PGIS

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer-based tools used to collect, store, manipulate and display spatially-referenced information. They are used to support decision-making in a wide variety of contexts, including spatial planning and environmental management. Because the process of GIS production, from software development to visualization of GIS output, is characterized by political, economic and social motivations, it is important that GIS practitioners are aware of issues such as access to data and the political economy of information, and the nature of GIS epistemologies vis-a-vis multiple coexisting perceptions of reality. Lack of such appreciation can lead to social and spatial marginalization of communities. Use of GIS in a research program for environmental management of the Cooum River in Chennai, and in support of participatory processes for managing environment and health in slums are used to demonstrate appropriate applications of GIS in India. Internet-distr...

In a world where citizen-based participatory democracy and collaborative land-use planning are becoming global norms, “stakeholders are becoming more and more effective at derailing projects that are not perceived as responsive to local concerns and needs”. The call for “environmental justice” by civil societies and advocacy groups around the globe requires more inclusive dialogues among planners and local stakeholders (Fiorino, 1990; Renn, Webler, et al., 1995; Sexton, Marcus, et al., 1999). Over the past decade, Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) have emerged as a tangled solution in land-use planning and natural resource conversation programs that include the masses (Elwood, 2009).
The proliferation of PGIS has further reinvigorated the use of maps as tools for land-use planning in natural conservations. Maps are considered robust tools that can be used to negotiate land-use plans and natural resource initiatives, as well as tools for understanding local responses to specific projects and risks( Elwood 2006). Perhaps most critically, maps can “gain public acceptance to counter rising opposition and promote sustainable decision making” (Elwood 2006). Although PGIS are  aimed at making maps or GIS tools accessible to marginalized societies, the use of maps as a tool for sustainable planning is not universally applicable (Schuurman, 2000). However, in the academic arena, little attention has been paid to the implication behind the use of maps as a tool for land-use planning and natural resource conservation in the global south (Beierle, & Cayford, 2002). The unprecedented spread of PGIS over the past decade have made maps a popular tool for negotiating development and environment-related land-use projects that are inherently spatial in nature.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer-based tools used to collect, store, manipulate and display spatially-referenced information. They are used to support decision-making in a wide variety of contexts, including spatial planning and environmental management. Because the process of GIS production, from software development to visualization of GIS output, is characterized by political, economic and social motivations, it is important that GIS practitioners are aware of issues such as access to data and the political economy of information, and the nature of GIS epistemologies vis-à-vis multiple coexisting perceptions of reality. Lack of such appreciation can lead to social and spatial marginalization of communities. Use of GIS in a research program for environmental management of the Cooum River in Chennai, and in support of participatory processes for managing environment and health in slums are used to demonstrate appropriate applications of GIS in India. Internet-distributed GIS as a potential avenue to address issues of public access to data is also considered.

In the recent years, the major production of cartographic information and the advancement of new Information Technologies (IT's) has brought with it the need to develop new storage and management tools, making access in a simpler way either alphanumeric or vector information.
Since the 60s, the processing, analysis and visualization of cartographic data has been carried out using GIS as desktop software, installed on a single computer. The advantage of this system was the possibility of combining different cartographic information thereby facilitating decision-making.
The need to share data, mainly cartographic information, between agents who are working in the same area has been the basis for the creation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) at global, national, regional ,local, or corporative level.
Several resources for managing, classifying, sharing, exchanging, combining and accessing geographic data through internet connection have been developed together with the implementation of all levels of SDI's. The resources can be classified as: software for publishing cartographic data (maps servers), publication standards, metadata, legal framework, agreements among organizations, and the possibility to create different user levels.

Therefore, the aim will be to have cartographic information updated and available for all the involved agents who are working in the same territory, which will result in sharing efforts and costs.
Nevertheless, the development of new technologies has had an effect where the cartographic data producers have less direct contact with the field, ignoring somehow the people living in it who are the ones with best knowledge of the territory.
In remote areas, where it is difficult to access such as the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve Region (Honduras), it is indispensable to create an SDI for managing and sharing cartographic information by the involved agents in the territory.
It is important that the information offered by the indigenous communities is not left aside because they have a direct relation with the field. In the case of Rio Platano, they are scattered along the territory.
The basis of this thesis is to create the SDI for the Rio Platano region and the methodology to combine the different cartographic information published by different organisms. Also, it will be important to include in the SDI structure the information regarding the cadastral boundaries and socio environmental indicators obtained from the indigenous communities. It will require the design of participative pictograms using Participatory Mapping techniques.

