Workshop Explores Correlation between Land Use and Risk Management
(English * Español)
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Participants also toured Valparaiso to observe the
coastal city’s risk-management challenges. |
January 2008
Twenty Latin American experts in urban and rural planning, architecture, environment and risk management exchanged ideas on the correlation between disaster risk management and land use and environmental management during a workshop November 19-23, 2007, in Santiago, Chile.
The goal was to consolidate and strengthen the “communities of practice” whose work began with a series of forums sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) more than two years ago. Work from the forums led to the publication of a book exploring key disciplines related to risk reduction. Some participants in the Chile workshop were part of the original “community” while others were newcomers.
“We seek continuity in the line of work we have undertaken, through contributions based on experience, on real work, to help things advance toward a new point, passing the baton” said Juan P. Sarmiento, a disaster expert who helped compile the book and organize the event. “The workshop was successful in helping us move toward the next milestone.”
The International Resources Group (IRG), which manages the USAID/OFDA Training and Technical Assistance Program in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized the USAID/OFDA-funded workshop along with faculty from the University of Chile and Argentina’s National University of Cuyo.
The event marked the first meeting since the July 2007 publication of the book, entitled “Time to Pass the Baton: Disaster Risk Reduction from the Perspective of Environmental Management, Land-Use Management, Finances and Public Investment”). The book explores risk reduction in those three critical and interdependent areas.
“The document is an attempt to gather together existing material and methodologies and propose an original vision, a 180-degree change in the concept of risk reduction to emphasize security and sustainability when it comes to development,” explained Sarmiento, IRG Technical Director. “The communities of practice are a way to unite renowned experts to advance these concepts while bringing in new members to encourage a kind of generational renovation, to expand the base of knowledge and experience. Thus the name ‘Time to Pass the Baton.’”
Silvia Quiroga, an Argentine geographer with the National University of Cuyo’s Center for Territorial Strategies for MERCOSUR, a South American trade bloc, agreed.
“The book and its subject matter have definitely played an essential role in the continuity of the ‘communities of practice’ because it has helped the topics to be reviewed, completed, improved and continued with the depth required. This was one of the reasons for organizing the workshop in Chile. Personal ties were strengthened and paved the way for institutional collaboration, for example, with universities,” she said.
The idea behind the “communities of practice” was evident at the workshop, which featured three types of participants.
The first includes key actors such as Argentinean experts Quiroga and Nelly de Cerdán, who were among the original participants and compiled sections of the book. The second wave comprises professionals who have read the book, joined the group, and committed to the cause, such as Carmen Paz Castro and Jorge Ortiz from the University of Chile. The third group is perhaps best defined as those responsible for helping create public policy, such as Gonzalo Bonilla, a representative of the Nicaraguan Institute for Geographical Studies (INETER), and Fernando Cabezudo, an urban development architect from Uruguay.
Bonilla said both the workshop and the book have helped him professionally.
“The book is not a finished document, nor the last word. It is there to underline and insert more meat, depending on each of our national realities, possibilities and creativity,” he said.
Participants sought to define articulations among the three areas outlined in the book: land use, environmental management, and public finances, and concluded that a new political compass in the area of disaster risk reduction is needed.
“The workshop provided a challenge and we managed to advance – in preliminary form – in both conceptual and methodological areas. The joint work efforts also allowed participants to visualize how we might form communities of practice back in our home countries,” Quiroga said.
Bonilla agreed, saying, “New blood in any group is a catalyst that shakes up the environment and makes it more dynamic. It would be desirable to have a group like this in every country in Latin America and the Caribbean. It would strengthen capabilities on a national level as well as throughout the continent. Moreover, the work method allowed us to grow individually and collectively as we interacted with experienced people in diverse aspects of the subject matter.”
Quiroga described the method of working as open, flexible and free.
“The openness has allowed the incorporation of new people, which in turn has enriched the group. The flexibility allows disagreement, and the subsequent discovery of new points of agreement. And the freedom of the method allows participants to feel comfortable, confident and secure in building new accords and work possibilities,” she said.
During the workshop, the participants from the University of Chile volunteered to develop an in-depth technical document outlining a model based on the workshop’s conclusions on specific areas of correlation between land use, environmental management, and risk reduction. A plan was laid out to finish the document in the following months, review it during the first semester of 2008 and publish it in a university magazine mid-year.
“Our hope is to formalize and broadcast the advances made during the November workshop,” explained Chilean participant Castro. “These topics are recurring themes, and the workshop allowed us to update concepts and brainstorm more adequate methodologies and ways of incorporating the results into real case studies.”
The technical document that Castro and her colleague Jorge Ortiz will produce has three potential applications, according to Sarmiento: One, to further investigate specific areas of the proposed model; two, to apply the model to existing initiatives for land use or risk management and observe its effects; and three, to use the proposed model when planning future initiatives.
Looking toward the future, Ortiz visualizes the consolidation of a multinational, interdisciplinary team of professionals. “We work in countries with similar problems, and can help each other enrich our methods of joint study and practice,” he said.
Quiroga agreed. “It’s vital that participants maintain their interest and contributions. Toward this end, it would be helpful to devise challenging and transferable objectives, as well as continue relying on the valuable support provided by USAID/OFDA,” she said.
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