Advancing Urban Water Security in the Indus Basin, Pakistan—Priority Actions for Karachi and Lahore

Despite growing recognition of solutions to water scarcity challenges, decision-makers across the world continue to face barriers to effective implementation of water planning, governance and management. This is evident in the cases of Lahore and Karachi in the Indus Basin in Pakistan and illustrated through the experiences of the provincial government departments and utilities. Water scarcity and associated challenges are continuing to impose significant costs on these cities, which continue to grow as water availability further declines, demand increases, water quality deteriorates, and infrastructure degrades. A team of Australian water experts was commissioned by the Australian Water Partnership to diagnose urban water challenges and identify priority actions for improved water security, in collaboration with Pakistani partners. This paper presents the outcomes of that work. This includes a synthesis of the published literature and data on the geographical, climatic, and water scarcity contexts of both Karachi and Lahore. It then identifies responses to water insecurity that have been considered or implemented in the past and the barriers that have inhibited the effectiveness of these efforts. Finally, it presents actions within five priority action areas that Pakistani stakeholders have identified as being most practical and impactful for improving water security outcomes.

A priority action roadmap for women's economic empowerment (PARWEE) amid COVID-19: a co-creation approach

Purpose The study aims to co-create a “priority action roadmap for women's economic empowerment” based on women's top priorities to charting recovery directions. Doing so contributes to the growing body of knowledge on COVID-19 literature in at least four areas: assessing COVID-19 impacts on women entrepreneurs; mapping these impacts with four interdependent women's entrepreneurial ecosystem components; innovating a co-creation methodology based on remote participatory research; and providing a replicable model to perform action-oriented research in the context of COVID-19 impacts. Design/methodology/approach A co-creation methodology is proposed, combining systems-thinking and remote participatory research to engage women entrepreneurs and institutional stakeholders to prioritize impact, response actions and recovery needs in the wake of COVID-19. A ranking exercise using the analytic hierarchy process was used to derive ranking and assess user inputs' consistency. Findings The study exemplifies the integration of participatory methods and mathematical tool to engage stakeholders in prioritizing recovery work. PARWEE action items ranked by entrepreneurs and vetted by institutional stakeholders cover: access to finances, capacity building, health care, public and private partnership, marketing opportunities and formation of active advocacy groups to voice out women entrepreneurs' needs to institutional stakeholders. Results show a slight difference in the ranking of priority actions between experience owners and fresh starters. Originality/value This study innovated a new co-creation methodology for remotely engaging stakeholders of the women's entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is grounded in evidence and provides a replicable model for performing action-oriented research.

Lentius, profundius, suavius, tre coordinate dell'abitare contemporaneo

The aphorism lentius, profundius, suavius of Alexander Langer overturns the most famous citius, altius, fortius. It is both a program and a vision to face the most urgent challenges of our time. Outdoor is the priority action context to design possible ways of reconciliation with the environment, the only way to rediscover the balanced integration with nature that Adriano Olivetti indicated as an antidote to the harmfulness of the urban environment. Nature plays a decisive role in our society. According to the German philosopher Gernot Böhme, this general reference to nature on the one hand is indicative of a desire to compensate for a lifestyle that is increasingly distant from its rhythms and its essence, on the other it represents a profound and radical removal. The pandemic has definitively undermined some of the dominant paradigms, leading to the establishment of a new phenomenology of nature based on perception. The health issue has quickly, and perhaps irreversibly, changed our lifestyles and our relationships with nature. In high-altitude contexts, the archetypes of architecture become the concepts through which architecture redefines its dialogue with the landscape by innovating its grammar and semantic relationships. A complex dialogue that triggers new genealogies and belonging in which design solutions become an opportunity for experimenting and innovating processes, forms and technologies. The following projects address these issues with respect to two founding themes of architecture: the refuge and the threshold.

Assessment of soil erosion using two spatial approaches: RUSLE and SWAT Model

In this paper, we attempted to review the erosion in the Ouergha watershed by applying two spatial approaches. The Ouergha watershed has an area of around 7300 km² representing approximately 18.2% of the Sebou basin of which it is the main tributary. In order to develop the erosion map using the SWAT model, it was important to prepare a large spatial database describing basin proprieties, furthermore, the daily hydro-climatic data. This model integrates MUSLE equation for the estimation of specific degradation. In addition, the estimation of erosion through SWAT was consolidated by constructing an erosion mapping through RUSLE method. This method was applied following an approach based on the use of remote sensing data and GIS tools to produce the major factors involved in the erosive process and their integration into RUSLE. The results obtained, in cartographic form, make it possible to target areas that require priority action for a larger-scale analysis, with a view to finding appropriate solutions to fight against erosion and protect the natural environment. Soil degradation in the Ouergha watershed is around 27 ton/ha/year (SWAT_MUSLE) and 25 ton/ha/year (RUSLE). Average sediment yield was estimated for Al Wahda dam of 10.4 Million tons.

Recommendations for speech therapy in the COVID-19 context in Myofunctional Therapy

Provide recommendations for safeguarding the practice of the profession in the myofunctional area in a safe way, both for the speech therapist and for its users, documented in relevant scientific publications. Methods: it constitutes an integrating review. The search was performed through the Lilacs, Pubmed, SciELO databases, and various web pages were consulted, under the terms COVID-19; SARS-CoV 2; security protocol; COVID-19 suggestions and COVID 19 action guides. Results: Recommendations are proposed for speech pathologist linked to myofunctional therapy in various contexts. Discussion: the correct identification of these recommendations represents an absolute top-priority action so that professionals can instruct the behaviors related to patient safety and continue the treatments in COVID-19 context, increasing the protection, with the purpose of preventing infections in the process.

Introduction

The aim of the Introduction is to prepare readers for what may constitute a new approach to working with young people—that of social pedagogy. We briefly outline how it appeared in Europe and how it spread to other countries in the 20th Century and to the rest of the world at the beginning of the 21st Century. Its current situation shows that it is growing up around the world. Social pedagogy has always maintained that it works with people, groups, and communities throughout their life stages. However, working with children and young people has always been one of its priority action areas. We also analyze the main professions in which Social pedagogy is embodied in different sociocultural contexts: social pedagogy, social education, and social work. Although we choose a specific type of relationship between these professions, it must be said that currently, this remains an open question that has been answered in different ways in countries with distinct academic traditions. The last part of the introduction presents the structure of the book and a brief summary of each of their chapters.

Kastamonu Karaçomak Havzasının Kentsel Gelişim Alanlarında Yeraltı Suyu Beslenimi Açısından Ekolojik Etki Değerlendirme

The aim of the study was to evaluate the ecological impact of groundwater recharging in the urban development area in the north of Kastamonu city. In this respect, the urban development area was examined in terms of water permeability, which is one of the functions of the landscape, and the ecological impact assessment was carried out in order to determine the level of change in groundwater recharging and land cover before and after urban development. With the methods used within the scope of the study, negative changes in groundwater and water retention capacity can be revealed as a result of other interventions on urbanization and landscape. On the other hand, it is important that landscape plans, where the ecological processes expressed as landscape function, including groundwater recharging and surface runoff potential, are considered as the priority action area of the multi-layered spatial planning process, rather than the investigation of the mentioned negativities after planning and/or implementation.