Leads: Isaac Luginaah (Western University) and Laifolo Dakishoni (Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities))
Concept: Participatory scenario planning brings together diverse stakeholders within communities and regions to exchange knowledge and perceptions about environmental change, consider different future scenarios, and develop action plans.
Objective: To test how participatory scenario planning can enhance long-term community resilience and biodiversity under different land use scenarios and anticipated climate change impacts.
Data Collection and Analysis:
Use remote sensing, participatory Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) approaches, and participatory scenario planning to
accomplish the objective.
Augment free, multi-temporal and multi-spectral
satellite imagery with high-resolution WorldView satellite images. Use
Sentinel-1 cloud-penetrating radar images when there is cloud cover.
High-resolution images will be used for detailed reference data collection and
field boundaries. Statistical image classification methods applied for mapping
land cover change, including vegetation density and crop diversity. Crop
mapping will combine boundary information with frequent low-resolution images
to separate crop types based on growing/harvesting stages and phenology. Crop
mapping will include major types as well as intercropped fiels. We will estimate
crop yields using General Yield Unified Reference Index method. This will be
complemented by ground truth yield measurements in objective 1.
Farmers will learn to use GPS to geocode their
communities and ground-truth data.
Reference data will be produced by combining
high-resolution images and participatory GIS information. These data will be
used to train statistical classifiers. Integration of remote sensing and
participatory GIS data will provide accurate base maps on large sheets.
Base maps, 10 models for land use change (WP1)
and socio-economic and policy drivers data (WP2) will be shared with
participating communities in 9 participatory scenario planning workshops. We
will then work with research participants to develop four scenarios for
Malawi’s future, describing in qualitative terms, agroecosystem conditions,
land use change, biodiversity, livelihood sources, and lifestyles over the next
25 years. Participants will discuss and rank likely drivers of current and
future land use change in Malawi. The top driving forces of change and critical
uncertainty will form the basis for alternative scenarios.
Contract a local professional artist to
visualize these scenarios, with narratives in local languages, to make
accessible to rural communities. By combining images and narratives, we will
present a richer, comprehensible version of final scenarios to local
communities and policy-makers for in-depth discussions.
Conduct interviews and focus groups to better
understand how to support community resilience and biodiversity conservation
under each scenario, trigger long-term planning and creativity in landscape design,
and foster community organizing for transformational change.
Expected Results and Use:
Community action plans developed based on
outputs of participatory scenarios.
At least 4 participatory scenarios that predict
potential future land use, biodiversity, ecosystem services, food security and
lifestyles in Malawi over the next 25 years.
At least 12 scenario maps at the community
scale, and 4 large-scale regional maps, that could be used by policy-makers and
community members to foster long-term transformational change to address these
challenges at a regional and national scale.
With our research collaborators at Cornell University and Western University, four of our papers were accepted for publication in 2020. Like our work itself, these publications extend across and between fields: from spatial geography, to ecology, to sociology,… Read More
SFHC is delighted to be receiving support from the Eurofins Foundation to broaden one of our most exciting current projects, Expanding Food and Nutrition Security Through Farmer Training! This will allow us to work with an additional 500… Read More
With funding from Avaaz, SFHC did a major distribution of food and hygiene supplies this August. These supplies are critical for families affected by the pandemic. According to local request, we delivered… – 25, 000 cloth face masks–… Read More
WP3: Participatory Scenario Planning
Leads: Isaac Luginaah (Western University) and Laifolo Dakishoni (Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities))
Concept: Participatory scenario planning brings together diverse stakeholders within communities and regions to exchange knowledge and perceptions about environmental change, consider different future scenarios, and develop action plans.
Objective: To test how participatory scenario planning can enhance long-term community resilience and biodiversity under different land use scenarios and anticipated climate change impacts.
Data Collection and Analysis:
Expected Results and Use:
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Updates & News
We’ve published 4 new papers!
March 15, 2021
By rachel
With our research collaborators at Cornell University and Western University, four of our papers were accepted for publication in 2020. Like our work itself, these publications extend across and between fields: from spatial geography, to ecology, to sociology,… Read More
New grant from Eurofins Foundation to expand current projects
March 15, 2021
By rachel
SFHC is delighted to be receiving support from the Eurofins Foundation to broaden one of our most exciting current projects, Expanding Food and Nutrition Security Through Farmer Training! This will allow us to work with an additional 500… Read More
Avaaz funds major hygiene and food distribution for COVID-19 affected families
September 11, 2020
By rachel
With funding from Avaaz, SFHC did a major distribution of food and hygiene supplies this August. These supplies are critical for families affected by the pandemic. According to local request, we delivered… – 25, 000 cloth face masks–… Read More
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