The Drum Beat 322 - Participatory Mapping and PGIS

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Map-making is a form of communication that allows people to identify those aspects of their society and environment they think are important, and to represent the spatial relationships between those elements to others. Geographic information systems (GIS) allow users to collect even larger amounts of data, which can be used later for both selective analysis and representation.

Historically, these map-makers have been members of the scientific community, government officials, or workers with international agencies. In contrast, participatory mapping and participatory GIS (PGIS) attempt to give voice to community members in the language of maps, and to empower them in the collection and use of geographic data. Community members may take a small or large role in the map-making process. They may participate in data collection; provide information in the form of interviews or survey responses; produce hand-drawn maps; work with GIS to create, input or manage data; or become decision-makers regarding the collection, use or representation of that data.

This issue of The Drum Beat explores participatory mapping and PGIS, highlighting programmes, strategies, and resources that describe how these approaches can be used to gather environmental or socio-economic data, give voice to the interests of minority or disenfranchised groups, expose community members to new skills and experiences, and facilitate conversation among citizens and other stakeholders.

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UNDERSTANDING & EMPOWERING THE COMMUNITY

1. Mapping the Radio KC Community: An Application of Participatory Methods in Assisting Community Radio Producers to Research their Community

by Brett Davidson

This paper describes a series of workshops carried out at a community radio station in South Africa. The workshops were organised around the "civic mapping" technique in which "journalists and producers conduct research in their own communities and consolidate this research into a 'civic map'." The project involved participation of radio personnel, who drew preliminary community maps from their own mental images. Next, these participants undertook field excursions and community focus groups to gather additional input and information. Finally, the information collected was compiled into a community or "civic" map.

2.Developing a Participatory Poverty Grading Tool

by Julie Pörksen

As part of a project carried out in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Marie Stopes Clinic Society (MSCS) and a local non-government organisation conducted focus groups in which members of slum communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh identified the indicators which "best described their own levels of poverty". They then took part in a social mapping exercise in which each group drew a map of its own community, which was used to illustrate the effect of the participatory poverty grading tool.

3.Do Participatory Methods Meet Their Claim?

by Michael K. McCall

The author discusses whether participatory GIS and participatory mapping contribute positively towards the goal of achieving "good governance". He divides the discussion into four areas he sees as the "higher purposes" of achieving accountability in good governance: 1) Legitimacy and Participation: Empowerment, 2) Respect for Rights: for Land, for Indigenous Knowledge; 3) Equity (not simply equality): Gendered Space, Community Management of PGIS and 4) Competence and Effectiveness.

4.Integrating GIS and Participatory Mapping in Community Development Planning

by Shalini P. Vajjhala

To combine the benefits of participatory mapping and GIS methods, Vajjhala recommends the integration of the two techniques. She presents a theoretical framework for evaluating efforts to combine these approaches, and applies it to studies using individual participatory sketch mapping interviews, group mapping techniques, and digital pen technology.

5.Cartography to Tackle Poverty: A Model of Participatory Zoning

by Emanuela Casti

This paper argues for a participatory zoning model for environmental conservation programmes. The model aims, through the involvement of local communities in participatory mapping, to introduce a representation of the social value of territory into the territorial planning conversation. The author draws on experience from the ECOPAS (Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Sahélienne) Programme, in which this strategy was used to map the W Park, which extends over parts of Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso.

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Please participate in our PULSE POLL

A global communication campaign will only be successful if there is already political activism and engagement on the issues being addressed.

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 319]

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PARTICIPATORY MAPPING WITH CHILDREN AND YOUTH

6.Mapping the Neighbourhood - India

Conceptualised and executed by the non-profit organisation Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solution (CSDMS), this project is an effort to encourage India's schoolchildren to prepare neighbourhood maps and share them with their communities. Participating students learn about and use GIS and GPS technologies to produce these maps which, it is hoped, will become part of a repository of information on which decentralised rural planning and developmental decisions can be based.

