Participation Toolbox


		Participatory mapping Toolbox

Community Participation and Geographic Information Systems

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Aid Agencies are growingly incorporating "participation" in all kind of development and natural resource management interventions. In the time span of 15 years the classic top-down or blueprint approach has turned into bottom-up must-be approach. This applies to different scales of intervention ranging from participatory planning in a micro-enterprise to region-wide interventions.

Having devoted many years to development work and to involving people at all stages of the project cycle, a series of questions surfaced along the line:

Is there a reasonable dimension where participation works best?

Is it honest for project officers to recommend participatory approaches in provincial or regional interventions, without accepting that project cost and duration will drastically increase?

Experience in conducting community-based work thought me that "small is beautiful" and grassroots participation works at its best among cohesive groups or socially and culturally akin individuals. Interventions covering large areas, may be participatory in nature, but only at higher levels, thus diluting the spirit of "all-having-a stake".

Collating information for decision-making has always been the basis for planning. Correlating this information to its distribution over the territory and performing spatial analysis by establishing relationships between different layers of information has been an acquirement of the latest decade thanks to Geographic Information Systems. Participatory Mapping practices, methods, methodologies and tools ave been playing an increasing role in the context of community-driven advocacy, spatial planning and collaborative natural resource management.

	Participatory Mapping Toolbox


The term Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) was coined at the International Conference on Empowerment, Marginalization and Public Participation GIS, Santa Barbara, California 14-17 October 1998, to cover a specific geographical context (North America), and for a particular purpose -- how GIS technology could support public participation for variety of possible applications. PPGIS is increasingly dependent on web based technologies. PPGIS is an interdisciplinary research, community development and environmental stewardship tool ... more...	Participatory GIS is an emergent practice in its own right developing out of both PRA/PLA and spatial information and communication management; embedded into long-lasting processes, flexible and adapted to different socio-cultural and bio-physical environments depending on interactive participation by stakeholders in generating and managing spatial data, and using resulting information for taking informed decisions, entertaining peer-to-peer dialogue, communicating effectively and supporting advocacy and actions.
"PGIS is generally practiced in the South as an intersection of Participatory Development and GIT&S. PPGIS is practiced in the North as an intersection of Participatory Planning and GIS&T." (Daniel Weiner, 2004)
Participatory 3-Dimensional Modeling (P3DM) is a process which merges traditional spatial information with people's knowledge to generate scaled 3-D models and as an option accurate geo-coded maps. Self-contained portions of the process are manageable at community level with limited external support.	Two-Stage Resource Mapping (2-SRM) is an evolved form of Participatory Sketch Mapping. It involves transposing the information from the sketch map to a conventional topographic map to generate scaled outputs. The combination of sketch maps and cartographically produced maps has the highest potential for local sustainability.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are increasingly combined with sketch mapping and topographic information for identifying the coordinates of boundaries, perimeters or locations. The use of GPS is linked to GIS technology. Data are stored in digital format and used for producing maps containing geo-referenced information.	Participatory orthophoto-mapping objective is to enable villagers to carry out the interpretation of aspects of their land resources, which are of significant importance to them. In this process villagers delineate their land use on transparencies laid over an orthophoto. The data will later be scanned or digitized and geo-referenced.
Participatory Sketch Mapping is an informal method for collating and plotting information on the occurrence, distribution, access and use of resources within the economic and cultural domain of a specific community. Simple tool, easily adopted and replicated at community level.	Transect Diagramming is a tool used to describe the location and distribution of resources, the landscape and main land uses along a given transect. Simple tool, easily adopted and replicated at community level.

Social Mapping generates spatially referenced information on demography, health, economic activities, religion, ethno-linguistic characteristics, infrastructure and other. Simple tool, easily adopted and replicated at community level.	Aerial Photography and Satellite Imagery are used for awareness raising and for stimulating local discussions on land uses and habitat changes. Their use for community mapping depend on external support.
CyberTracker freeware for handheld GPS-enabled computers allows users to record georeferenced observations by selecting icons depicting specific features. Main applications allow for monitoring wildlife but recent add-ons help to gather socio-economic data for rapid assessments after natural disasters.	A Community Information Systems (CIS) is defined as a map-based multimedia information system in which the traditional knowledge is documented by community members using digital video, digital photos and written text, stored on computers and managed and communicated through the interface of an interactive map.