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 Using community based watershed management strategies for mitigating the impacts from informal settlements in the Third World
Background:
Evidence increasingly supports the effectiveness of community based watershed management (CBWM) strategies and its potential as a more holistic urban planning approach in Third World Cities. Unfortunately, due to its relatively recent arrival on the development scene - as an urban planning tool - two realizations come to light: first, that there is a real void in current literature as to how CBWM can be applied to an urban environment; and second, the information that is available is inconsistent and incongruous. Reading through the CBWM literature reveals numerous competing and contradictory definitions as to what, and how, CBWM could be carried out.
The urban planner and manager are left with a dilemma: although there may be a willingness to apply CBWM principles to the urban environment, there are no comprehensive frameworks detailing how this may be achieved.
Purpose:
The purpose of the research is to address these information shortfalls in the CBWM literature. To more effectively ameliorate this condition, two fundamental components are proposed for this study:
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to develop a conceptual framework for urban governance using CBWM principles and practices; and
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to analyse an urban CBWM project, and develop an evaluative method for assessing what criteria promotes an enabling environment for CBWM initiatives. The development of this methodology will draw upon the experiences of a case study currently underway in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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These research study components have two outputs associated with them - a handbook and an evaluative framework refined from case study research - both will be eventually amalgamated within the handbook, but both have very distinct and different research methods associated with them.
Updated 31/01/03
Maintained by f.o.odhiambo@lboro.ac.uk and j.fisher1@lboro.ac.uk
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