CLARS breaks new ground in Lake Victoria Basin with successful PIVOT kickoff workshop at TUMA University
Arusha, Tanzania, Lake Victoria Basin, February 2026-In a major milestone for climate resilience planning for East Africa, the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy (CLARS) project successfully launched its kickoff workshop for the PIVOT participatory decision support tool at the Tanzania Urban and Management University (TUMA) on February 9,2026. This event marked a collaborative leap forward in engaging regional stakeholders in modeling urban planning scenarios to plan for climate migrants.
The term PIVOT stands for Participatory Urban Development tool and is an innovative web-based platform designed to help cities and communities comprehensively visualize and test future scenarios of population growth, climate stressors and urban development strategies all together. According to the PIVOT project lead, Dr. Derek Van Berkel, the tool allows participants to explore how different growth trajectories and urban choices might play out over the coming decades, a key capability for regions like the Lake Victoria Basin which faces rapid demographic changes and climate related migration pressures. According to Dr. Van Berkel, ‘It was really inspiring to see the enthusiasm of the workshop participants at TUMA university and to see how they considered local contextual factors in using the PIVOT tool in the Lake Victoria Basin”.
More than a dozen stakeholders, including university students, early career researchers, local policymakers, planners and community representatives joined the two-day hands-on workshop hosted by the TUMA university. Rather than merely listening and observing presentations, participants actively engaged in group exercises using the PIVOT tool, collaboratively exploring population local growth scenarios and mapping potential land use futures for key urban areas in Tanzania.
These small groups were guided by Dr. Van Berkel and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Lisa Maillard as they worked through hypothetical development strategies, from high density housing expansion to green infrastructure prioritization and hazard mitigation planning. Participants used PIVOT’s interactive interface to test assumptions about climate impacts, infrastructure need and demographic pressures-seeing in real time how different choices could shift projected outcomes. According to Dr. Thaddeus Lekule, CLARS project partner from TUMA, students were actively engaged as “feedback was lively, critical questions were asked and many attendees said that the hands-on experience deepened their understanding of both the tool and the complex trade-offs involved in urban planning under climate uncertainty.
This workshop forms a central part of Work package 5 and 7 (WP5 and WP7) of the CLARS project and is led by Dr. Derek Van Berkel. These work packages aim to co-produce knowledge with practitioners to advance planning for equitable and climate resilient responses to climate migration. Through collaboration with stakeholders, these work packages will identify key challenges, priorities and practical strategies for communities experiencing or anticipating climate driven displacement. According to Dr. Van Berkel, these work packages aim to integrate perspectives from researchers, urban planners, policy makers and community stakeholders to shape practical resilience approaches tailored to both the Lake Victoria and North America Great Lakes Basins.
Engagement events like the PIVOT workshops are foundational to the mission of CLARS-they help translate scientific and modeling outputs into shared understanding and actionable ideas. Rather than producing recommendations in isolation, the Van Berkel lab is using stakeholder input to refine the PIVOT platform, ensure its relevance to local decision makers and catalyze co-developed strategies. According to CLARS project manager, Dr. Savitri Jetoo, who was also present at the workshops, “with this kickoff workshop CLARS has set a strong precedent for meaningful stakeholder engagement in climate adaptation in the Lake Victoria Basin”. Once student said it was truly amazing to be able to discuss with others various the various land use scenarios and then to place their decisions on the map using the PIVOT tool”.
The enthusiasm observed amongst workshop participants signals a growing regional appetite for tools and processes that integrate data, local experience and shared decision making to address the complex realities of urban growth, climate change and climate migration. AS the CLARS project progresses with workshops in Kenya and Uganda, the insights and feedback from this pivotal PIVOT launch in the LVB will help shape discussions and policy for a more resilient future for Lake Victoria’s rapidly evolving cities.