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Special Issue on Integrating Scales in WRM
Most of these papers were presented at a workshop
on Scales and Integration in Water (or Watershed) Research held
during the Baseline Conference of the Challenge Program on Water
and Food (CPWF) of the Consultative Group on International Research
(CGIAR) in Nairobi, Kenya, November 2003. The main objective of
the workshop was to raise awareness of the different issues related
to scale while conducting research related to water and agriculture
in pilot sites. More than fifty researchers involved with CPWF
projects in nine basins in the tropics attended the conference.
This special issue includes revised papers presented during the
workshop and other additional papers addressing key topics.
Editorial
by Martha Otero, Jorge Rubiano and Nancy Johnson - PDF File
- (225 Kb)
- Campbell, B., Hagmann, J., Sayer, J., Stroud,
A., Thomas, R. & Wollenberg, E. (2006). What
kind of research and development is needed for integrated natural
resource management? Water International Vol 31, No.3. Forthcoming
- PDF File - (972 Kb)
Corresponding author: Bruce Campbell, School for
Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0909,
Australia
e-mail: bruce.campbell@cdu.edu.au
Abstract. This paper presents a set of
principles and operational cornerstones for R&D to address
natural resource management problems better. The work is based
on a series of workshops where experts and practitioners distilled
best practices. The principles and cornerstones, a number of which
relate to scaling issues, are illustrated with case studies from
Zimbabwe and Indonesia. The former incorporated catchment management
for improved small-scale irrigation, while the latter focused
on work with communities that had confronted logging companies,
partly because of the negative impact of logging on water quality.
The principles are grouped as follows: (a) Commitment to action
research, learning and experimenting among stakeholders. Considerable
experience of action research at the farm level exists, but much
remains to be learned about its application at the scale of socio-ecological
systems (e.g. catchments). (b) Project flexibility and adaptation
to the types of action required. Analysis and intervention must
be at multiple scales, and scaling-up and out must be planned
from the outset. (c) New forms of organisation to implement effective
development research. Eleven operational cornerstones for implementing
the approach are suggested: shared focus, collaborative partnership,
team work, facilitation, governance, organisational capacity,
information, learning, incentives, scaling-up, and research design
and process. The elements and strategies for two of these cornerstones
(partnerships and scaling-up and out) are illustrated.
Corresponding author: Martha Otero, Department
of Geography, McGill University, H3A2K, Montreal, Canada.
e-mail: martha.otero@mcgill.ca
Abstract. Strategic research in agriculture and natural
resources carried out by international research centers is considered
a public good that sooner or later should be put into the hands
of development, governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Research projects addressing local problems in pilot sites need
to know how representative are those sites in relation to the
diversity of contexts in which research is not directly applied.
Such is the case of the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF),
a global initiative in water research promoted by the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is
developing and implementing strategic research in nine basins
located in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America. Given
that resources are not available to collect data from the whole
of the region, pilot sites are needed. The research outputs obtained
in the selected pilot sites will be the basis for scaling out
solutions to similar situations in neighbouring or adjacent areas
in the same or different basins.
In order to contribute to the scaling-out process, different classification
methodologies were applied to determine how specific basins are
representative of larger areas. The Andean eco-region served as
a case study but the methods can easily be applied in other regions.
The spatial diversity of biophysical and social conditions across
the Andes requires careful selection of sites on which to concentrate
efforts. Two methods, a combination of Weight of Evidence (WofE)
and Logistic Regression (LR) methods and Fast Cluster analysis,
were used to determine the similarity of selected sites with those
that were excluded. A 1-km study resolution covering most of the
Andes eco-region included annual rainfall, elevation, length of
growing period, land cover, roads and population density as the
key variables. Results showed complementarities between the two
methods in presenting a probability surface of similarity across
the Andes and a clustering of similar sites inside and outside
of the pilot basins. The output information is a strong basis
for devising plans to scale out research findings from the pilot
basins to the whole region.
Corresponding author: Senior Research Fellow,
Danish Institute for International Studies, Strandgade 56, 1401
Copenhagen K, Denmark
e-mail: hmr@diis.dk
Abstract. Rural areas constitute the arena for increased
competition for water, not only among rural dwellers but also
among rural and urban or industrial water users. In hillside areas
water is important not only for household consumption but also
for productive purposes. Even where formal irrigation systems
do not exist, the ability to water crops improves people's livelihoods
significantly. Nevertheless, evidence from many parts of the world
suggests that the poor are gradually losing their access to water.
Based on research conducted in the Nicaraguan hillsides, this
paper illustrates the processes through which access to water
is lost by some, gained by others. The paper shows how water management
takes place in the context of complex, often conflictive social
relations at multiple and often overlapping levels. Taken together,
these two features make it difficult to imagine that the design
of an organization charged with representing and negotiating different
interests relating to water management of a single river basin
or watershed can be effective. Nevertheless, the examples from
the Nicaraguan hillsides reveal a possible alternative. In their
attempts to gain and secure access to water, new local-organization
practices are emerging that increasingly seek to involve and engage
district and national authorities in supporting their claims and
adopting a stronger, but negotiated role in regulation and arbitration.
