IWRA Proceedings

The project we present intends to contribute to the focus on emergent water and land-use management, by exposing a set of criteria for assessing processes and stating the decisions of the social actors, under conditions of change, uncertainty and complexity. In the general process of land-use planning, we assess the robustness of a regional water system and its territorial references, underlying an ecosystem approach and the framing of water management. On this, we develop a method relating several concepts, the central one being resilience. We then apply the method to the interpretation of the Algarvian water system. The diagnosis proves the vulnerability of the current territorial model and, at the same time, indicates the marginal changes which are produced by effective social arrangements. We then advocate that the decision making on water and land-use would be guided by the principle of the quality, therefore emphasising the active participation of the stakeholders and the needs for generating more robust alternative models.