Village landscape from near and far : Participatory geospatial methods to integrate local knowledge into formal land use planning in Tanzania

In this dissertation, I explore the use of participatory geospatial methods in improving local knowledge integration and inclusiveness in formal land use planning in Tanzania. Communities and governments in the Global South are tackling multiple challenges to human well-being and ecological integrity. Participatory land use planning that combines knowledge sources and balances needs and values of different land users has been promoted as a prerequisite for addressing these challenges in a socio-ecologically sustainable way. Land use planning practice requires tools such as participatory geospatial methods that capture local spatial knowledge (LSK) on human-environment relationships in forms that are compatible with spatial planning standards. There exists, however, little evidence on the usability and impact of these methods in formal planning processes. For my research, Tanzania offers an exciting opportunity to examine the use of these methods due to its decentralized land and natural resource policies and rapid digitalization of planning processes. Through case studies I study what LSK reveals about land use and land use management-related decision-making, how existing Tanzanian land use planning policies and practices integrate LSK into planning decision-making, and I then codevelop participatory geospatial methods capable of integrating LSK into formal land use planning and study their benefits and adoption potential. Finally, I reflect on the limitations of the geospatial methods in representing LSK and diverse perspectives in these processes. The research is based on transdisciplinary and mixed methods approach. I frame my assessments of existing policies and practices with literature-based criteria, which I develop for each study. In each study, I also collaborate with Tanzanian practitioners at various research phases and develop a practitioners’ manual to guide the use of our participatory geospatial method. I combine interviews, group discussions, surveys, participatory mapping exercises and observations to study the relationship between people, their land uses and environment (Article I) and people’s experiences in planning processes (Articles II, III and IV). The findings show that local knowledge is instrumental in identifying land use patterns in the landscape and in explaining the rationale behind local land use, its dynamics and forest-farmland conversion (Article I). The analysis of existing policies and practices reveals that despite the emphasis on inclusive and active participation of local communities, the planning practice does not capture LSK in a georeferenced form or use geospatial tools to facilitate planning deliberation (Articles II and III). Subsequently the plans fail to recognize local priorities and complexities of land use. The codeveloped participatory geospatial method was observed to increase the quality of spatial data in which LSK is captured, and support learning, deliberation and spatial understanding among participants and practitioners during the formal planning process (Articles III and IV). The planning practitioners identified several benefits of the geospatial methods to their work, which is a strong incentive for adoption (Article IV). Wider adoption, however, requires efforts in geospatial education and on-the-job training to practitioners, as well as general commitment to participatory processes at all administrative levels. While the participatory geospatial methods improve integration of LSK into planning decision-making, future research and method development should focus on recognizing the diversity of local spatial knowledge and community priorities. Here self-determination of what LSK is collected and how it is visualized and used plays an important role

Outdoor recreation and nature's contribution to well-being in a pandemic situation - Case Turku, Finland

Urban green infrastructure provides a range of experiences for people and various health benefits that support human well-being. To increase urban resilience, exceptional situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are important to learn from. This study aims to understand how the residents in Turku, a middle-sized city in Finland, perceived their outdoor recreation changed and how nature contributed to their subjective well-being during the early phases of the COVID-19. Sites of outdoor recreation and associated ecosystem service benefits were gathered through a map-based survey. In addition, the contribution of nature on subjective well-being was measured through Likert scale statements and the perceived changes in outdoor recreation behaviour were measured through self-reported number of days and from responses to open survey questions. Data was analysed through quantitative, qualitative and spatial methods.The results show that nearly half of the respondents increased outdoor recreation and the majority of outdoor recreation sites were visited more or as often as before the pandemic. The spatial analysis revealed that the most often visited recreation sites were near forests, semi-natural areas and housing areas as well as relatively close to respondent’s residence. Respondents had various reasons for changes in outdoor recreation behaviour. For some a shift to working remotely and changes in everyday routines led to spending time outdoors more often and for some spending less while others avoided recreation in crowded areas due to social distancing. The results also indicate that people’s opportunities to adapt to the pandemic conditions differ greatly. The nature’s contribution to subjective well-being during COVID-19 was important regardless of respondent’s outdoor recreation behaviour. Our study highlights that urban planning should respond to different needs for outdoor recreation in order to widely, and in a just way, promote the well-being benefits of urban nature during a pandemic, and to increase the resilience of the city and its residents. Participatory mapping can capture the variety in resident’s values and identify key recreation sites of multiple ecosystem service benefits.</p

Lessons learned from participatory land use planning with high-resolution remote sensing images in Tanzania: Practitioners' and participants’ perspectives

