A collaborative monitoring concept for developing cities.
Methodological approach and realization of an urban observatory.

Cities in developing countries are experiencing a considerable demographic growth. This makes their development difficult to foresee and plan, all the more so since technical and financial means are lacking to provide public management. Furthermore, the political context is affected by power and responsibility imbalances among the different actors. This situation has direct repercussions on the land-use, through classical syndromes of bad development: large informality, precarious settlements, lack of infrastructure, low efficiency of the public investments, environmental degradation, etc.

To analyze the processes of management in developing cities, we refer to two complementary models. On the one hand, to urban governance, a reading grid for the transformation of territorial public action. It focuses on the stakeholders and their interrelationships, on the balance of power and responsibilities, and on the capacity of the local entities to manage their decentralized responsibilities. On the other hand, to a systemic analysis, based on a meta-model of the auto-organizing systems, applied to the land-use management.

The modeling of the urban management processes shows an important deficiency at the coordination level, between the various actors that intervene in the land-use: the communication platform are missing and no common diagnosis or strategies are guiding their operations. It also shows that the solution does not pass through the imposition of a land-use plan, but through the collective development of a strategic view of the city, made through an intensification of the networking.

This research work starts from the potential of the information systems, of the land management techniques, and of the participative methods. It proposes a concept of monitoring for developing cities, based on the integration of two elements: a collaborative urban observatory, and a forum that brings together the urban management stakeholder. Therefore it conceives and connects several methodological modules:

• a specific GIS, made up from data and indicators for the management of developing cities;
• a systemic model, to analyze the complementarity among the different indicators;
• an observatory computerized interface, making easier the access to the information, the System for the Monitoring of Urban Functionalities (SMURF);
• an implementation method for the monitoring system, within the urban processes, in the form of a succession of management workshops, run within a consultation forum;
• finally, a model of dynamic land management, which integrates the information and the participation for a improvement of the urban governance.

The concept is applied to the city of Thies (Senegal), following an iterative approach, alternating the development of the tool with the application and with the validation. Between huge demographic growth and lack of technical and financial means of the managers, this conurbation is representative of numerous medium-size developing cities.

The presented analysis shows that the elaborated monitoring system offers essential functionalities to its users, for information and communication: first, a land-use database, relevant in regard of the management priorities, second, an networking platform for the stakeholders, and third, indicators for the decision support and monitoring. The improvement of the diagnosis allows them to realize more opportune and more effective projects.

The instrument integrates a forum of the land-use actors, for its implementation within the management processes. Thus, it allows strengthening the data exchange and the coordination. The monitoring tool also serves as support to the consultation, providing clear elements on the land-use. The diversity of the participants ensures the quality of the data and the diversity of the points of view on the urban development. At a holistic level, the actors draw up strategies of development and of land-use planning, which take into account the claims of each other. Being mutually reinforced, information and participation offer then good conditions for a coherent management and for the harmonization of the interventions on the land.

The research is based on a dynamic and spatial vision of urban management. It integrates original tools, adapted to the contextual specificities. It opens up interesting perspectives in the fields of collaborative land-use management and in the implementation of good governance, as well as for the realization of real urban observatories for urban management support.

 

Conclusions and Recommendations
Final summary by A. Repetti 

Compared with the existing works in the field of urban observatories, the proposed approach opens the way toward the local implementation of these instruments for the management. It is no more a will of developing outer statistical databases, but of giving an answer to the urban managers needs. Thus, the realized observatory integrates the management objectives, the local priorities and the existing projects into a cartographic computer interface that combines several scales adapted to the different analysis levels. The urban observatory does not try to reduce the complexity of urban management, but offers an interactive and user-friendly tool, which allows the decision makers to access information, to assess, monitor, compare and to communicate.

The search of appropriateness between the developed instruments and the field reality has been possible through the use of a methodology based on life-sized experimentation and interdisciplinary research. Making possible several short journeys in the experimentation field, the “young researchers” grant has considerably contributed to the success of the research and to the realization of instruments that fit to the realities of developing cities. Indeed, this kind of research requests a continuous analysis (during several years) of the impacts of the monitoring system on the urban stakeholders and their relationships. Local practitioners need time to implement the new instruments in their practice. Furthermore, the evolution of the database and GIS are requesting considerable adaptations that cannot be done in the field with a couple of days.

About the recommendations, I would like to insist on the relevance of such a grant that allows several journeys in the field. The reality of developing cities is deeply complex and does not allow predicting the reaction of stakeholders to new instruments. Multiple iterative experimentations are then necessary to develop instruments that fit to the contextual specificities, and to avoid models that don’t present a real interest for potential users. Moreover, the given possibility to invite a scientific partner for collaborating on the technical development of the tools offers a strong added value at the level of the collaboration and of the scientific cooperation with developing countries.

Contact Address

Malik Gaye
ENDA-TM/RUP Dakar
http://www.enda.sn/rup/cadrerup.htm
rup@enda.sn

Amadou Sell
Centre de Suivi Ecologique, Dakar
http://www.cse.sn
amadou.sall@cse.sn

Alexandre Repetti
EPFL-ISTE-HYDRAM
1015 Lausanne
tél.: 021 693 37 48
fax: 021 693 37 39
alexandre.repetti@epfl.ch
http://hydram.epfl.ch/sites_projets/IMAP.htm