The role of collaborative urban planning approaches in addressing wicked problems and fostering climate resilience is receiving growing attention. Strong and robust governance systems, that value collaboration, are likely to contribute to managing the complex challenges African cities face. Collaboration in urban planning presents an opportunity for engaging numerous state and non-state actors to work towards more robust and durable solutions for cities. There are various factors and mechanisms that can be adopted and used in cities to encourage effective collaboration in urban planning. Maps are one such mechanism. Maps can firstly, be used to facilitate collaboration and open up conversation amongst people and secondly, can be used to analyse and understand the city. Through ICLEI Africa's Urban Natural Assets: Rivers for Life (UNA Rivers) project, urban planners and environmental officers from Malawi's Lilongwe City Council identified the need to better incorporate urban natural assets in Lilongwe City's city planning processes. This thesis aimed to determine how the process of collaborative mapping of urban natural assets might contribute to collaborative governance between state and non-state actors in the City of Lilongwe. In order to fulfil this aim, there were three objectives: a) to assess the steps and process employed in the collaborative urban natural asset hotspots mapping process; b) to investigate the role, experiences and perceptions of the actors involved; and c) to examine how and to what extent the collaboratively produced urban natural asset hotspots map has been able to inform urban planning and foster collaborative governance. To meet these three objectives this study drew on existing documents relating to the collaborative mapping process, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with targeted participants and a focus group discussion with the UNA Rivers project team members from ICLEI Africa. The results indicate that the steps in the collaborative mapping process were influenced by various factors. Firstly, the selection of participants was strategic and targeted to include key individuals who worked in departments pertaining to city planning and environmental decisions. Secondly, the data collection process undertaken to locate and map the urban natural asset hotspots in Lilongwe was influenced by the limited GIS capacity within the Lilongwe Council, which resulted in the appointment of a consultant from Conservation Research Africa by ICLEI Africa to undertake the data collection and GIS mapping process. Several conditions were found that enhanced participants' experience of the collaborative mapping process. These conditions, included flexibility in role and responsibilities of actors; the inclusion of diverse stakeholders and opinions; keeping the numbers of participants in a collaboration to a manageable size; the opportunity to build relationships and trust. The visual representation of the urban natural asset in the form of a map was well received. However, despite the numerous benefits of the collaboratively produced urban natural hotspots map, participants listed a number of reasons that it was not used extensively. These reasons include outdated city planning laws and regulations that do not refer to the map; politics surrounding the enforcement of these laws and regulations even if they were to be updated; the lack of capacity, especially in the GIS department, in order to update the maps; Lilongwe city does not have ownership of land meaning there are often intimidation tactics by developers; and limited funding to implement and mainstream the map in decision making processes. However, while the actual map might not be used to its full potential, the collaborative process changed the way certain decisions are being made in the Lilongwe City Council, especially in relation to city planning practices. This in itself is a noteworthy outcome and showcases the value of maps in aiding collaborative governance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/36062 |
| Date | 14 March 2022 |
| Creators | Schröder, Claudia |
| Contributors | Shackleton, Sheona, Ziervogel, Gina |
| Publisher | Faculty of Science, Department of Environmental and Geographical Science |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MPhil |
| Format | application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds