| 1. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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An Operational Approach for Watershed Investments
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecosystem Services for Urban Water Security. - Cham : Springer Nature.
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter focuses on Watershed Investments for securing water for cities. It starts with a brief account of the application of ecosystem services for decision-making and a theoretical background of boundary work. Accordingly, it proposes an operational approach developed for designing and assessing impact of watershed iInvestments to secure water for cities. The developed approach distin- guishes between a “strategic” and a “technical” component. The strategic component identifies as key inputs of the process of Watershed Investment design and assess- ment, the definition of objectives and visioning of feasible and desirable scenarios by stakeholders. The technical component applies spatially explicit modelling to design Watershed Investments, hence to model the impacts on selected ecosystem services. The chapter concludes highlighting the potential of the approach to contribute to adaptive management in the urban water sector, by addressing the challenges of linking diverse stakeholders and knowledge system across management levels and institutional boundaries.
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| 2. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Analyzing Evidence of Sustainable Urban Water Management Systems : A Review through the Lenses of Sociotechnical Transitions
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 12:11, s. 4481-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainability concerns and multiple socio‐environmental pressures have necessitated a shift towards Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) systems. Viewing SUWM systems as sociotechnical, this paper departs from eight factors previously identified by transition research: Pressures, Context, Purposes, Actors, Instruments, Processes, Outputs, and Outcomes as a methodological framework for a structured review of 100 articles. The study seeks to analyze empirical cases of planning and implementing SUWM systems worldwide. A wide range of public actors—driven by social and environmental factors rather than by economic pressures—have initiated SUWM projects so as to locally fulfill defined social and environmental purposes. We provide evidence on the emergence of new actors, such as experts, users, and private developers, as well as on the diverse and innovative technical and societal instruments used to promote and implement SUWM systems. We also explore their contexts and institutional capacity to deal with pressures and to mobilize significant financial and human resources, which is in itself vital for the transition to SUWM. Planned or implemented SUWM outputs are divided into green (wet ponds, raingardens, and green roofs) and gray (rain barrels and porous pavements) measures. The outcomes of SUWM projects— in terms of societal and technical learning, and their institutional uptakes—are often implicit or lacking, which seemingly reduces the rate of desirable change.
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| 3. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Boundary work for implementing adaptive management : A water sector application
- 2017
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 593-594, s. 274-285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Boundary work, defined as effort to mediate between knowledge and action, is a promising approach for facilitating knowledge co-production for sustainable development. Here, we investigate a case study of knowledge co-production, to assess the applicability of boundary work as a conceptual framework to support implementing adaptive management in the water sector. We refer to a boundary work classification recently proposed by Clark et al., (2016), based on three types of knowledge uses, i.e. enlightenment, decision-, and negotiation-support, and three types of sources, i.e. personal expertise, single, and multiple communities of expertise. Our empirical results confirm boundary work has been crucial for the three types of knowledge use. For enlightenment and decision support, effective interaction among knowledge producers and users was achieved through diverse boundary work practices, including joint agenda setting, and sharing of data and expertise. This initial boundary work eased subsequent knowledge co-production for decision-support and negotiations, in combination with stepping up of cooperation between relevant actors, suitable legislation and pressure for problem solving. Our analysis highlighted the temporal dimension matters-building trust around enlightenment first, and then using this as a basis for managing knowledge co-production for decision-, and negotiation support. We reconfirmed that boundary work is not a single time achievement, rather is a dynamic process, and we emphasized the importance of key actors driving the process, such as water utilities. Our results provide a rich case study of how strategic boundary work can facilitate knowledge co-production for adaptive management in the water sector. The boundary work practices employed here could also be transferred to other cases. Water utilities, as intermediaries between providers and beneficiaries of the important water-related ecosystem service of clean water provision, can indeed serve as key actors for initiating such boundary work practices. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
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| 4. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Conclusions
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecosystem Services for Urban Water Security. - Cham : Springer Nature.
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter summarizes the main messages of the book, as well as dis- cusses the challenges for future research and practice to contribute to achieving water security and to implementing adaptive management in the urban water sector. Briefly, the first main message is that achieving urbanwater security through adaptive watershed planning and management, in Sub-Saharan Africa context, is a complex issue. Thus, an intuitive and flexible conceptual framework of the urban water sector from an ecosystem services perspective was proposed. It provides an overview of the main challenges and trends that characterize the sector, highlighting the specificities of the Sub-Saharan context, setting the background for further analysis. Second, if properly designed, Watershed Investments can become an important financial and governance mechanism to promote the implementation of adaptive watershed man- agement to achieve urban water security. Third, a good case study application, even if only based on desk research, can serve to inspire stakeholder and possibly prepare the ground for real-life implementation of science-informed measures to promote urban water security alongside other social goals, coordinating ongoing watershed initiatives.
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| 5. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Design and impact assessment of watershed investments: An approach based on ecosystem services and boundary work.
- 2017
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Ingår i: Environmental impact assessment review. - : Elsevier. - 0195-9255 .- 1873-6432. ; 62, s. 1-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Watershed investments, whose main aim is to secure water for cities, represent a promising opportunity for large-scale sustainability transitions in the near future. If properly designed, they promote activities in the watershed that enhance ecosystem services while protecting nature and biodiversity, as well as achieving other societal goals. In this paper, we build on the concepts of ecosystem services and boundary work, to develop and test an operative approach for designing and assessing the impact of watershed investments. The approach is structured to facilitate negotiations among stakeholders. Its strategic component includes setting the agenda; defining investment scenarios; and assessing the performance of watershed investments as well as planning for a follow-up. Its technical component concerns data processing; tailoring spatially explicit ecosystem service models; hence their application to design a set of “investment portfolios”, generate future land use scenarios, and model impacts on selected ecosystem services. A case study illustrates how the technical component can be developed in a data scarce context in sub-Saharan Africa in a way that is functional to support the steps of the strategic component. The case study addresses soil erosion and water scarcity-related challenges affecting Asmara, a medium-sized city in Eritrea, and considers urban water security and rural poverty alleviation as two illustrative objectives, within a ten-year planning horizon. The case study results consist in spatially explicit data (investment portfolio, land use scenario, impact on ecosystem services), which were aggregated to quantitatively assess the performance of different watershed investments scenarios, in terms of changes in soil erosion control. By addressing stakeholders' concerns of credibility, saliency, and legitimacy, the approach is expected to facilitate negotiation of objectives, definition of scenarios, and assessment of alternative watershed investments, ultimately, to contribute to implementing an adaptive watershed management.
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| 6. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Designing Watershed Investments for Asmara and the Toker Watershed
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecosystem Services for Urban Water Security. - Cham : Springer Nature.
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter presents an application of a novel operational approach for designing and assessing the impacts ofWatershed Investments, developed in Chap. 3, to the Asmara and Toker Watershed case study. Assuming urban water security and rural poverty alleviation as two objectives for Watershed Investments, the case study application explores all the steps ofthe proposed approach. The results ofthe applica- tion include spatially explicit data that allowquantitatively assessing the performance of differentWatershed Investment scenarios in terms of changes in a selected ecosys- tem service, answering to important planning and management questions. The appli- cation to the Asmara and Toker Watershed case study also highlights the challenges of addressing stakeholders’ concerns through relevant boundary work strategies.
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| 7. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Greening cities through urban planning : A literature review on the uptake of concepts and methods in Stockholm
- 2022
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Ingår i: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. - : Elsevier BV. - 1618-8667 .- 1610-8167. ; , s. 127584-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nature-based solutions (NBS) represent the most recent of several "greening" concepts proposed to support spatial planning and decision-making towards sustainable metropolitan regions. Despite similarities, the concepts stem from different disciplines and policy arenas and reflect various models of people-nature relations. This paper aims to analyze the uptake of greening concepts in scientific planning literature focusing on (urban) nature and landscape in the metropolitan region of Stockholm, Sweden, over the last three decades. It investigates what changes this evolution has brought in terms of the topics adopted, methods applied, and types of planning support put into practice. We identified 574 articles that reflect substantial research on greening concepts in the Swedish planning context. The articles demonstrate an initial prevalence of biodiversity with later increases of interest in ecosystem services and NBS. A detailed analysis of the studies focusing on Stockholm revealed Population growth/densification, Green space management and Biodiversity conservation as the most commonly addressed societal challenges. The most frequently mentioned type of green and blue element is Parks and (semi-)natural urban green areas, including urban forests. Methods applied were mostly quantitative, while mixes with qualitative approaches were only apparent in ecosystem services articles. Half of the studies involved practitioners or decision-makers, but only four seemed related to real-life planning processes. Taken together, the influence of scientific literature on the uptake of greening concepts in spatial planning seems to have been limited. Future mainstreaming of greening concepts in Stockholm and beyond could benefit from available data, methods and experiences, but will require more active translation and boundary management. Further research into science-policy-planning interfaces at city scale is thus imperative to advance more sustainable pathways for people and nature in metropolitan regions.
