Participatory Impact Assessment of Soil and Water Conservation Scenarios in Oum Zessar Watershed, Tunisia

Abstract

Environmental threats and progressive degradation of natural resources are considered critical impediments to sustainable development. This paper reports on a participatory impact assessment of alternative soil and water conservation (SWC) scenarios in the Oum Zessar watershed, Tunisia. The first objective was to assess the impact of three SWC scenarios on key social, economic and environmental land use functions. The second objective was to test and evaluate the applicability of the 'Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA)' for assessing scenario impacts in the context of a developing country, in this case Tunisia. The assessed scenarios included: the originally planned SWC policy implementation at 85 % coverage of arable land of the watershed, the current implementation (70 %), and a hypothetical expansion of SWC measures to the entire watershed (100 %). Our results suggest that implementation of the SWC policy at 100 % coverage of arable land achieves the maximum socioeconomic benefit. However, if stakeholders' preferences regarding land use functions are taken into account, and considering the fact that the implementation of SWC measures also implies some negative changes to traditional landscapes and the natural system, SWC implementation at 85 % coverage of arable land might be preferable. The FoPIA approved to be a useful tool for conducting a holistic sustainability impact assessment of SWC scenarios and for studying the most intriguing sustainability problems while providing possible recommendations towards sustainable development. We conclude that participatory impact assessment contributes to an enhanced regional understanding of key linkages between policy effects and sustainable development, which provides the foundation for improved policy decision making.

An Exploration of Scenarios to Support Sustainable Land Management Using Integrated Environmental Socio-economic Models

“…Marohn et al in press). In fact, not only could environmental effects be considered, but also social and economic impacts (König et al 2012;Marohn et al in press), and even indirect economic effects (cf. Fleskens et al 2013).…”

Resilience Planning, a Facilitated Modelling Approach

“…While scenario analysis has become popular in resource management literature (König et al, 2012;Mahmoud et al, 2009;Swart, Raskin, & Robinson, 2004) there is no single method for performing it. There is, however, some agreement that the development of scenarios involves discussions between experts and stakeholders who work together to create a narrative of the future (Mahmoud et al, 2009).…”

Knowledge Brokerage for Impact Assessment of Land Use Scenarios in Inner Mongolia, China: Extending and Testing the FoPIA Approach

“…Knowledge brokerage elements used in FoPIA (according to Michaels [37]). The general FoPIA method as a participatory assessment instrument was particularly based on (KB4) engaging, as it aims at motivating all involved parties (scientists, policy makers and possibly further stakeholders) to participate in the individual assessment phases [32]. As a systematic evaluation and presentation of expert panel results is relevant in policy impact assessment [67], FoPIA has followed a specific structure that was now extended by means of this study.…”

“…Since then, FoPIA has been developed continuously and applied and tested on a variety of different land use problems in different regions. For example, there have been case studies in China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Tunisia [31][32][33][34][35].…”