Contact Sanjay Kumar info@csdms.org OR dstsec@alpha.nic.in OR Dr. Prithvish Nag sgo@nde.vsnl.net.in

7.Big Lobby - Global

In April 2004 children around the world spoke out to advocate for the right to complete a primary education. In many of the countries involved, the children took part in a participatory mapping exercise to produce "Missing Out maps", which highlighted who in their community or village was out of school, and why. The exercise was used to raise awareness among children of their right to education, and to show that many children in their own neighbourhoods are deprived of this right. Community organisers were encouraged to use the map to spark community-wide discussion and agree on an action plan to help more children complete their education. A "how-to" document in PDF format includes detailed information about creating these maps.

Contact Alex Kent alex@campaignforeducation.org OR actionweek@campaignforeducation.org

8. My Community, Our Earth (MyCOE)

This site features searchable databases of resources and mentors for students seeking to conduct their own community projects in countries worldwide, or to learn more about geographic concepts, geographic tools, and sustainable development.

USING PARTICIPATORY METHODS IN ENVIRONMENTAL MAPPING

9.ICTs in Namibia's Communal Area Conservancies

by Carol Murphy & Sandra Slater-Jones

This article describes the use of PGIS in Namibia's Communal Area Conservancies, where the approach draws on participation of local residents in map creation, but also focuses on improving the spatial accuracy of those maps through a geo-referencing procedure. Through this process, local residents have received on-the-job training in digitising of the hand-drawn maps.

10.Mapping Sweet Potato in Eastern Africa

by Simon T. Gichuki & Robert J. Hijmans

Researchers at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) are combining the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology and participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) to study and analyse the distribution of sweet potatoes in rural Kenya.

11.Green Map System (GMS) - Global

The Green Map System (GMS) offers collaborative tools in an online format that are designed for community-based teams of all ages and backgrounds who are seeking to illuminate the connections between natural and human environments by mapping their local urban or rural community. Participation and local initiative are central to what organisers describe as GMS's "direct, democratic communication, dependent on local knowledge, action and responsibility."

Contact info@greenmap.org

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CALL FOR NON-HEALTH COMMENTARIES

To all Communication Initiative/Drum Beat network members - please contribute your opinions through our monthly critical analysis commentary series.

Since the beginning of 2004 and published the first Monday of each month, we have featured a great number of opinions from thinkers and practitioners within the health sector of communication for development. Click here for the archived issues. We are seeking contributions from other sectors: i.e. natural resource management, environment, gender, education, political development, economic development, children, youth, ageing, new technologies.

Please contact Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com for more information.

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TOOLS AND GUIDES

12. Open Forum on Participatory Geographic Information Systems and Technologies - PPGIS.NET

An electronic forum on participatory use of geo-spatial information systems (GIS) that is designed to serve as a global avenue for sharing experiences and good practices related to community mapping, participatory mapping, counter mapping, Public Participation GIS (PPGIS), Participatory GIS (PGIS or P-GIS), Community Integrated (CiGIS), and Mobile Interactive (MiGIS).

13.Community and Participatory Mapping Toolbox

This online resource provides an overview of the tools available to organisations who want to implement participatory or community mapping programmes, and provides clarification on many of the terms and technologies used in the field. This toolbox is a part of the Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD) website, which provides information and resources on participatory mapping with an emphasis on Participatory 3-D Modelling (P3DM).

14.Community COPE: Building Partnership with the Community to Improve Health Services

EngenderHealth's COPE® is a set of tools intended to assist providers and supervisors with evaluation of the care offered in clinic and hospital settings. The resource contains a section on using participatory mapping to "learn about other health care resources available in the community and community members' views of them."

15. GIS Development Weekly

A weekly electronic newsletter addressing GIS-related news, research, technological advancements, interviews and other relevant issues from around the globe.

16.Participatory 3-Dimensional Modelling: Guiding Principles and Applications

by Giacomo Rambaldi & Jasmin Callosa-Tarr

This publication and the accompanying multimedia resource kit are intended as aids for enhancing the capacities of marginalised communities to deal with spatial data and to communicate with the "outside world" on a peer-to-peer basis. Participatory 3-D models integrate people's knowledge and conventional spatial information like contour lines to produce stand-alone scaled relief models which can be used for data storage, analysis and communication between local stakeholders and external agencies.

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This issue was written by Petra K. Ellis.

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