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| 8. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Introduction
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ecosystem Services for Urban Water Security. - Cham : Springer Nature.
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter sets the context of the book by providing a brief account of the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on the urban water sector. Watershed investments are here emphasized as a promising opportunity to effect large-scale transformative change promoting human wellbeing while conserving life-supporting ecosystems. The chapter concludes by illustrating the three specific objectives of the book.
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| 9. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
-
Knowledge transfer and capacity building : an example from the urban water sector
- 2018
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Ingår i: JUNCO Journal of Universities and international development Cooperation. - 2531-8772. ; 1:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Rural-to-urban migration and sustained natural population growth in Africa, if not properly addressed, may pose serious threat to ecosystems and human wellbeing, both locally and afar. Novel concepts and operative approaches are needed to better frame these challenges and support local decision-making processes, to promote sustainable development. Indeed, this is a key area in which the Academia can make a significant contribution, for example, exploring innovative concepts and developing related approaches to support decision-making processes at a local scale. This paper focuses on the urban water sector as an informative example, ultimately aiming to highlight key areas in which research can provide concrete and valuable assistance. More specifically, we introduce two innovative concepts, i.e. ecosystem services and boundary work; hence propose an operative approach to support the process of design and assessment of the impact of watershed investments. To illustrate real-life implementation of the approach in a data scarce context in sub-Saharan Africa, we consider as a case study soil erosion and water scarcity-related challenges affecting Asmara, a medium-sized city in Eritrea. Accordingly, we adopt urban water security and rural poverty alleviation as two illustrative objectives, within a ten-year planning horizon. The case study application resulted in spatially explicit outputs that inform decision-making processes. By timely addressing stakeholders' concerns of credibility, saliency, and legitimacy, the proposed approach is expected to facilitate negotiation of objectives, definition of scenarios, and assessment of alternative watershed investments. Above all, and beyond the urban water sector, the case study application helps highlighting key areas in which the academic work can make concrete contribution mainly in terms of knowledge transfer and capacity building.
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| 10. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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Multi-criteria decision analysis for nature conservation : A review of 20 years of applications
- 2018
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Ingår i: Methods in Ecology and Evolution. - 2041-210X. ; 9, s. 42-53
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a method to support decision-making, by exploring the balance between the pros and cons of different alternatives to ac- complish a specific goal. It assists in framing decision problems, illustrating the per- formance of alternatives across criteria, exploring trade-offs, formulating a decision and testing its robustness. This paper provides a structured review of empirical applications of MCDA to nature conservation published in the scientific literature over the last 20 years. The paper aims at taking stock of past experiences, and comparing them with best practices and common pitfalls identified in the literature, to provide recommendations for better MCDA application to conservation.2. The review follows the structure of a generalized MCDA process consisting of three key stages: (1) decision context and problem structuring, (2) analysis and (3) decision.3. The search identified 86 papers that describe MCDA applications to a range of top- ics, including conservation prioritization and planning; protected areas management and zoning; forest management and restoration; and mapping of biodiversity, naturalness and wilder. The results show that, concerning problem structuring, a small percentage of the reviewed MCDA engaged stakeholders other than the authors in identifying alternatives and formulating criteria (15% and 35% respectively). Concerning the analysis, criteria assessment was adequately justified by the authors (47%), at times also by involving other stakeholders (22%). Weighting was per- formed in almost all applications, whereas criteria aggregation was mostly based on the weighted linear combination (63%). Sensitivity analysis was largely overlooked (57%). Concerning decision, 45% of the articles provided only an overall ranking or suitability of alternatives, while 22% included additional rankings according to spe- cific criterion, and 8% further analyses and clustering of stakeholders’ preferences.4. The paper concludes by suggesting key elements of successful MCDA applications, including clear construction of the decision context; collaborative identification of alternatives and criteria that reflect the values at stake; adequate justification and communication of the methods for criteria assessment and weighting; reasoned choice of the criteria aggregation method, and comprehensive sensitivity analysis.
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