Community participation in Mexico City´s water management. Learning from the failure of the Magdalena River restoration project

Abstract

Some drivers push for a transition towards sustainable and integrated urban water management while involving the community in decision-making. The Transition Management framework has been used to study how to empower experiments and promote sustainable transitions. However, there is no proper recognition of how to involve the community as part of the transition processes, especially in developing countries. This paper analyses the 2007–2012 Magdalena River restoration project in Mexico City to understand community participation in water management transitions, while recognising how different social groups are involved and react to transition experiments. This research points out the difficulties that influence community participation and the necessity of addressing these difficulties while considering the heterogeneous community character.