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Maria Rusca

Bio: Maria Rusca is an academic researcher from Uppsala University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Water supply & Water supply network. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 39 publications receiving 919 citations. Previous affiliations of Maria Rusca include King's College London & University of Amsterdam.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed an integrated approach to managing and allocating water resources, by involving all actors and stakeholders, and considering how water resources link different sectors of society.
Abstract: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Agenda 2030 represent an ambitious blueprint to reduce inequalities globally and achieve a sustainable future for all mankind. Meeting the SDGs for water requires an integrated approach to managing and allocating water resources, by involving all actors and stakeholders, and considering how water resources link different sectors of society. To date, water management practice is dominated by technocratic, scenario-based approaches that may work well in the short term but can result in unintended consequences in the long term due to limited accounting of dynamic feedbacks between the natural, technical, and social dimensions of human-water systems. The discipline of sociohydrology has an important role to play in informing policy by developing a generalizable understanding of phenomena that arise from interactions between water and human systems. To explain these phenomena, sociohydrology must address several scientific challenges to strengthen the field and broaden its scope. These include engagement with social scientists to accommodate social heterogeneity, power relations, trust, cultural beliefs, and cognitive biases, which strongly influence the way in which people alter, and adapt to, changing hydrological regimes. It also requires development of new methods to formulate and test alternative hypotheses for the explanation of emergent phenomena generated by feedbacks between water and society. Advancing sociohydrology in these ways therefore represents a major contribution toward meeting the targets set by the SDGs, the societal grand challenge of our time.

176 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a framework developed for analysing the potential for participation via ICT-enabled citizen observatories and undertake a comparative analysis of the UK, the Netherlands and Italy.

161 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the realities of water provision in 'informal' urban spaces located in different parts of the world through eight empirical, case-based papers and show that formality and informality are fluid concepts that say more about the authority to legitimate certain practices than describe the condition of a particular practice.
Abstract: This special issue explores the realities of water provision in 'informal' urban spaces located in different parts of the world through eight empirical, case-based papers. The collection of articles shows that formality and informality are fluid concepts that say more about the authority to legitimate certain practices than describe the condition of that particular practice. In this introductory article we provide a historical overview that links the academic discussion on informality to urban water supply practices. Subsequently, we propose the concepts of disaggregation and co-production to describe how informality works, and how ideas about (in)formality are mobilised to label particular practices and service modalities. Disaggregation reveals that a single service delivery mechanism may incorporate activities, varying according to the degree to which they are formal or informal. Co-production describes a process where hybrid service provision modalities are produced as a result of the articulation of socio-political, economic, biophysical and infrastructural drivers. The article concludes by identifying a series of research directions that emerged as a result of producing this special issue.

124 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a critical review of the key features of African urban experiences, and analyses the implications for the creation and reduction of diverse risks, from the everyday to the extensive.
Abstract: There is an increasing recognition of the need to understand and address risks of various kinds in African cities. However, there have been very few explicit examinations of the way in which the specific characteristics of African urbanisation and urbanism drive risk, or the way in which responses to risk should take these characteristics into account. This paper presents a critical review of the key features of African urban experiences, and analyses the implications for the creation and reduction of diverse risks, from the everyday to the extensive. It argues that the physical forms, social structures, economic pathways, and governance systems of cities on the continent shape their risk profiles. Of particular importance are the nature of spatial expansion, the demographic profiles of cities, and the prevalence of informal economies and settlements; while the reform of governance systems will be critical to enable risk reduction. The paper concludes that urban development actors need to consider the consequences of their actions for risk, while risk reduction practitioners will need to engage with all elements of urban development, including informality, urban poverty, infrastructure and service provision, land management, and local governance capacity.

110 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 62 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002-2015) and shortly after, and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6.
Abstract: Target 7c of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG 7c) aimed to halve the population that had no sustainable access to water and basic sanitation before 2015. According to the data collected by the Joint Monitoring Programme in charge of measuring progress towards MDG 7c, 2.6 billion people gained access to safe water and 2.3 billion people to basic sanitation. Despite these optimistic figures, many academics have criticised MDG 7c. We provide an overview of this critique by performing a systematic literature review of 62 studies conducted over the MDG implementation period (2002–2015) and shortly after. Our objective is to contribute to the debate on the operationalisation of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG 6). The academic debate on MDG 7c mainly focused on the effectiveness of the indicators for safe water and sanitation and on the political dynamics underlying the selection of these indicators. SDG 6 addresses some of the concerns raised on the indicators for safe water and sanitation but fails to acknowledge the politics of indicator setting. We are proposing additional indicators and reflect on the limitations of using only quantitative indicators to measure progress towards SDG 6.

74 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism are discussed. And the history of European ideas: Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 721-722.

13,842 citations

Book Chapter
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In this article, Jacobi describes the production of space poetry in the form of a poetry collection, called Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated and unedited.
Abstract: ‘The Production of Space’, in: Frans Jacobi, Imagine, Space Poetry, Copenhagen, 1996, unpaginated.

7,238 citations

01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: The questionnaires from the field were received, checked and stored by the data processing personnel and checked the completeness of the questionnaires and the correct bubbling.
Abstract: The questionnaires from the field were received, checked and stored by the data processing personnel. They checked: 1. The completeness of the questionnaires 2. The correct bubbling 3. The correct number of questionnaires per household, if total males + total females > 8 as the questionnaire ONLY accommodated maximum of 8 household members. 4. The reference number appears in all the 10 pages of the questionnaires.

1,200 citations

01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: By J. Biggs and C. Tang, Maidenhead, England; Open University Press, 2007.
Abstract: by J. Biggs and C. Tang, Maidenhead, England, Open University Press, 2007, 360 pp., £29.99, ISBN-13: 978-0-335-22126-4

938 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts is described. But despite the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work.
Abstract: This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come.

469 citations