"El MP3D es un método de mapeo participativo que integra conocimiento territorial indígena con datos sobre la elevación de la tierra y la profundidad del mar, para producir modelos de relieve autónomos, a escala y georreferenciados. Basadas esencialmente en el conocimiento territorial local, el uso y la cobertura de la tierra y otras características son representados por los informantes en el modelo, utilizando chinchetas para los puntos, hilos para las líneas y pinturas para los polígonos. Al completarse, se aplica un cuadriculado a escala y georreferenciado para facilitar la extracción o la importación de datos. Los datos representados en la maqueta son extraídos, digitalizados y trazados. Al completarse el ejercicio, el modelo permanece en la comunidad.
El modelado participativo tridimensional (MP3D) ha sido concebido como un método para acercar el potencial de SIG a las comunidades rurales y para superar la brecha que existe entre las tecnologías de la información geográfica y las capacidades encontradas entre comunidades marginadas y aisladas que frecuentemente dependen de recursos naturales.
Este manual apunta a asistir a activistas, investigadores y profesionales del aprendizaje y acción participativos (PLA) y SIG en llevar el poder de los SIG a nivel popular mediante el uso de MP3D. Proporciona las manos-sobre las orientaciones sobre cómo organizar y poner en práctica un ejercicio MP3D. Además, incluye puntos de vista sobre el aprendizaje y la cognición espacial, sobre la historia de las maquetas y sobre la utilización del método en todo el mundo.
El 5 de noviembre de 2007, P3DM fue galardonada con el Premio de la Cumbre Mundial de 2007 en la categoría de e-cultura. P3DM fue considerado como uno de los 40 ejemplos de mejores prácticas de calidad de los contenidos digitales en el mundo."

Participatory mapping has emerged as a powerful tool for the collection and use of geospatially oriented traditional and local ecological knowledge (LEK) across a variety of disciplines. The growth of this initiative in small island developing states (SIDS) has been widely applied to strengthen public awareness and capacity, particularly for environmental conservation, cultural preservation, and climate change adaptation. Participatory mapping strives to build community resilience and has proven to be a valuable technique in taking positive steps towards sustainable development especially in vulnerable communities. This paper examines participatory mapping and community engagement, the value of this practise in Caribbean SIDS facing the impacts of global climate change, and the lessons learnt from a variety of case studies that have been conducted in the wider Caribbean.

In recent years there have been huge advancements in GIS as a technology and as a science. Previously, GIS was critiqued as a segregating science used exclusively by geospatial experts. In recent years however, various studies have investigated the potential for communities without geospatial training to contribute towards, or benefit from, the use of GIS. Indeed, innovations such as open source and internet based packages like Google Earth and Open Street Map as well as mobile navigation devices have already popularised the importance of geospatial data. This study sought to investigate one way of providing up-to-date maps to fishermen and tourists using dams in South Africa. The paper reports on a pilot case study in the use of web based GIS service for mapping on the Theewaterskloof dam in South Africa. It presents a case study methodology for the development and testing of a web GIS that can be optimised for smartphones and tablets so that communities can access updated information while using the dam, which is rated as dangerous, for fishing or other recreational activity

This article explores the importance of geographical indications within the new trade policy of the European Union, using the example of the CETA and the dispute over Cypriot halloumi cheese. The authors point out that geographical indications occupy an important place within the European Commission’s negotiating strategy primarily because of their significance for the EU economy. In negotiations with third countries, such as Canada, a crucial problem is the different approaches to the protection of typical regional products. Therefore, the Union is trying to transfer its internal solutions to the international level. The detail of regulations, combined with the mixed nature of new trade agreements, makes trade policy vulnerable to blackmail by individual EU Member States. According to the authors, a reasonable solution to this problem – which was highlighted by Cyprus’s veto of the CETA – is to rely on the treaty provisions and the judgements of the Court of Justice of the EU. Thes...

This paper explores issues related to Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS). The paper argues that if appropriately utilised, PGIS should exert profound impacts on community empowerment, innovation and social change. More importantly, by placing control of access and use of culturally sensitive spatial information in the hands of those who generated them, PGIS practice can protect traditional knowledge and wisdom from external exploitation.
The paper explores:
the history of participatory spacial information services
Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS)
the role of communication in PGIS
the various context for which PGIS methods can be employed
the role of Indigenous Spatial Knowledge
the importance of true participation
PGIS in the South vs. Public Participation in GIS in the North
tools, methods and technologies in PGIS practice
the enabling environment for the use of PGIS
The paper warns against unequal participation and the importance of ensuring the process is not hijacked by community elites. Overall, the integrated and multifaceted nature of PGIS provides legitimacy for local knowledge and generates a great sense of confidence and pride which prepares participant communities in dealing with outsiders. The process is intended to build self-esteem, raise awareness about pressing issues in the community and produce concrete and sustainable spatial solutions.

