Engineering environmental resilience: A matched cohort study of the community benefits of trailbridges in rural Rwanda

Thomas, Evan; Bradshaw, Abigail; Mugabo, Lambert; MacDonald, Laura; Brooks, Wyatt; Dickinson, Katherine L.; Donovan, Kevin

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145275

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Common themes that emerge from this review include direct measures of economic consumption, agricultural production, agricultural market and labor market earnings. In an ongoing randomized controlled trial in Rwanda [232], investigators are measuring these outcomes while also seeking to identify if a simple measure of consumption is sufficiently correlated to other country-and intervention-specific outcomes in a way that could be applied in other transportation contexts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As many rural and isolated communities around the world experience limited and slow-paced investment in rural infrastructure and remain dependent on minor or trail-based infrastructure for years to come, rural bridges will continue to play a critical role in the facilitation of many socioeconomic benefits [230,231]. Defined differently based upon context and application, footbridges, trail bridges, and pedestrian bridges are critical leverage points within rural infrastructure, especially in countries with large numbers of water crossings, multiple monsoon seasons, or hilly and treacherous terrain, such as Bangladesh, Rwanda, and Nepal [8,231,232]. Within the sector, leading non-governmental organizations have developed bridge-building implementation strategies that leverage and reinforce bridges' vast utility in increasing rural access and maintaining benefits delivered by rural transportation [7,8,233,234].…”

Section: Rural Bridgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Work from both Helvetas and B2P has employed community-based labor and implementation of bridges, and has displayed success in creating immediate impacts upon local communities, including in the forms of both localized economic opportunities and a strong sense of community ownership surrounding new bridges [158,239,240]. Specifically, bridges constructed by B2P in Rwanda have helped to increase labor market income by 25% over a baseline mean [232]. In Nicaragua, B2P's bridges have increased women entering the labor market by 60%, increased welfare by 11%, and eliminated an 18% decrease in labor market earnings during flood events [25].…”

Section: Rural Bridgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future evidence should emphasize the impacts of rural bridges upon isolated communities around the globe in the pursuit of further scale and substantial institutional support [230]. To this end, B2P works actively within a research agenda related to rural transportation including usage impacts and evaluations of rural bridges, and plans to continue this work with construction of an additional 150 bridges in Rwanda and an associated randomized controlled trial study by 2023 [232,233,239]. Researchers should also consider further investigation of seasonal bridge trends, expanding on the conclusion that no apparent change in bridge usage patterns during rain events in Rwanda may suggest that bridges minimize seasonal and extreme weather-related transportation interruptions [239,242].…”

Section: Rural Bridgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Rural Transportation Infrastructure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Impacts, Implications, and Interventions

Kaiser

Barstow

2022

Sustainability

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The rural transport infrastructure sector is a critical force for sustainable development that is interwoven with many other sectors. Rural transportation is an underlying driver of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a crucial contributor to many socioeconomic benefits for rural people around the world. This review paper expands upon, enhances, and cross-references the perspectives outlined in previous rural infrastructure-focused review papers. Firstly, this work gives a thorough look into the progress of the rural transportation sector in recent years by focusing on the thematic relationships between infrastructure and other components of sustainable development, namely, economics and agriculture, policy and governance, health, gender, education, and climate change and the environment. Secondly, several strategies, approaches, and tools employed by governments and practitioners within the rural transport sector are analyzed and discussed for their contributions to the wellbeing of rural dwellers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). These include rural roads, bridges, maintenance, and non-infrastructural approaches that include concepts such as advanced technological innovations, intermediate modes of transport (IMTs), and transport services. This paper concludes that enhancement, improvement, and extension of rural transportation infrastructure brings significant benefits to rural dwellers. However, this paper also calls for additional integration of the sector and increased usage of systems approaches that view rural transport as an active part of many other sectors and a key leverage point within rural development as a whole. Further, this paper notes areas for future research and investigation, including increased investigation of the relationship between rural transportation infrastructure and education, improved data collection and management in support of improved policymaking, improved prioritization of interventions and institutionalization of maintenance, and expansion of pro-poor transportation strategies and interventions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rural Bridgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rural Bridgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rural Bridgesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Rural Transportation Infrastructure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Impacts, Implications, and Interventions

Kaiser

Barstow

2022

Sustainability

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“…The advancement of urbanization leads to the outflow of the rural population, and the self-development ability and adaptability of rural areas are constantly challenged. The high frequency of climatic and geological hazards exacerbates the instability and vulnerability of development in rural areas; the resulting rural decline has become a global problem [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Village Ecosystem Vulnerability and Resilience: Implications for the Rocky Desertification Control

Tang

Xiong

Chen

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Under the background of global environmental change, a huge impact has been made on the village ecosystem, which leads to disorder of structure and function of the village ecosystem. The current management measures of the village have failed in allowing the village to achieve sustainable development. Research on the vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem is helpful in regards to the ecological restoration of the village. The research status and progress in regards to the vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem are not clear, and the summary of research results and problems is insufficient. Based on 87 related literatures, this paper focuses on the current status and progress of village ecosystem vulnerability and resilience research, and reveals the current research results and shortcomings of village ecosystem vulnerability and resilience. We found that: (1) the research on vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem is on the rise; (2) the research mainly focuses on the index system, monitoring and assessment, mechanism research and strategy research. The monitoring and assessment research is the most prominent, which mainly discusses the research methods, the vulnerability and the resilience of the village ecosystem; (3) the study area is mainly concentrated in Asia, North America and Africa. Research institutions are mainly institutions of higher learning and research institutes (centers). Finally, this paper finds that major scientific and technical studies such as the construction of indicator systems and the study of governance strategies in the study of vulnerability and resilience of village ecosystems are lagging behind. In future research, we should deepen the research on the concept and connotation of vulnerability and resilience. We must establish a scientific and reasonable research framework for vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem. We should also strengthen and improve the index system of vulnerability and resilience of the village ecosystem. We should strengthen research on the impact mechanisms and governance strategies of vulnerability and resilience, and apply the research on vulnerability and resilience to the planning and governance of the village ecosystem.

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Integrating climate change adaptation into water-energy-food-environment nexus for sustainable development in East African Community

Mperejekumana,

Shen,

Zhong

et al. 2024

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Engineering environmental resilience: A matched cohort study of the community benefits of trailbridges in rural Rwanda

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

Rural Transportation Infrastructure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Impacts, Implications, and Interventions

Rural Transportation Infrastructure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Review of Impacts, Implications, and Interventions

A Review of Village Ecosystem Vulnerability and Resilience: Implications for the Rocky Desertification Control

Integrating climate change adaptation into water-energy-food-environment nexus for sustainable development in East African Community

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