Sand Dams for Sustainable Water Management: Challenges and Future Opportunities

Castelli, Giulio; Piemontese, Luigi; Quinn, Ruth; Aerts, Jeroen C. J. H.; Elsner, Paul; Ertsen, Maurits W.; Hussey, Stephen W.; Filho, Walter Leal; Limones, Natalia; Mpofu, Bongani; Neufeld, Doug Graber; Ngugi, Keziah; Ngwenya, Nobubelo; Parker, Allison; Ryan, Cate; Trincheria, Josep de; Villani, Lorenzo; Eisma, Jessica; Bresci, Elena

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3998987

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…The mixed‐methods approach, presented in this study for sand dams siting, represent a valuable methodological contribution for a broader set of water harvesting practices. In fact, the range of integration of biophysical and socio‐economic assessments is still largely underexplored, although widely recommended (Ammar et al, 2016; Bulcock & Jewitt, 2013; Castelli et al, 2022), and most water harvesting siting approaches are relying only on biophysical MCDA. The limitations of such top‐down MCDA approaches are multiple.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our contribution adds to this literature by providing a practical framework to explicitly integrating local knowledge, which is a major frontier in integrated assessments (Al‐Adamat et al, 2012; Hart & Mouton, 2005; Robinson et al, 2016). Also, particularly relevant is the application to sand dams, for which such integrated approach was still missing, although highly recommended by experts (Castelli et al, 2022). Our approach thus contributes to expanding the frontiers of knowledge integration on water harvesting implementations and providing a specific guidance on sand dams large‐scale siting to increase the spread and the applicability of such a promising technology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large‐scale siting of sand dams: A participatory approach and application in Angolan drylands

et al. 2022

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Sand dams are simple and effective structures built across ephemeral riverbeds in arid/ semiarid regions to harvest water within sand pores and increase water availability and quality for rural communities. The complex morphological, hydrological, social, and economic conditions that make sand dams a beneficial tool for water resilience are largely influenced by the siting phase. Proper location of a sand dam can reduce communities' travel time to water points, reduce water conflicts, and increase food security through expansion of irrigated agriculture. On the other hand, a misplacement of sand dams can, at worst, increase disparities in water access and increase local conflicts. To approach a viable siting of sand dams, most projects are developed and delivered with the community through a bottom-up approach. However, in the case of large-scale projects, remote sensing and biophysical analysis are the dominant approach, leaving the socio-economic component at the margins of the siting strategy and eventually affecting the benefits to local communities. In this paper, we propose a large-scale participatory methodology to sand dams siting, which draws on mixed-methods connecting the conventional top-down biophysical analysis with bottom-up participatory research. We first describe the generic approach developed for sand dams siting in Namibe, a semi-arid region of Southwest of Angola, then we draw on our case to propose a generic approach to large-scale participatory siting beyond Namibe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%