Public AS are those in which a public actor aims at influencing the actions of private actors in her jurisdiction. In this AS, tasks can be often referred to as adaptation governance challenges (Bisaro and Hinkel, 2012). Two basic kinds of AS obtain for public actors: those in which a public actor aims to influence individual action, and those in which they aim to influence collective action. The distinction between these two kinds of AS is based on whether there is interdependence between the adapting actors.

Assessing capacity of other actors is particularly relevant in public adaptation situations, as influencing private actors logically requires understanding the capacity of those actors to take adaptation action. Capacity can be separated into potential and actual components, where the former includes the set of material, human and social resources that an actor has access to, while the latter refers to actual adaptation, which is influenced by cognitive and institutional factors that mediate the use of potential capacity (Bisaro and Hinkel, 2013). While potential capacity is a set of assets, actual capacity is the actual actions that actors take. Actual capacity is thus constrained and enabled by both institutional and cognitive factors. These institutional and cognitive factors are relevant for both individual and collective adaptation, and therefore they are addressed in the respective decision trees.

The decision node for a public actor seeking to influence the adaptation of others is whether interdependence between the relevant actors is present. Do private actors need to adapt individually or collectively? In other words, the AS is characterised by whether actions of oneprivate actor will lead to (negative) consequences for another private actor. Typical examplesof collective action situations involve interdependence arising from common-pool resource use,such as in the case of a farmer using groundwater from a common aquifer for irrigation. The useof water by one farmer limits its use for others.

If it is not known whether interdependence is present, the task of governance description maybe appropriate and interdependence may be analysed through a more thorough analysis ofgovernance and relationships between actors via, for example, social-institutional networkanalysis (Scott, 2000). This is often a standard preliminary step in institutional and policyanalysis in order to identify the relevant AS.

If interdependence is not present, we have a somewhat less complex AS. Here, the public actoraims at influencing the adaptation of a single private actor, as depicted in the respective decision tree for a public actor influencing individual adaptation. Individual adaptation action may occur autonomously in an efficient manner,however, it may also be constrained by material, institutional, and cognitive barriers. Identifyingwhich of these is relevant leads to the critical task to be addressed.In an AS where interdependence is present, a series of tasks related to collective action arerelevant and depicted in the respective decision tree for a public actor influencing collective adaptation; these are discussed below.