Evaluating Brazil’s Sectoral Climate Adaptation Plans: Application of the Water Resilience Tracker

Abstract Strengthening water resilience is a strategic priority in the face of increasing climate-related impacts on natural, social, and economic systems. This study presents a critical assessment of the Water Resilience Tracker (WRT), a tool developed by the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), applied to evaluate 13 national and subnational adaptation and strategic plans in Brazil. The research followed a four-phase qualitative design—training, document organization, tool application, and synthesis—complemented by content analysis, heuristic evaluation, and computational techniques (R and Python). The results reveal the tool’s usefulness in identifying gaps, inconsistencies, and integration deficits in sectoral planning, highlighting opportunities for improving coherence, institutional articulation, and adaptive capacity. However, methodological challenges were observed, including subjectivity in scoring, complexity of interpretation across diverse plans, and the absence of economic evaluation indicators. The experience demonstrates the WRT’s potential to enhance decision-making and climate governance by offering a structured framework for policy assessment, especially in contexts of decentralization and policy fragmentation. The findings align with OECD recommendations for promoting water resilience in Brazil, emphasizing the need for multi-level governance, cross-sectoral alignment, and investment in institutional capacity. This study contributes to the refinement of climate adaptation assessment tools and supports the use of diagnostic frameworks to inform the design of integrated and socially responsive policies under conditions of climatic uncertainty.