Luis Miguel Silva-Novoa is a Ph.D. candidate in the project SALIDRÂA  جوج. (Salt in the System - Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Water Management of the Arid Drâa  River Basin, Morocco). This project is aimed at developing recommendations for action based on scientific evidence to protect the biodiversity of the ecosystem of the oases of the Drâa River Basin against the effects of land and water salinization, as well as preventing and mitigating conflicts over the use of land and water resources.

Research Focus

• Water and land-related conflicts
• Water Governance
• Human-environment interactions
• Sustainable Development

Geographic focus

• Drâa River Basin, Morocco

Concepts

• Socionature
• Institutional pluralism, institutional bricolage
• Conflict transformation
• Praxiography

Methods

I use the Case Study as the general methodological strategy in combination with three actor-centred approaches. For the study of the conflicts I use an actor-based conflict analysis, consisting of three steps: actor mapping, analysis of socio-political and economic context, analysis of conflict drivers and effects. To study the land and water use practices from an everyday perspective I use the praxiography methodological approach. This approach born from the theory of practice and the use of ethnographic methods is aimed at revealing the implicit or tacit knowledge that gives meaning to them, which helps to understand how these practices make sense for the actors who carry them out. To understand how water and land use practices relate to the dynamic socio-political and economic context of the country, I use a biographical approach.

The main data collection tools used are stakeholder interviews, archive review and structured observations.

Journal Articles

Silva-Novoa Sanchez, Luis Miguel; Bossenbroek, Lisa; Schilling, Janpeter; Berger, Elisabeth (2022): Governance and Sustainability Challenges in the Water Policy of Morocco 1995–2020: Insights from the Middle Draa Valley. In: Water. vol. 14. no. 18. p. 2932.

Silva-Novoa Sanchez, Luis Miguel; Kemerink-Seyoum, Jeltsje Sanne; Dauda, Waiswa Batega; Paul, Ramkrishna (2020): Caught in the Middle? Access to Water in the Rural to Urban Transformation of Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality, Uganda. In: Water Policy. vol. 22. no. 4. pp. 670–685.

Silva-Novoa Sanchez, Luis Miguel; Kemerink-Seyoum, Jeltsje Sanne; Zwarteveen, Margreet (2019): Water Infrastructure Always In-The-Making: Distributing Water and Authority through the Water Supply Network in Moamba, Mozambique. In: Water. vol. 11. no. 9. pp. 1-17.

Kemerink-Seyoum, Jeltsje Sanne; Chitata, Tavengwa; Domínguez Guzmán, Carolina; Silva-Novoa Sanchez, Luis Miguel; Zwarteveen, Margreet (2019): Attention to Sociotechnical Tinkering with Irrigation Infrastructure as a Way to Rethink Water Governance. In: Water. vol. 11. no. 8. pp. 1-16.

Book Chapters

Silva-Novoa Sanchez, Luis Miguel (2014): La fiesta de Champería en San Pedro de Casta como espacio de legitimación de la sociotecnología andina. In: Negro Tua, Sandra : Patrimonio, Identidad y Memoria. Universidad Ricardo Palma, Rectorado, Instituto de Investigación del Patrimonio Cultural, Lima, Perú. pp. 339-356.