FIG Commission 8
- Spatial planning and development
Working Group 8.5
African Water Governance
Introduction
Resilience applies to both the industrialised and less-industrialised
parts of the world and is associated with many aspects of human activity,
often responding to the effects of climate change. It could be related to
food, water, land, or energy scarcities. It could relate to living by the
coast and the threat of sea level rise and storm surges, or in mountainous
areas threatened by glacial deluge, or in arid areas with erratic rainfall,
or on small or low-lying islands facing increasingly violent storms. It
could also relate to living in rural areas or in urban situations. Whenever
and wherever there is a threat of a natural hazard (such as flooding,
drought, heatwave), then there is an associated need to be resilient to
“come back” after the effects of that hazard have been endured.
Development gains can be quickly wiped out by a natural disaster
directly, a surge in prices (as a consequence of a disaster), or a resource
conflict. Gains could also be undermined over time by the cumulative effects
of stressors such as climate change; environmental degradation; water, food,
and energy scarcity; and economic uncertainty. While humanitarian responses
to crises have saved lives and helped to restore livelihoods, such efforts
have not always addressed underlying vulnerabilities. A resilience-building
approach helps to address the damaging effects of shocks and stressors
before, during, and after crises, thereby minimising human suffering and
economic loss. The ability and capacity to “come back” is a measure of the
individual or collective resilience. In this working group, we focus on
resilience in urbanised areas in Africa from a water governance perspective
and the role of surveyors.
Policy Issues
Scope and analyse current and future challenges for communities
in small, medium, large, and megacities, in terms of the resilience
of water governance;
Investigate the principles of conventional water governance and
understand how those principles could be re-configured or aligned
with climate change imperatives;
Explore current practices around Africa for managing water
resources and combine with climate change predictions and population
growth scenarios;
Investigate and document critical success factors when managing
water resources;
Contribute to the dissemination of good practice in managing
water resources for resilience; and
Propose alternative future scenario strategies for managing
water resources and provide guidance to governments, municipalities,
communities and professionals on reflecting these potential futures
into current practice for sustainable, spatially-informed water
governance..
Chair
Richard Pagett, Serbia
secure[at]richardpagett.com
Isaac Boateng, Ghana
isaac.boateng[at]uew.edu.gh
What we are working on -
Develop and describe a generic process for building
resilience into urban water governance particularly from the
perspective of the role of surveyors
Working paper with good practice of resilience planning
to address African water governance challenges
What's New
Focus: Resilience in urbanized areas in Africa from a water governance
perspective and the role of surveyors.
The essential elements are to present some current thinking on the
following policy issues:
Scope and analyze current and future challenges in terms of the
resilience of water governance (in Africa);
Investigate the principles of conventional water governance and
understand how those principles could be re-configured or aligned with
climate change imperatives (in Africa);
Explore current practices around Africa for managing water resources
and combine with climate change predictions and population growth
scenarios;
Investigate and document critical success factors when managing
water resources;
Contribute to the dissemination of good practice in managing water
resources for resilience; and
Propose alternative future scenario strategies for managing water
resources and provide guidance to governments, municipalities,
communities and professionals on reflecting these potential futures into
current practice for sustainable, spatially-informed water governance.
An interim paper has been published intending to promote
discussion with a view to enriching the content, and identifying
case studies from around Africa.
