ESW-20306 Impact Assessment of Land and Water Management

Vak

Studiepunten 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

ESW-10306 or equivalent course

Contents:

Lectures: The lectures deal with the assessment of land and water management interventions and with all effects that should be taken into account for these interventions. Various social, economic and institutional and organisational aspects are discussed, that play a role in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of these land and water management activities. Attention will be paid to actors with their conflicts of interest and their perception of erosion and control measures, to participatory approaches, to incentives, land tenure, costs and benefits of interventions, etc. Type of interventions considered are among others: access roads, stone lines and hedges against wind and water erosion, terraces with waterways, flood control dams. Attention will also be paid to budgeting.
Practicals: During eight half-day practicals, attention is paid to impact assessment techniques and various socio-economic analysis and evaluation methodologies. This concerns assessment of the effects of soil and water conservation measures on water- and nutrient balances, formal and informal survey methods, agro-ecosystem analysis, budgeting methods, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis, multi-criteria analysis, environmental impact assessment, natural resource accounting and probability analysis for assessment of benefits of land and water management interventions.

Aims:

The course is directed towards the following aims:
- identification of various effects of land and water management interventions, both physical (soil, water and nutrients), and social and economic effects;
- to be able to understand, to explain and to argue why farmers do or do not undertake land and water management interventions by themselves and what the role could be of local groups and government in stimulating these interventions;
- to be able to apply impact assessment techniques, socio-economic analysis and evaluation methods for the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of land and water management interventions;
- to be able to prepare budgets, to calculate costs and to estimate the benefits of land and water management interventions (for various actors).

Activities:

- to attend lectures and study lecture notes and reader;
- practicals regarding impact assessment methods, survey methods, budgeting, cost-benefit analysis, multi-criteria analysis and probability analysis.

Examination:

Practical reports and written examination.

Literature:

Lecture notes and a separate reader are available at the ESW secretariate, Nieuwlanden. Practical guidelines will be provided during practicals.