Polycentric approaches to managing urban water resources in Southeast Asia

Enabling Localisation of the New Urban Agenda

BORDA is engaged in a five-year research project in multiple cities across Southeast Asia to develop polycentric approaches to managing urban water resources. Carried out in collaboration with research institutes in Germany, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam and an alliance of several partner cities, this practice-orientated project aims to translate the concept of polycentric and decentralised approaches proposed in the New Urban Agenda (NUA) to locally actionable applications. The emphasis is on cross-sectoral dimensions of urban planning, water management, technological change and comprehensive capacity development.

The project supports the elaboration of practice-relevant tools that allow fast-growing cities in Southeast Asia to implement polycentric approaches to urban development and integrated, cross-sector water management:

• Planning approaches for the design of liveable neighborhoods and public spaces, locally adapted water and sanitation management, communal/local circular economy, and water-sensitive infrastructure development
• Implementation of innovative concepts for integrated water management, circular economy and public services within municipal organisational structures and processes
• Design and implementation of multi-actor processes (inter alia with special participation of communities and women) at the local level
• Design of cooperation relations at the national and international levels

Key Facts

Overall term: Start 2017 – 2018 (inception phase), planned 2019 – 2022

Funded by: BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research)

Countries/Cities: Selected cities in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines and Vietnam

Partner Organisations:
Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
Cambodian Institute of Urban Studies, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
City Alliance ’People-Sanitation-Cities‘
Technical University of Berlin, Habitat Center, Germany
University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany
Vietnam Academy for Water Resources, Hanoi, Vietnam