| 1. |
- Longato, Davide, et al.
(författare)
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Practical applications of ecosystem services in spatial planning : Lessons learned from a systematic literature review
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1462-9011. ; 119, s. 72-84
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The integration of ecosystem service (ES) knowledge into decision-making processes is increasingly endorsed by various policies and initiatives, with spatial planning targeted as one of the most relevant fields. Learning and feeding back from existing experiences is therefore a fundamental step to ensure appropriate and useful support by ES science. This paper aims to gather and critically analyse how ES science contributes to spatial planning practices. Through a systematic review of the literature about ES use in spatial planning, we map the level of integration of ES knowledge, the scale of case studies, and the type of planning addressed; and we identify and analyse case studies of real-world applications. Studies explicitly aimed at supporting spatial planning have increased over the last decade, but are still scarce. The real-world case studies reveal advantages of integrating ES knowledge into spatial planning processes, mainly concerning practical aspects such as synthesizing complex socio-environmental information and promoting participation. Windows of opportunity offered by regulatory frameworks and innovative processes and instruments, such as marine spatial plans and strategic environmental assessments, are key factors triggering the integration. However, supportive contextual conditions are necessary, including science-policy collaborations across the entire planning process and environmental awareness among policy-makers and stakeholders.
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| 2. |
- 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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| 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, et al.
(författare)
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Challenges for Water Security in Asmara, Eritrea
- 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 a case study of urban water sector selected to apply a novel approach for designing and assessing impacts ofWatershed Investments and more generally to explore the challenges of urban water security in a Sub-Saharan Africa context characterized by limited resources. The case is about the city of Asmara—the city capital of Eritrea—and its main water supply, the Toker water- shed. The chapter illustrates the main socio-ecological challenges and opportunities for promoting adaptive management in the case study. In particular, to illustrate contextual and contingent factors characterizing the case study, three examples of ongoing soil and water conservation activities are presented. The chapter concludes with a focus on the Asmara Water Supply Department (AWSD), a key stakeholder in the selected case study. Specifically, the AWSD is analysed through an approach for conceptualizing water utilities as “learning organization” and assessing their institutional capacity.
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| 5. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, Dr, 1982-, et al.
(författare)
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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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| 6. |
- 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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| 7. |
- 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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| 8. |
- Adem Esmail, Blal, et al.
(författare)
-
Ecosystem services for urban water security. : Concepts and applications in Sub-Saharan Africa
- 2020. - 1
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- The book addresses the challenges of urban water security and adaptive management in Sub-Saharan Africa, exploring and interlinking novel concepts of ecosystems services, watershed investments, and boundary work. Specifically, the book’s goals are to (i) present a conceptual framework for the urban water sector from an ecosystem services perspective, highlighting the specificities of the Sub-Saharan context; (ii) develop an operational approach to designing and assessing the impacts of watershed investments, based on ecosystem services and boundary work; and (iii) test the approach through a case study in Asmara, Eritrea, and discuss the findings and lessons learned that can be applied in other contexts. Through a fully worked out case study, from identification of water challenges and opportunities to spatially explicit modelling, the book offers a sound and accessible, coverage of issues and proposed solutions to better operationalize ecosystem services, watershed investments and boundary work, to promote adaptive management, and achieve water security in the context of rapidly developing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book is an effective tool for capacity building of diverse stakeholders on the urban water sector, including water managers, local and national policy-makers as well as a suitable resource for both undergraduate and post-graduate courses in planning and geography.
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| 9. |
- 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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| 10. |
- 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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