Most problems of modern societies can not sufficiently be addressed by conventional forms of policy making where state actors collect the necessary expertise, develop a regulatory solution and implement it through legislative and executive processes. The uncertainties, complexities, interconnectedness, multiple layers and the numerous potential consequences of any (regulatory) solution necessitate a governance approach that recognizes these problem characteristics.

To explore key issues related to governance of highly uncertain and complex problems we build upon a comparative study on adaptation to climate change in six water sensitive regions of the European Alps (in Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland). Each case study applied the same methodology, including interviews with regional stakeholders and a questionnaire measuring the importance of various factors (barriers and drivers) for adaptation.

The study highlights the importance of social, political, institutional and management factors in addition to legal, economic and technological conditions. All measured 70 factors were relevant in at least one case study region, but their importance differed to a large extent between the regions. Therefore, there is no specific best way of adaptation, but adaptation should be tailored to the regional conditions. This points to the usefulness of a regional governance approach and the importance of carefully analyzing the specific regional conditions. The only factor which was identified in all case studies as a very important barrier towards adaptation to climate change was the lack of planning and management tools that consider climate change.

In order to fill this gap of pragmatic governance approaches for uncertain and complex problems like adaptation to climate change we develop a reflexive regional governance approach. Reflexive governance is a practice of decision making that includes (a) interaction among diverse stakeholders, (b) deliberation between different bodies of knowledge from science and other societal groups, and (c) adaptation to novel developments inside or outside the governance system.

Based on a relational understanding of space the level of functional regions (e.g. drought regions, flooding regions) seems particularly suited to realize reflexive governance. Compared to adaptation on a federal or national level, regional governance allows for a more problem-oriented and stakeholder-specific perspective, while compared to the local level regional strategies can include a broader portfolio of potential decisions. Furthermore, the regional level of decision making is not as institutionalized as other levels so that the described adaptive reflexive governance approach can be realized more easily and flexible.

Based on our empirical data and larger research on adaptive governance we propose the following cornerstones of a reflexive regional governance framework: Learning: Trans- and interdisciplinary systemic exploration of regional conditions, regular monitoring and policy review; Cooperation: Regional stakeholder forum for realizing fair governance and "interactor", cross sectoral and intercommunal cooperation; Communication: Building awareness and knowledge; Education: Building competencies for dealing with the complexity and uncertainty of the addressed problem and for taking part in the reflexive regional governance process; Leadership: Ensuring commitment and leadership; Resources: Generating financial, social, human, legal, and technological resources.