of water resources planning is paramount.
The Executive Yuan approved the "Comprehensive Improvement and Adaptation Plan for the Watersheds under Central Government Jurisdiction (Years 2021-2026)" in May 2020. This plan aims to clarify watershed watercourse and land flood risk areas through climate change stress testing. It involves examining how existing engineering and non-engineering measures can continuously improve the functionality of watercourse flood control facilities and enhance the national land flood adaptation capabilities. Departing from the traditional focus on watercourse management, the plan aims to create a resilient national land flood concept. This is achieved through land use governance and management, inheriting the NbS (Nature-based Solution) concept to create a balanced relationship among water, nature, and people.
The plan introduces public participation and integrates watershed planning from upstream to downstream. It connects land and coastal spatial planning and links measures such as watercourse management, coastal management, runoff sharing and control, on-site flood retention, integrating hydro-culture, constructing water-edge stitching, collaborating on national green networks, and conserving blue-green belt networks. The goal is to improve the ability of the land and society to face risks from bottom to top and to adapt to climate change risks, aligning with the public's imagination, expectations, and relationship with water.
The main goal of the watershed overall improvement and adaptation planning is to enhance the resilience of the land and society by addressing current risks in the river basin and implementing adaptation measures in response to the challenges of climate change. "Improvement" focuses on proposing measures to address the insufficient risk management capacity in the current watershed situation or areas where past efforts were incomplete. "Adaptation" involves developing relevant adaptive measures to enhance flood resilience in response to potential risks associated with climate change, with the aim of reducing disaster losses.