New Guides and Tools for Tackling Complex, Interdisciplinary Problems

Many contemporary environmental scientists and land managers are adopting a refined perspective for addressing complex, interdisciplinary problems that acknowledges humans as an integral part of the natural world. This approach builds on the observation that functioning of human societies and nature are inseparably linked. Acknowledging this relationship is especially important for understanding, developing and promoting sustainable land use practices for the production of food, forage and fiber.

A wide variety of tools are available for assessing and understanding temporal and spatial changes in these interdependent and multifunctional systems. These tools and approaches, however, often require costly equipment and/or special training. Unfortunately, in the rush to incorporate new tools into projects and programs, many older, simpler and less expensive approaches are often forgotten or discounted as being “out of date” or “less rigorous.” Ground-based photo-monitoring, which uses basic photography techniques to monitor change, and spatial planning and monitoring, which uses maps to support landscape scale management, are the subjects of two new users’ guides.

These repeat images of Lord’s Pond, Pennsylvania were taken in 1912 (left) and 2008 (right) and show changes in human use, land cover and water flow. Photos courtesy of E.L. Rose Conservancy and Susquehanna County Historical Society, PA.

Ground-based photo-monitoring (GBPM) is a method of documenting and assessing visual changes in landscapes over time by repeatedly taking photographs from the same location. A photographic database of land use changes at the ground level will not provide the precision and accuracy of a modern GIS analysis. However, it does provide an inexpensive, easy and illustrative means for documenting and communicating changes to a wide audience. For example, a temporal sequence of GIS maps quantifying hectares of forests cut or crops planted over time would certainly be valuable but might lack the visual impact afforded by a series of ground-based photographs showing such changes. Consider the value of comparing “before” and “after” photographs of a deforested rainforest or a recently established agroforestry system. Additionally, in cases where remote sensing techniques are prohibited, unavailable or too costly, GBPM can provide a relatively easy, cost-effective approach to monitoring and evaluation. The optimum, of course, would be to have both.

The advantages of using GBPM in assisting sustainable land management are many. In addition to offering a visual base for group discussions of management plans and outcomes, photographs are easily understood and interpreted by scientists, practitioners and local community members of any education level. These visual stories can be used to encourage participation at all levels, and their interpretations are easily communicated in public meetings, professional workshops and conferences, scientific publications, project reports and outreach bulletins. The resulting photographs can serve as complements to maps and other visual information, and can be easily integrated into existing or future GIS platforms like Google Earth and ArcGIS.

In spatial planning and monitoring, a variety of maps are used in cross-sectoral collaborations to locate, design and evaluate interventions in rural landscapes. Often, maps are not an integral part of landscape planning and monitoring due to lack of data, skills and time. In the newly developed Spatial Planning and Monitoring Guide, stakeholders are advised on how to collect and create maps from available sources and use them to specify areas where improved landscape benefits are desired and interventions should be planned and monitored. Here, the use of a wide range of maps (such as maps on water flows, suitable agricultural soils, vegetation cover and population) supports well-informed planning for placed-based interventions, where the desired impact often depends on the spatial characteristics of a larger area.

Using maps to explore planning options in the field. Photo by Raffaela Kozar.

Using maps in spatial planning and monitoring allows stakeholders to identify areas that are important in terms of landscape benefit supply, such as water supply and regulation, crop production, habitat provision and moderation of extreme climate events. In participatory approaches, stakeholders share ideas and identify areas where changes leading to improved landscape benefit flows are desired and identify the current governance actors for these areas. Based on the specified landscape benefits and selected areas where change is desired, stakeholders jointly discuss how a potential change in the landscape will affect different landscape benefit flows and beneficiary groups. After agreement is reached, stakeholders plan and implement a preferred change in the landscape. The last step guides stakeholders in setting up a strategy to monitor and evaluate changes in benefits flows after implementation of the planned intervention.

To promote the use of both repeat photography and maps—and help train landscape leaders and stakeholders in their use —EcoAgriculture Partners and Cornell University teamed up to create the two guides for TerrAfrica. The Ground-Based Photo-Monitoring of Landscape Changes Arising from Sustainable Land Management Practices: A User’s Guide describes how to plan and systemically use photography as an analytical tool to monitor changes and use visual indicators to measure management goals and outcomes. Spatial Planning and Monitoring of Landscape Interventions: Maps to Link People with their Landscapes: A User’s Guide presents steps to guide key stakeholders through a spatial planning process aimed at integrating goals for agricultural production, biodiversity conservation and livelihood security.

Both of these monitoring and evaluation guides are available online at the links above and accessible by all. We look forward to hearing how you use them in your own landscapes! Please join the discussion in the comments section below, or email us at info@ecoagriculture.org.