This is a Pitch funding project within Di and Malcolm's PhD projects
Successful environmental and conservation outcomes are largely dependent on understanding and integrating the social dimension into planning and management. However, social data is often difficult to collect and translate into existing management decision models. Public participatory GIS (PPGIS) provides a means for collecting individual and community-based data that can readily support spatial planning. PPGIS can identify spatially explicit information for a range of planning needs - such as place values, management preferences, ecosystem services – that can be easily incorporated with biophysical data layers to support decision making.
The Landscape Values Mapping Platform (LVMP) was developed as a tool to facilitate the collection of spatially explicit social data to aid place-based environmental planning efforts. The primary function of this tool is to enable researchers to administer quantitative, scale-based questionnaires alongside PPGIS mapping segments. Researchers can use a range of survey question types and adapt PPGIS mapping to their particular research needs, including specifying what information to map, what mapping categories to include, how terms are defined, and the scale at which participants can map points, amongst many other features
With this tool, environmental scientists and decision makers can effectively map the social or human components of natural resource management, land use planning, marine spatial planning, and conservation management towards successful place-based outcomes.