Therefore, instead of focusing on the crafting of neatly nested
water-management organizations (e.g. from the micro-watershed
to river basin), this paper argues in favour of supporting the
development of an enabling institutional environment. Key components
of such an enabling environment include (1) making relevant hydrological
assessments widely available, (2) fostering broad-based and inclusive
public-hearing processes, (3) enhancing the legal capacity, particularly
among the poor, and (4) providing dispute-resolution mechanisms
such as a water ombudsman, widely available and accessible especially
to the poor.
Corresponding author: Jorge Rubiano, Department
of Environmental Engineer, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Palmira,
Colombia.
E-mail: jerubianom@palmira.unal.edu.co
Abstract. The ongoing experience of a project implemented
by the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean
Region (CONDESAN) in the Fúquene watershed of Colombia
is presented. Biophysical and socioeconomic knowledge is integrated
in a complex process to offer sound solutions to a wider range
of stakeholders affected by the eutrophication of Fúquene
Lake. A multiscale analysis is carried out for every step of the
process to warrant integrity in the use of information, inclusion
and equity in the stakeholders' participation.
The ultimate aim is to generate sustainable development processes
in the rural sector. By focusing on the internalization of externalities
derived from watershed management, transfers of funds from urban
to rural populations are stimulated, triggering urban investments
in rural environmental goods and services.
The process starts integrating key spatial information, which
is available at different scales for the site, in order to facilitate
envisioning different land-use scenarios and their impacts upon
water resources. Subsequently, selected alternative scenarios
regarding the impact on the externalities identified are analyzed,
using optimization models. Opportunities for and constraints to
promoting cooperation among users are identified, using economic
games in which more sustainable land-use or management alternatives
are suggested. Strategic alliances and collective action are implemented
in order to test the feasibility of environmental and economic
alternatives. Their implementation is supported by co-funding
schemes designed with private and public stakeholders having a
role in the study area. Research needs and limitations of the
methodology are discussed.
Corresponding author: Caroline Sullivan, Centre
for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, OX10 8BB, UK.
e-mail: csu@ceh.ac.uk
Abstract. The Water Poverty Index is an integrated tool
developed on the basis of extensive consultation with a range
of scientists, practitioners and policymakers. It is primarily
designed for use at the community scale to enable more holistic
water-resource assessments to be made on a site-specific basis.
It can however be applied at different scales to suit different
needs. One of the motivations to design such a tool was an attempt
to move away from the conventional approaches to water assessment,
which are purely deterministic, relying on models and large-scale
data. In today's world such an approach is inappropriate for representing
the complexities of modern water-allocation decisions given that
economic, political and social issues all have a powerful role
to play. This paper highlights some of the applications of the
Water Poverty Index at different spatial scales and discusses
the implications of applying indicators at different scales.
Corresponding author: Brent Swallow, aWorld Agroforestry
Centre, International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF),
PO 30677, Nairobi, Kenya
e-mail: B.Swallow@cgiar.org
Abstract. Increasing attention to watershed management
is part of an international policy trend toward integrated water-resource
management. Integration is multidimensional-across sectors, administrative
regions, ministerial portfolios and levels of hydrologic structure
and socioeconomic organization. Collective action is key. Individuals
need to work effectively together to share common water points;
upstream land users and downstream water consumers need to manage
and resolve potential conflicts over water quantity and quality;
while all the industries, farming communities, urban residents
and public agencies that have interests in resource use and environmental
quality need to agree on development and conservation objectives
and approaches at the basin level. Initiatives that seek to foster
collective action in watersheds need to account for the very different
interests in water and watershed management. While there may be
relatively straightforward ways to foster collective action at
a local scale, some forms of collective action may, in fact, be
detrimental to other stakeholders. In the developing world in
particular, there are often geographic pockets and social groups
that are chronically disadvantaged in collective and public processes.
Water-users' associations and basin authorities may exacerbate
these disparities and further marginalize already poor people.
New statutory institutions may intentionally or inadvertently
disempower effective customary local institutions. To enable project
and program designers to address these challenges better, this
paper lays out a framework for assessing the potential for and
implications of individual and collective decisions in a watershed
context. The framework integrates concepts drawn from the biophysical
and social sciences, including new perspectives on watershed components,
poverty and collective action. Collective action is seen as a
fractal process: collective action for water management at one
level of social-spatial organization can have spillover effects
at lower and higher levels of social-spatial resolution. To be
pro-poor, watershed-management institutions must be genuinely
inclusive, deliberately recognizing the interests, perspectives
and knowledge of groups that may be systematically excluded from
other political and social processes. Researchers, evaluators,
watershed-management practitioners and others who apply the framework
should be better placed to lay the foundations for that illusive
goal: pro-poor, inclusive and resource-conserving development
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