A modelagem tridimensional participativa (MP3D) é um método de mapeamento participativo que integra conhecimento geográfico nativo com dados sobre elevação do terreno e a profundidade do mar para produzir modelos 3D autônomos, em escala e georreferenciados. Essencialmente com base em memórias, o uso e a cobertura da terram, além de outras características, são descritos no modelo por informantes usando alfinetes para pontos, fios para linhas e tintas para polígonos. Finalmente, uma grade em escala e georreferenciada é aplicada para facilitar a extração ou importação de dados. Os dados descritos no modelo são extraídos, digitalizados e plotados. Após a conclusão do exercício de mapeamento, o modelo permanece com a Comunidade.
A Modelagem Participativa (MP3D) foi concebida como um método para aproximar o potencial do SIG das comunidades rurais e para ultrapassar o fosso que existe entre as tecnologias de informação geográfica e as capacidades encontradas nas comunidades marginalizadas e isoladas, que frequentemente dependem dos recursos naturais.
Este manual se destina a ajudar os ativistas, pesquisadores e praticantes da Aprendizagem e Ação Participativa (AAP) e do SIG a conduzirem a força do SIG até o nível mais básico por meio do uso da MP3D. Ele fornece orientações práticas sobre como organizar e implementar um exercício de MP3D. Além disso, inclui percepções sobre a aprendizagem de adultos e da cognição geográfica, sobre a história dos modelos em relevo e sobre a utilização do método em todo o mundo.Em 5 de novembro de 2007, a Modelagem Tridimensional Participativa (MP3D) foi agraciada com o Premio de la Cumbre Mundial de 2007 (Prêmio Cúpula Mundial), na categoria de e-cultura. A MP3D foi considerada como sendo um dos 40 exemplos de boas práticas de qualidade e de conteúdo no mundo.

This paper situates the birth and death of anti-eviction protests correlative with San Francisco's Tech Boom as temporally mediated by the media itself. Specifically, I look at the media's conflation with anti-eviction and anti-technology, and its fictive narrations of anti-eviction protests as being anti-technology. Because of the thinness of this fiction and its impossibility of materializing, the media had to kill its own spectacle - a death which reverberated in the material realm. Drawing upon cultural and media analysis, along with critical race and feminist science and technology studies, I question ontological differences between representation and objects of representation. At the same time, I look to alternative media technology projects, such as the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, that have emerged to offer variant technological possibilities, as well as alternative temporal approaches to protest materiality. How do these projects shatter the dialectical narrative structure clung to by other media— the idea of technology either being good or bad, or of the anti-gentrification movement envisioned as dead or still breathing?

Reviews of tourism amenities posted online by tourists represent an emerging source of data to support tourism research. To obtain this user-generated content (UGC), either a time-consuming manual transcription or the use of automated web harvesting – a controversial practice – is required. This paper describes the use of automated web harvesting to extract review data on the Canadian province of Nova Scotia from a major travel review website. We present a summary of the reviews by type, spatial distribution, and star rating. We then discuss the benefits of and challenges to the collection and use of UGC. We conclude with four potential approaches for tourism researchers interested in obtaining access to UGC.

The present paper focuses on the work conducted by the NGO Teto in São Paulo (Brazil), where a series of datasets providing geographic information on slums is being elaborated thanks to recent geospatial technologies well suited for a non-specialist, volunteered workforce. The objective here is to contribute to the present debate over potential uses and limitations of geographic data collected and elaborated by engaged citizens who are not specialists in the field, focusing on the possible social outcomes of such methods. Two case studies are presented to illustrate how new technologies facilitate citizen mapping, and how the latter may support humanitarian action in precarious settlements by providing relevant spatial information. Ultimately, this study argues for citizen- driven initiatives and participative processes as useful tools to complement authoritative data, specially in the Global South where an informational gap distinguishes the formal from the informal sectors of the cities.

Reviews of tourism amenities posted online by tourists represent an emerging source of data to support tourism research. To obtain this user-generated content (UGC), either a time-consuming manual transcription or the use of automated web harvesting – a controversial practice – is required. This paper describes the use of automated web harvesting to extract review data on the Canadian province of Nova Scotia from a major travel review website. We present a summary of the reviews by type, spatial distribution, and star rating. We then discuss the benefits of and challenges to the collection and use of UGC. We conclude with four potential approaches for tourism researchers interested in obtaining access to UGC.

