Regional governance assessment for drought adaptation in North-West Europe: case study results from the analysis with a governance assessment tool in the DROP-project

North-West Europe will increasingly face drought periods that may se-riously affect inter alia agricultural production, natural ecosystems and fresh water supplies. In addition to implementing hard adaptation measures, enhancing regional water governance is crucial for effective drought adaptation. One of the objectives of the DROP project is to identify possible improvements to regional governance settings in six case study areas: Flanders (BE), Somerset (UK), Eifel-Rur (DE), Vi-laine (FR), Vechtstromen (NL) and Groot Salland (NL). The basis for the analysis is a Governance Assessment Tool adapted for the analysis of the resilience of the system to face droughts and water scarcity. This tool is elaborated from a concept of “governance” as a modification and extension of the concept of “policy”. The paper introduces this Governance Assessment Tool and presents insights of its application in the six case study areas.