Digital and spatial knowledge management in urban governance: Emerging issues in India, Brazil, South Africa, and Peru

The main question concerns the ways in which knowledge management configurations (KM) within urban governance are being transformed through digitization and spatializing information (GIS). This question fits into broader discussions on how knowledge construction, circulation and utilization can improve competences in local government (efficiency and effectiveness), make urban planning more knowledge-based, and provide greater recognition of citizens' knowledge (accountability). Local governments need such instruments in dealing with increasing complexity and uncertainty in urban development. We examine how uneven patterns of technological change in using ICT and GIS are transforming current local government work processes in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in their outcomes, utilizing empirical data from extended case studies in six medium-sized cities in India, South Africa, Brazil, and Peru, participating in the Chance2Sustain research network. Knowledge management in cities is configured through several dimensions: 1) discourses for digitizing KM in local urban development; 2) actor networks producing socio-spatial knowledge; 3) embedding KM in decision-making processes (power struggles, exclusion); and 4) influences of KM on work practices and interfaces with citizens. The case study results show that 1) KM discourses concerned four issues: strategic urban planning and integrated land use planning; determining geographic boundaries in urban development discourses; streamlining work processes of local governments, and mapping poverty and needs assessments; 2) initiatives mainly link government with the private sector at various scale levels; 3) codified and technical knowledge remains dominant in discussions on urban development; and 4) effects of KM are uneven, but improve work process efficiency, although the interface with citizens remains limited, focusing on middle-class relations to the exclusion of the poor

Participatory spatial knowledge management tools: empowerment and upscaling or exclusion?

Different types of spatial knowledge (expert, sectoral, tacit and community) are strategic resources in urban planning and management. Participatory spatial knowledge management is a major method for eliciting various types of knowledge, providing a platform for knowledge integration and informing local action and public policy. Knowledge types linked to a specific geographical locality can be integrated through geographical information systems. Recent developments in geographical information and communication technology (geoICT) have extended the opportunities for participatory spatial knowledge production, use and exchange. However, data reliability of user-generated content, social exclusion due to dependence on technology and the interpretation and implications of digital maps are major concerns. The challenge is how to integrate and utilize multiple knowledge sources for improving urban management and governance. This paper integrates the literature on knowledge types and knowledge production processes with available geoICT tools for the production, use and exchange of knowledge sources and applies it to examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America. From this review, we provide a heuristic framework for assessing the extent to which participatory spatial knowledge management tools can be instrumental on several fronts. We argue that technological developments of knowledge production have not fully addressed important issues related to accountability, empowerment, control and use of knowledge. Moreover, these developments may foster social exclusion, which could detract from the benefits of participatory spatial knowledge management in the context of urban sustainability

Decentralization, participation and deliberation in water governance: a case study of the implications for Guarulhos, Brazil

After the return to democracy in the late 1980s, Brazil developed a new system of water governance with a decentralization of responsibilities and the formation of participatory, deliberative institutions that characterized the governance reforms in general. Tripartite "water basin committees", with an equal representation of state, municipal and civil society actors, are now responsible for water resource management in each basin and for decisions that affect urban water governance. However, state representatives come from entities established long before the reforms, raising the question of whether the new participatory bodies can change water management practices. This paper suggests that despite the process of transition in water governance, the underlying power inequalities have not been addressed and major decisions are still being taken outside the new deliberative bodies. Technocratic government actors maintain a claim on authority through their economic superiority and their use of expert knowledge, ultimately inhibiting the influence of other actors

Decentralization, Participation And Deliberation In Water Governance: A Case Study Of The Implications For Guarulhos, Brazil

