The PlaceMeg project generates knowledge, contexts for action, strategic guidance and practical applications for the promotion of more sustainable water supply, sanitation and rainwater (WSSR) systems against the backdrop of the rapid urbanisation in the Greater Guadalajara  Metropolitan Region in Mexico (GGMR).

It applies the innovative concepts of “place making” from the field of urban studies and “technological recesses” from the field of technology studies to reveal and pursue opportunities for context-sensitive, user-oriented and place-based solutions to water supply, wastewater disposal and rainwater problems in this emergent mega-city, in particular in marginalized urban neighbourhoods.

This is to be achieved by means of a close-knit partnership between research, public authorities, enterprises and NGOs in Germany and Mexico as well as an intensive programme of network-building activities throughout the project.

The principal products of the project will be a set of management tools for improving WSSR and  guiding urbanisation processes in the Guadalajara Urban Area (management strategy, urban monitoring system, model methodology), several applications introduced during the course of  the project (pilot projects, network of competence, innovative technologies) and new scientific insight into ways of conceptualising and promoting more sustainable WSSR in mega-cities derived from inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation.