Chapter 1 Project initiation

1.1 Concepts

The project initiation phase should gather from enough information to define the project and the essential characteristics of the study site. In particular, information should be gathered about:

1.1.1 Site choice and basic characterization

The boundaries of the study area should be defined. Depending on the study scope and vision different approaches could be used ( hydrological, political, ecological). Some classification frameworks: (Rosgen1994?) UNEP (2017)]

1.1.2 Project resources

Several assessment tool exist [link].
In relation to data gathering four dimensions are proposed as a starting point: budget, capacity, level of engagement with the community and level of data uncertainty.

Budget. Understanding available budget for the task (and its allocation across different expenditure types) is an essential information in planning an appropriate strategy.

Capacity could be assessed with a particular focus on methods that could be used for data acquisition. This could include field sampling techniques, laboratory analysis, skills in geospatial and remote sensing disciplines, hydrological modelling, statistical and numerical methods.

1.1.3 Stakeholder engagement

Community engagement. An important factor that is gaining recognition is the involvement of communities in environmental monitoring. This approach is able to produce, even with limitations, not only robust data but also increase awareness and improve people behaviours toward the environment.

1.1.4 External data requirements

When gathering data to be reported to an already established framework/legislation, minimum data requirements may exist (number of data points, level of uncertainty).

1.1.5 Initial condition scenarios

To simplify all the possible combination amongst the aforementioned factors and reach some level of generalization in the following step, three scenarios are proposed. Their aim is to describe some common situations

Scenario 01: low resources – In this alternative, low financial resources are assumed. Methods are chosen based on cost. A medium to high level of capacity is assumed.

Scenario 02: low uncertainty – This scenario aims at reducing the uncertainty of sampling and analysis. Nevertheless a trade-off with cost and resources needs to be found.

Scenario 03: Participation of local communities Simpler methods involving citizen science and monitoring are used. More frequent, cheaper, less accurate monitoring and sampling are preferred.

1.2 Tools

1.2.1 Checklist

Below a checklist of essential information is shown.

Table 1.1: Checklist for initiation phase

Category	Item	Description
Site information:
	Geographical boundaries	Geographical boundaries are clearly defined
	Climate data	Basic climate data has been gathered, this include
	Land cover data
	Hydrological data
Enabling environment
	Governance
	Socio-economic data
Project team capacity
	Field sampling
	Laboratory analysis
	Remote sensing data
Project resource
	Budget
	Timeframe	Time frame and availability for the project
	Access to study site
	Scope of the project	This may or may not be known at this stage.
Stakeholder engagement
	Government	Understand if and how different stekeholder will be involved in the project
	Local communities
	Researcher
	Private sector
Data quality and uncertainty
	Data quality	Consider if specific requirement for data exist. These can be required by legislation or by level of acceptable uncertainty

1.2.2 Resources:

An initial set of tools is shown below. New can be added at this link

Table 1.2: Checklist for initiation phase

Chapter	Description	Tool
1 Project initiation	Hydrolgical information	HydroSHEDS
1 Project initiation	Climate data
1 Project initiation	Landuse data
1 Project initiation	Governance idex
1 Project initiation	Capacity assessment	A Brief Review of 20 Tools to Assess Capacity
1 Project initiation	Data quality assurance
1 Project initiation	Integrated Water Resources Management	Tracking global progress on implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management
1 Project initiation	Data quality assurance	Quality Assurance Project Plan Development Tool

1.3 An example

To do: Add report basedon hypothetical project on Akaki river basin.