156
buyer; and (4) lack of awareness of the planning instruments. As citizens, we can
deal with anticorruption practices and design educational platforms to provide planning information. But the implementation of additional instruments for law compliance, such as economic instruments, rights market, subsidies, and no land-use
policies for land owners, corresponds to the state and municipal governments.
Plenty of issues have to change with the recent urban planning law. To accompany this new planning, a citizens’ surveillance committee has been proposed and a
bylaw has been prepared by a heavy participatory transdisciplinary team.
Nevertheless, these instruments remain top-down laws. So, it is advised to lean
towards bottom-up strategies to break the recurring paradigms of the last 30 years.
Recommendations and Future Perspectives
In conclusion, the lessons learned from the unsuccessful planning of the Guadalupe
Valley are that top-down strategies alone do not function and new ways of participation, such as transdisciplinary teams, might be the solution for social-ecological
watersheds planning. With the mindset of up-taking new ideas in collective fashion
as key to fulfill regional land-use planning a transdisciplinary team is being created
to develop the following strategies:
1. Citizen’s observatory, bringing together academics, producers, and the rural
community to solve emergent problems. It consists of developing an internet
portal (network platform) where specific information is available and updated
constantly. The purpose of this observatory is to empower people with reliable
data. It is believed to be one of the main tools that can achieve successful governance (Engelken-Jorge et al. 2014). In Mexico, the law for sustainable agriculture promotes rural observatories without success , for they are managed by the
government, and government agents do not wish to be observed and/or evaluated. For this particular reason, the observatory will be participative, inclusive,
managed by citizens, and co-designed with seven aquifer user groups. The key
issue in designing an observatory of this nature is the negotiation of information
(indicators), since it will function as a source for following projects. The results
have to be uploaded as technical reports for a layman audience and infographics,
since they are effective ways of presenting complex data in a visual compelling
format directly useful for decision-making purposes (Otten et al. 2015).
2. Green infrastructure projects, built by residents, developed by architects, and
coordinated with the current government urban program. The importance of
green infrastructure is to develop an “interconnected network of green space that
conserves natural ecosystem values and functions and provides associated benefits to human populations” (Benedict and McMahon 2002, p. 12). It includes
natural, semi-natural, and artificial areas, within and around urban areas. Their
quality and quantity will be based on the multifunctional role as habitat interconnectors (Tzoulas et al. 2007). The role of water is important within the green
I. Espejel et al.
buyer; and (4) lack of awareness of the planning instruments. As citizens, we can
deal with anticorruption practices and design educational platforms to provide planning information. But the implementation of additional instruments for law compliance, such as economic instruments, rights market, subsidies, and no land-use
policies for land owners, corresponds to the state and municipal governments.
Plenty of issues have to change with the recent urban planning law. To accompany this new planning, a citizens’ surveillance committee has been proposed and a
bylaw has been prepared by a heavy participatory transdisciplinary team.
Nevertheless, these instruments remain top-down laws. So, it is advised to lean
towards bottom-up strategies to break the recurring paradigms of the last 30 years.
Recommendations and Future Perspectives
In conclusion, the lessons learned from the unsuccessful planning of the Guadalupe
Valley are that top-down strategies alone do not function and new ways of participation, such as transdisciplinary teams, might be the solution for social-ecological
watersheds planning. With the mindset of up-taking new ideas in collective fashion
as key to fulfill regional land-use planning a transdisciplinary team is being created
to develop the following strategies:
1. Citizen’s observatory, bringing together academics, producers, and the rural
community to solve emergent problems. It consists of developing an internet
portal (network platform) where specific information is available and updated
constantly. The purpose of this observatory is to empower people with reliable
data. It is believed to be one of the main tools that can achieve successful governance (Engelken-Jorge et al. 2014). In Mexico, the law for sustainable agriculture promotes rural observatories without success , for they are managed by the
government, and government agents do not wish to be observed and/or evaluated. For this particular reason, the observatory will be participative, inclusive,
managed by citizens, and co-designed with seven aquifer user groups. The key
issue in designing an observatory of this nature is the negotiation of information
(indicators), since it will function as a source for following projects. The results
have to be uploaded as technical reports for a layman audience and infographics,
since they are effective ways of presenting complex data in a visual compelling
format directly useful for decision-making purposes (Otten et al. 2015).
2. Green infrastructure projects, built by residents, developed by architects, and
coordinated with the current government urban program. The importance of
green infrastructure is to develop an “interconnected network of green space that
conserves natural ecosystem values and functions and provides associated benefits to human populations” (Benedict and McMahon 2002, p. 12). It includes
natural, semi-natural, and artificial areas, within and around urban areas. Their
quality and quantity will be based on the multifunctional role as habitat interconnectors (Tzoulas et al. 2007). The role of water is important within the green
I. Espejel et al.