After the return to democracy in the late 1980s, Brazil developed a new system of water governance with a decentralization of responsibilities and the formation of participatory, deliberative institutions that characterized the governance reforms in general. Tripartite “water basin committees”, with an equal representation of state, municipal and civil society actors, are now responsible for water resource management in each basin and for decisions that affect urban water governance. However, state representatives come from entities established long before the reforms, raising the question of whether the new participatory bodies can change water management practices. This paper suggests that despite the process of transition in water governance, the underlying power inequalities have not been addressed and major decisions are still being taken outside the new deliberative bodies. 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A comparative analysis of changing water governance systems in four southern cities (2014) Environment and Urbanization, 26 (1), pp. 130-146Hordijk, M.A., van den Brandeler, F., Filippi, E., Facing the floods: community responses to increased rainfall in Guarulhos (Brazil) and Arequipa (Peru) Presentation at the International Workshop on Living in Low-income Urban Settlements in an Era of Climate Change: Processes, Practices, Policies and Politics, , 2013University of Manchester, UK2013(2010) Censo Populacional, , http://www.ibge.gov.br/cidadesat/painel/painel.php?codmun=351880], IBGE, available atThe Dublin Statement and Report of the Conference (1992) 26–31 January, , http://www.docs.watsan.net/Scanned_PDF_Files/Class_Code_7_Conference/71-ICWE92-9739.pdf, ICWE (International Conference on Water and the Environment), Dublin, Ireland, available at:Jacobi, P., Fracalanza, A.P., (2005) Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, pp. 41-49. , Editora UFPRMaria, L.F., Modelos organizacionais e normatividade institucional: estudo de caso da SABESP S.A (2011) Law School thesis published online by Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, 103 pages, available at, , http://www.bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/dspace/handle/10438/9825Water governance key approaches: an analytical framework (2011) Chance2Sustain Working Paper 4, 23 pages, available at, , http://www.chance2sustain.eu/33.0.htmlPelling, M., (2010) Adaptation to Climate Change: From Resilience to Transformation, p. 224. , London., RoutledgeSobre o sistema de água, , http://www.saaeguarulhos.sp.gov.br:8081/sistema-de-agua, SAAE,available at(2012), p. 108. , São PauloColeta de esgoto eficiente, maior qualidade de vida (2013) available at, , http://www.saaeguarulhos.sp.gov.br:8081/sistema-de-esgoto, SAAETarifas e serviços, , http://www.site.sabesp.com.br/site/interna/Default.aspx?secaoId=183, SABESP, available atCódigo de ética e conduta (2008) available at, , http://www.site.sabesp.com.br/uploads/file/asabesp_doctos/codigo_etica.pdf, SABESPInstitucional: missão e visão (2013) available at, , http://www.site.sabesp.com.br/site/interna/Default.aspx?secaoId=173, SABESPViana, N., Floods in Brazil are a result of short-term planning (2011) The Guardian Onlin

Water Governance in Times of Uncertainty: Complexity, Fragmentation, Innovation

One of the major uncertainties of our era is to what extent and how anthropogenic climate change will affect ecosystems and livelihoods. Given the vast concentration of urban poor in low elevation coastal zones and hillsides susceptible to landslides, many cities in the South are considered particularly at risk. In some cities natural hazards such as droughts will reduce the amount of water available, while in other cities an increase in the number of storms or flood events, where intense flows of water enter the city system very rapidly, and an increase in annual rainfall will intensify the need to capture and manage water in a sustainable and safe manner. Various cities will probably have to face both prolonged periods of droughts in one season and more intense rainfall in another. In some cases different scenarios even predict very different trends. What is evident is that many of the plausible effects of climate change impact water availability, which in turn impacts energy provision in some cities whereas in others it does not. Water is thus one of the primary media through which climate change will impact daily existence and ecosystems (Heath, Parker et al. 2012:619). Yet, as Pelling has recently argued: because of the scalar and temporal nature of climate change and its effects, it is still invisible in and dissociated from everyday life, yet increasingly formative of it. This is a challenge of alienation and separation. There is an existential gap between what can be done to confront the climate change challenges, and what culture and society determine as reasonable and proper to do (Pelling, Manuel-Navarrete et al. 2012:13)