Soil and Water Bioengineering in Burundi: first experiences, lessons-learnt and short-term monitoring

At first, in this paper the available literature experimental results on rill hydraulics are reviewed. The use of Soil and Water Bio-engineering (SWBE) techniques in emergent countries is a relevant issue for disaster mitigation, resilience to the effects of climate change, environmental-landscape restoration and poverty reduction. The present paper is based on the realization of various typologies of SWBE works in Burundi for the first time, in the aim of the PRRPB (Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project) carried out by the MINEAGRIE (Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Agriculture et de l’Elevage) and founded by World Bank. Research on the autochthonal wood and live plants suitable for these kinds of interventions and on the economic efficiency of the interventions is essential for the transferability and dissemination of such techniques. In order to evaluate the suitability of the plants used in these works, a field monitoring was carried out, by collecting data on survival rate and morphological parameters. As regards economic sustainability, an analysis of the costs of the works was carried out, which can be refined by converting the costs into EPP Dollars (Equal Purchasing Power), in order to compare the Burundian context with the European and Latin American ones both for Nature Based Solutions (NBS) than for conventional gray solutions. The main conclusion is that in Burundi SWBE, thanks to the favourable environmental conditions (botany, climate, pedology, etc.), is not only technically and socially possible, even in hardship area, but also economically sustainable (by maximizing the contribution of the local labour force and minimizing the use of mechanical equipment and the costs of same materials).