Risk of Conflict: As an operational tool

The transformation of conflict-affected countries into peaceful, stable, and more prosperous ones is an immensely complex task, often susceptible to contradictory pressures and to the risk of relapsing into violence (UNDP and World Bank 2007). Most common approaches link social and economic development with conflict and peace, slowly; the environment has become central to understanding of both war and peacebuilding. Characterized by multiple transition processes including the transition from conflict to peace, democratization, decentralization and market liberalization, post-conflict situations, often perceive environmental governance and the sustainable management of natural resources as being distinct from – and sometimes even in conflict with – peacebuilding and development. However, natural resources and the environment hold tremendous peacebuilding potential and are able to underpin many peacebuilding priorities (Conca and Wallace 2012; Jensen and Lonergan 2012). As a mechanism for peace, the environment has some useful, perhaps even unique qualities that are well suited for peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Environmental problems ignore political borders. They require a long-term perspective, encourage participation by local and non-governmental organisations, help build administrative, economic and social capacities for action and facilitate the creation of commonalities that transcend the polarisation caused by economic relations. The present document is the report of the author’s graduation project. Its main goal is to identify the conditions under which environmental governance can facilitate, conflict transformation and peacebuilding in the region of Barranquilla, Colombia. The study is primarily an attempt to systematize the role of spatial planning in environmental governance with regard to conflict prevention and peacebuilding, to define its scope more clearly through an environmental assessment and an integral recovery plan.Metropolitan Spatial StructureUrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen