Community Participation and Geographic Information Systems - Chapter 12

Chapter 12 Geographic information systems in the environmental movement Renée E. Sieber 12.1 INTRODUCTION Geographic Information Systems and related spatial technologies have become important tools for land management agencies to administer resources and protect the environment. Increasingly environmental and conservation non-profits use GIS in their own activities to better understand and advocate for their communities. Current applications range from inven-tories of spotted owl locations, thematic comparisons of toxic lead and poverty, and models of sustainable forest harvesting, to scenarios and solu-tions for urban sprawl. GIS, like many computing applications, holds great promise for environmental non-profits to maximize their traditionally limited resource base. Just as the word processor and desktop publishing have helped to publicize causes, and the Internet has provided an avenue for mass mobilizations, GIS could enable organizations to present a visually compelling image of an issue and quickly analyse data from disparate sources. Over time, GIS has become increasingly affordable spatial digital data seems ubiquitous. GIS could provide a critical implement to groups struggling to impact politics and empower environmentalist for social change. Given their fragile resource base, particularly among the grassroots, envir-onmentalists may struggle with system adoption and data acquisition. The GIS literature has long identified inadequate resources as an impediment to successful implementation (Croswell 1991). The PPGIS literature is even more pointed: GIS adoption might subvert the grassroots’ raison d’être. This author presumes that, given sufficient information, non-profits have the right to make their own decisions about adoption. This chapter investigates the use and value of GIS from the vantage of activists within the environ-mental movement. It describes applications of GIS and computing techno-logy by environmentalists. Their usage is compared to the literature on GIS diffusion, implementation, spatial data acquisition and sharing. How are groups applying GIS to their goals and missions is explored. Based on this information, I frame the use and value of GIS with recommendations on the © 2002 Taylor & Francis 154 R. E. Sieber appropriateness of GIS adoption by individual environmental organizations. Because of their tradition of scientific analysis and cartographic use, the environmental movement is uniquely positioned to take advantage of GIS capabilities and consequently provides a guide to GIS adoption in other social movement groups. This chapter summarizes longitudinal research that began in 1996 (Sieber 1997a) and has continued with follow-ups in 1998 and 2000. The case study research assessed GIS applications, implementation, spatial data acquisition and sharing, and the contribution of GIS to organizational goals and missions. Work was conducted in California and the Pacific Northwest. All cases are in California. 12.2 APPLICATIONS OF GIS AND COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY To understand how environmentalists and other non-profits might be applying GIS, a mail survey was sent to 100 environmental groups. The mail survey is more fully reported in Sieber 1997a. The mail survey found that groups are able to acquire and install GIS despite scarce or uneven resources. Twenty-seven per cent of respondents used GIS; 60 per cent of those had no paid staff (number of paid staff was used as a surrogate for financial resources (Snow 1992)). They need not purchase in-house sys-tems, employ staff, or train workers; they can amass the initial hardware and software through grants or utilize a member’s computer. In general, the survey results suggest that the environmental movement has laid the foundation for GIS use. Most know of GIS functionality and have seen it demonstrated. GIS-using groups build upon a movement-wide base of computer use, map use/creation, digital data acquisition, and scientific analysis. Case study research revealed the varied applications of GIS. Below are examples from the five cases. Case 1 The Greenbelt Alliance is an open space preservation organization in San Francisco. Greenbelt has applied GIS to capture the debate of where open space land is at risk for development and how it should be protected. Figure 12.1 details one such area at risk along US Highway 101 in Silicon Valley, California (dark areas along the highway in this black and white version indicate areas at the greatest risk). So clearly does its nine county version of ‘Open Space and Farmland At Risk’ GIS map express its goals that staff, members, and the press have labelled it the central metaphor of the organ-ization. The 13 staff members believe GIS output provides them a powerful © 2002 Taylor & Francis GIS in the environmental movement 155 Figure 12.1 Map prepared by the GreenInfo Network for the Greenbelt Alliance show-ing open space and farmland areas at risk for development along US Highway 101 in Silicon Valley, California. persuasion tool, allowing the organization to more easily attract members, funding, and support from many area elected officials. Greenbelt is one of the first users of GIS by a non-profit advocacy group in the United States; system implementation began in 1988. As gathered from expert interviews with other environmental GIS users and comments from vendors and environmental scientists, the organization is recognized as a pioneer in GIS usage, and representatives are frequently invited by foundations and other non-profits across the United States to lecture on the subject. Its expertise and belief in the technology’s potential prompted the spin-off in 1996 of its GIS skills into a separate non-profit, the GreenInfo Network. At present, GreenInfo employs five people and has used its skills, data, and linkages to build GIS capacity in more than 90 other grassroots and non-profit organizations in the region. It currently maintains a GIS and produces the maps for Greenbelt. Case 2 The Nature Conservancy at Lanphere Christensen Dunes Preserve, Arcata, was created as a small chapter of the national land trust organization, The Nature Conservancy, to preserve 450 acres of northern California coastal © 2002 Taylor & Francis HUMBOLDT BAY NORTH SPITAND VICINITY DUNES North Jetty – Manila Stabilized Dunes Upland, Native trees (beach pine forest) Upland, Introduced trees (eucalyptus, Monterey cypress) Upland, Introduced shrubs (yellow bush lupine) Upland, Introduced grasses (European beachgrass) Wetland, Native trees (red alder/willow forest) Wetland, Native shrubs (woody hollows) Wetland, Native herbs (herbaceous hollows) Developed dunes Semi-stable Dunes Upland, Native herbs (dune mat) Unstable Dunes Open sand Other (non-dune) Features Salt marsh,Agricultural land, Cultural features, Beach, Slough, River, Bay, Ocean Management Boundaries Manila Wastewater Treatment Facilities (MCSD) Manila Beach and DunesAccessArea (MCSD) Bacaoa Salt Marsh Manila Arcata Bay Public Private Humboldt Bay North Spit AndVicinity (20 miles) N Management boundaries are approximate; use for planning purposes only. W E S Parchavan Study area Humboldt Bay Eureka Dunes ProtectedArea Air (City of Eureka) Strip Samoa Dunes Endangered Samoa Boat Launch Facility (BLM) (CA. Dept. Fish & Game) U.S. Coast Guard Samoa Dunes Wetland ProtectionArea Samoa Dunes (BLM) RecreationArea (BLM) 0 1/2 1 Compiled by: K.T.Aria, College of Natural Resources and Sciences, Humboldt State University, 0 500 1000 Arcata, CA, March 1996 METERS 0 1000 2000 FEET Projection: UTM Zone 10 Software: PCARC/INFOV.3.4.2d and Workstation ARC/INFOV.7.0.3 Figure 12.2 Map prepared for The Nature Conservancy – Lanphere Christensen Dunes Preserve showing dune vegetation on the Northern Spit, Humboldt Bay Dunes, California (courtesy: Travis Aria). © 2002 Taylor & Francis GIS in the environmental movement 157 dunes. The one full-time director and two part-time staff have spent most of their time monitoring the spread of non-native vegetation and arranging for its eradication. Assistance on monitoring comes from various public agencies in the area and eradication is accomplished through another non-profit, the Friends of the Dunes. The director at the dunes preserve has outsourced for GIS services to the local university. Outsourcing reflects a strategy on the part of the national organizational to employ the assets of other agencies/institu-tions identified as better equipped to carry out an objective instead of acquir-ing the skills itself. In this manner, the dunes preserve can best leverage its resources (both natural and technical) to preserve habitats. The director at the dunes preserve has utilized university students in GIS courses to track its mitigation of non-native vegetation. One application confirmed a long-held ecological growth model. With the creation of a bioregion-wide dunes database, the dunes preserve staff and university students have discovered a new way – a ‘landscape level of analysis’, according to its director – of comprehending the environment. The largest application is shown in Figure 12.2, and was prepared by a student as part of a masters degree. It shows both native and non-native dune vegetation in the preserve. Case 3 Trinity Community GIS grew out of a community organizing effort in a town angrily split between loggers losing their livelihood and ‘back to the land’ environmentalists who had settled in the county because of the inex-pensive land and expansive wilderness. This six-year-old organization has fashioned a unique approach to using GIS. Started by a Ph.D. in Landscape Ecology from University of California at Berkeley, it functions as a centre of GIS services under the umbrella of a small non-profit economic develop-ment corporation. Trinity conducts GIS research for area non-profits but also contracts for projects with local public agencies. One such project tracked 8,000 individual pesticide sprays for the California Basket Weavers’ Association. Another project furnishes an economic development tool for the impoverished county; it trains unemployed loggers in global positioning systems (GPSs) and in spatial data collection. Trinity’s recent effort lies in fire safety; bringing residents together to identify locations of dense understory and brush in the forest, which create ‘fuel’, ladders and intensify the spread of fires. Figure 12.3 shows a map of proposed fuel breaks – reductions in brush – on Post Mountain. While simple in analysis, this represents a highly coordinated data collection and correction effort on information such as brush densities, water sources, culverts, and roads. It also serves to educate residents on the need to reduce fuel in specific areas. Work on fuel ladders, in turn, provides small diam-eter ‘junk trees’ to a refitted locally owned lumber mill. © 2002 Taylor & Francis ... - tailieumienphi.vn