AbstractParticipatory mapping (PM) solutions have become common in many sectors of society to enhance engagement of the local communities in planning processes. Especially in data scarce regions, like Africa, PM that captures local knowledge in spatially explicit form is an important tool for integrating previously non-existent spatial knowledge in to collaborative planning. Despite the increasing usage of PM solutions, there still lies a gap in our knowledge of the influence and enabling factors of PM adoption in real-world decision-making processes. We studied practitioners’ and participants’ perceptions on benefits and limitations of PM that uses high-resolution remote sensing imagery to engage with participants in six use cases in Tanzania. We conducted interviews and one group discussion with practitioners, and feedback surveys among PM participants. According to the experiences of the practitioners and participants, PM methods based on high-resolution remote sensing images have increased practitioners’ work quality and professional competence, and enhanced participants’ active participation and spatial understanding for informed decision-making. Technical challenges and lack of skilled experts and institutional support were commonly identified limitations. Based on the users’ perceptions we identified previously recognized enabling factors such as supportive policy environment but also context specific factors; removal of disincentives and wider awareness raising. Moreover, advocacy among policymakers on the benefits of participatory decision-making and geospatial technologies is needed to build their ownership of the new governance practices.</p

A bird’s eye view of my village – Developing participatory geospatial methodology for local level land use planning in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

Despite the large number of participatory mapping and participatory geographical information system (PGIS) applications developed since the 1990s, few studies have utilized participatory mapping in formal planning processes. Evidence is needed regarding their practical applicability in rural land use planning in the Global South and their effectiveness in decision-making in formal planning processes. In this paper, we present participatory mapping and planning methodology that we have co-developed for official village land use planning processes in Tanzania and assess the method’s influence on spatial data quality as well as deliberation and spatial understanding and learning among the participants. We describe 11 literature-based criteria for integrating participatory mapping into spatial planning processes and use them in our assessment. The assessment includes analysis of village land use plan (VLUP) maps and observations as well as interviews and group discussions with participants and facilitators of the planning process. We show that the participatory mapping method with georeferenced images is a powerful tool to capture local spatial knowledge from a wide range of stakeholders and increase the quality of and confidence in spatial planning. As a visual aid, the georeferenced image supports deliberation and detailed examination of the landscape, enhancing spatial understanding and learning about the village landscape. Apart from generating local spatial data, we show that the participatory geospatial method supports the decision-making capacity of participants, which is important for the effectiveness of the method in formal land use planning processes.</p

Coalitions for Landscape Resilience: Institutional Dynamics behind Community-Based Rangeland Management System in North-Western Tanzania

The past few decades have seen a continuing shift of natural resource management paradigm towards multifunctional and multi-actor adaptive management in hope of achieving more resilient landscapes. Recognizing the multitude of institutional actors and their roles as well as dynamics helps to understand communal behaviour, its manifestations in the landscape and resilience under changing socioecological circumstances. We examined institutional actors and their functions and relationships in a long-standing community-based natural resource management system, the ngitili, in north-western part of Tanzania. The aim of the research was to deepen understanding on the role of institutional arrangements and their limitations in supporting resilience of community-based management system. Data was collected through group discussions and interviews in three case study villages and district level, and institutional arrangements were analysed using 4Rs framework and social network analysis. The study shows that the management arrangements have evolved with time and are based on locally negotiated roles and collaboration among bureaucratic and socially embedded village level actors. These local level actors are resource poor, which hinders collaboration and implementation of ngitili management functions. External interventions have temporarily increased management efficiency in the villages but they did not create sustained multi-scale collaboration networks to address external threats to the ngitili resources. The results show that diversified funding sources, technical support and benefit sharing mechanisms are required to incentivize sustainable resource management. For the management system to be more resilient, the existing institutional actors and their ability to adapt should be nurtured by awareness raising, wider stakeholder participation and bridging organizations.</p

Place-based landscape services and potential of participatory spatial planning in multifunctional rural landscapes in Southern highlands, Tanzania

AbstractContext Local scale assessments of ecosystem/landscape services in Africa are insufficient and lackrelevance in landscape management. Also, few studies have explored the potential benefits of PGIS/PPGISapproaches for landscape management and stewardship among the participating stakeholders.Objectives Our aim is (1) to establish an understanding of the realization of landscape services at the localscale across three multifunctional rural landscapes in Tanzania through PGIS/PPGIS approaches and (2) tocreate an understanding of these approaches’ potential to support participatory spatial planning.Methods Semi-structured surveys (n = 313) including participatory mapping of provisioning and culturallandscape services were organised to characterise their spatial patterns. The survey results were shared with the communities (n = 97) in workshops where services were ranked and the participants interviewedabout their map-reading capacity, personal learning experiences, and their ability to use maps to expressopinions. Results The most abundant landscape services are sites for social gatherings and cultivation. The spatial patterns of provisioning services are realizations of human benefits from the patterns of the biophysical landscape. Overall, cultural landscape services show clustering and small spatial extent (except aesthetics). The PGIS/PPGIS approach allows for local-level, spatially specific discussions between stakeholders. The visual power of maps and satellite images is particularly emphasised. Conclusion In the data-scarce context common in the Global South, the participatory mapping of landscape services has the potential to advance understanding of the benefits that the landscape has for the local communities and how this information, when mapped spatially, can be integrated with locallevel planning practices.Keywords Africa Ecosystem services Landscape services Land use planning PGIS Participatory mapping.</p