The cultural landscape value categories found from the workshop evaluation describe the character of the cultural landscape of children: living, learning and moving in the network of places between home and the world outside based on the local and family culture creates both individually and collectively valuable places. When these places are situated in a listed building or landscape area, the cultural landscape values of expert evaluation and childreńs evaluation connect. But based on this case study these value objects are more often disconnected. Landscape evaluation produced with children by suitable methods reveal the network of places and ways to experience them. Experience is a key for opening cultural heritage to this group. By finding a way to afford the experience they desire in the places of listed heritage, children could connect better to cultural landscape. Tiivistelmä: Työpajoissa saatujen tulosten analyysin pohjalta tehty luokittelu kuvaa lasten kulttuurimaisemaa: Asuminen, oppiminen ja liikkuminen kulttuurimaisemassa sijaitsevien paikkojen verkostossa synnyttää yksilöllisesti ja yhteisöllisesti arvokkaita kohteita. Niiden valikoituminen riippuu sekä lapsen oman perheen että paikallisyhteisön toimintakulttuurista. Kun arvokkaat paikat osuvat johonkin suojelukohteeseen tai –alueelle, kulttuuriympäristön asiantuntijoiden ja lasten maisema-arvot kohtaavat. Tämän tapaustutkimuksen tulosten perusteella se tapahtuu kuitenkin harvoin. Lasten kanssa työskentelyyn soveltuvilla menetelmillä tuotettu kulttuurimaiseman arvottaminen tuo esille heille arvokkaiden paikkojen verkoston sekä tavat kokea ne. Kokemuksen kautta voidaan avata kulttuuriperintö lapsille. Soveltamalla lasten tapaa tutustua kulttuuriympäristöönsä kokemuksen kautta myös suojelluissa kohteissa voitaisiin tarjota tällekin ikäryhmälle mahdollisuus liittää ne osaksi omaa paikkaidentiteettiään.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) exist to transform data into knowledge and present this knowledge in various formats for the purpose of supporting decisions. In doing so, GIS are portrayed as knowledge-based systems that are free from bias. In fact, GIS is a socially constructed technology. The entire process of GIS production, from software development to data creation, analysis, visualization and interpretation of GIS output, is characterized by political, economic and social motivations. This paper presents a model of communication for GIS that illuminates the potential for GIS to both marginalise and empower vulnerable and excluded groups in environmental management and planning situations at each stage of the GIS production process. Inclusive and empowering uses of GIS in recent research in South India are discussed. In particular, GIS was central to a process of conceptual and environmental modelling intended to support rehabilitation and management of the Cooum River in Chennai. This process incorporated the perspectives of citizens and NGOs into expression of system relationships that were represented in a GIS-based Decision Support System and simulation model. The process led to identification of qualitatively different kinds of system interventions than were tried (and failed) in the past to rehabilitate this extremely stressed system.

This article explores the importance of geographical indications within the new trade policy of the European Union, using the example of the CETA and the dispute over Cypriot halloumi cheese. The authors point out that geographical indications occupy an important place within the European Commission’s negotiating strategy primarily because of their significance for the EU economy. In negotiations with third countries, such as Canada, a crucial problem is the different approaches to the protection of typical regional products. Therefore, the Union is trying to transfer its internal solutions to the international level. The detail of regulations, combined with the mixed nature of new trade agreements, makes trade policy vulnerable to blackmail by individual EU Member States. According to the authors, a reasonable solution to this problem – which was highlighted by Cyprus’s veto of the CETA – is to rely on the treaty provisions and the judgements of the Court of Justice of the EU. Thes...

The value of grassroots involvement in climate-related decision-making has received attention in several official climate policy documents starting from Art. 6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (UN, 1992, p. 17). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognizes the importance of traditional knowledge and the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) is a recognised constituency in the UNFCCC COP. The IPCC Third Assessment Report refers to ‘active participation by concerned parties’ (IPCC, 2001, p. 899) and draws attention to local problems and solutions. Moreover UNDP guidelines for adaptation strategies foster grassroots stakeholders’ participation.

Since 1996, participatory GIS (PGIS) has facilitated avenues through which public participation can occur. One of the ways practitioners articulate social change associated with PGIS interventions has been to qualify success using the term ‘empowerment’. This paper explores the extent to which PGIS academic literature has utilised, defined, measured, and analysed empowerment. This research will demonstrate the degree to which PGIS has, from 1996 to 2014, appropriately and adequately taken into account the causative and direct relationship between a PGIS intervention and empowerment. This article identifies works broadly dealing with PGIS, then searches within that subset of literature for the term ‘empowerment.’ The findings are both quantitatively and qualitatively assessed to explore the trends within the PGIS literature over time and to contextualise the ways in which empowerment has been identified, understood, and articulated. We conclude with a discussion on the extent to which future PGIS research and practice has the ability to disrupt power inequalities.