Annotated Bibliography: How ICT can be used in
Land Management Practices in developing countries
By Will Clark
Managing land effectively is an important issue in both the More Economically Developed and Less Economically Developed countries. While the MEDC’s can use modern technology to solve a problem the LEDC’s do not have that luxury, so management has got to go back to basics. Incorrect policies and management strategies have proved in the past to be significant contributing factors to catastrophic failure of the land. This list includes some management strategies for agricultural use and general infrastructure ideas. It is by no means exclusive, and tends to focus on the practical side of the course. Here, there are many case studies which highlight how Information Communication Technologies can be used to significantly improve the way in which land is used. But, while some suggest that the technology is being used for development, others remain fascinated with what the technology can create.
1.
This development program, Global Livestock CRSP was established in 1978 and was one of nine development programs under Title XII of the International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1975.The goal is to increase food security and improve the quality of life of people in developing countries. . One objective is to improve the interaction between livestock production and natural resource use and conservation, and more effectively integrate livestock production systems with the rational use of natural resources, such as wildlife and water. They also try to develop and strengthen communication systems among livestock producers, consumers and many others that promote greater market participation, increase human and institutional capacity, and improve policy. There are many case studies from Asia and Africa, but they do not state a timescale, and all tend to be success stories. These studies are linked to American Universities only.
2.
This site generates awareness concerned with agriculture. A GPS device is used to map where overgrown vegetation, weeds, clumps of grass and thorn bushes are. These use 7% of annual runoff which is a substantial amount in arid areas. This allows land owners to calculate how many people they need to hire to remove the weeds, many seeds are needed for replanting, and how long the process should take. A water information management program runs in parallel with this and arc view 3.2 is used to display the data. This requires specialist personal to use this computer program so may not be sustainable. Invasive alien plants (IAPs) have become established on over 10 million hectares and threaten native species as well. However, this is relatively expensive as it costs R600 million per year over the 20 year timescale.
3.
Natural disaster events pose a great threat to life. This report tries to show how ICT and environment sustainability are linked. Raising awareness and sharing knowledge is a high priority. The use of ICT stores vast quantities of information and uses fewer materials. In Zimbabwe, Armenia, Israel and Jordan a weather / pest information system has been created. Seven Mathematical models of how pests operate have been created, and this saved an estimated US$7.1 by using improved forecast data to guide pest management practices. A Global Forest Watch (GFW) has also been created and operated in 21 different countries across the globe. Some linked websites get up to 300,000 hits per month indicating that data and knowledge is being delivered all over the world.
4. Puri, S.K, Sahay, S (No date): The Politics of knowledge in using GIS for land management in India. University of Oslo, pages 597 – 614.
Accessible at
The study area for this report was in the Anantapur of India. Efforts to use GIS for land management were first taken up in 1995 under a large scale technology initiative of the Department of Space in India. The software was developed by leading scientific institutions like NRSA and the Space application centre. 31% of the study regions land was heavily degraded, which had been exacerbated in recent times due to massive deforestation. A key aspect of addressing land degradation is the use of GIS modeling; however, these are limited in depicting the complex reasons of degradation (e.g.socio-cultural). Indigenous knowledge was highlighted in this report as being a key part of ensuring its sustainability. A reason for this is that Indigenous knowledge is not static, as assumed in scientific thinking, and undergoes change in keeping with the environment. Again, involving the locals was a key finding of this paper.
5.
This site states that there is a real need for ICT in developing countries. However, they point out that the need for land-use planning tools like remote sensing and IMGP increases with decreasing resource quality. At the same time, the low productivity on marginal lands makes the evaluation technologies and the training needed to use them less affordable.
6.
The Bangladesh Government aims at building an ICT-driven nation comprising of knowledge-based society by the year 2006. This is part of their drive to achieve sustainability. There is a thorough description of aims and objectives, but it appears that they want to control every detail, rather than let people operate by themselves and achieve the goal by methods that suit them. They also want GIS and other ICT-based systems will be set up for planning at the national level, for agricultural crops estimation, for conservation of nature while accommodating compatible land use to maintain the ecological balance. The scale of this project appears far too large, especially as there is no mention of pilot projects. Therefore this has the potential to fail.
7. Kayombo, R, Ellis-Jones, J & Martin, H.L (No date): Indigenous conservation tillage system in East Africa with an example of their evaluation from South West Tanzania
Accessible at
The authors challenge the use of ‘top-down’ inappropriate technologies. Instead more facilitating and participative approaches are being adopted. The purpose of the paper was to analyze the usefulness and shortcomings of ICT using a case study from South West Tanzania. Examples from Kenya show that the practical side of implementing ICT does not have to be that technologically advanced. They conclude by stating that the immediate future challenge is to build productivity by enhancing improvements into the present system without destroying its unique advantages (Using ICT to enhance proven methods of farming).
8.
This document is partly concerned with how insecure property rights inhibit use and investment in rural and urban land. They describe a positive feedback mechanism, that Good land information creates better land use policy. This allows better management which leads to better land use. This circular motion should be self perpetuating, but I would be critical that of any organization that states that this can be achieved all the time in all cases.
9.
This project ran from 1999 – 2002, led by Dr D McGregor. This project was bases in Kumasi, but more specifically the peri-urban environment. River quality measurements were taken upstream and downstream of the main urban environment, and they showed that there was a dramatic decline in water quality. The use of posters, at a grass roots level influenced the locals to be more careful in where they situated new latrines with relation to drinking water wells. The use of stones to reduce river velocity and help reduce erosion was using technology that they were able to maintain. However, this project was only small scale and there would be doubts if this ‘one-on-one’ level of detail could be into a much larger project and still achieve the same level of success.
10.
This site shows that digital mapping is just one of the ways of displaying terrain. The advantage of using a digital format is that layers of information are able to be built up on top of the map. This is not possible using an old map. However, in order for the digital map to be successful, an awful lot of information, such as type of land, boundaries, tree location and size, and even minerals below the surface. This information would have to update regularly if the GIS package was to perform realistically. They state that any system should be capable of change with increasing levels of refinement of both the hardware and software and skills of the persons operating. This information should lead to better decisions about the use of land and better management of resources
11.
A GIS and remote sensing (RS) based methodology has been developed and tested for the land cover mapping of Bhutan and Nepal using IRS-WiFs data. The study mainly focused on generating good and reliable training samples, for the accurate classification of the image.manage these scarce resources effectively it is important to study and understand the dynamics of land use and land cover change of the region and to determine which factor contributes significantly in a specific area before proper land use planning can be done. Land use/land cover change study is a diagnostic tool for determining sustainability and is therefore important that this tool can be done carefully and properly for the sustainable development of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. This is a very technical definition of how the study was conducted, but little on how they trained the locals to use it.
12.
There is a slight change in the definition of science by this author. The use of ‘Science’ instead of ‘System’ because the former focuses on concepts, principles and techniques of representing and modeling real world objects and phenomena, rather than a system of computers, software and data used to capture, store, process and analyze geographical data. This puts for the focus on development rather than the technology. The state that ‘the data and knowledge generated, the process itself is an effective way to evoke active participation of the local people, such as in identifying conflicts in the use of management of resources. The tool becomes a communication and negotiation platform for them to articulate their needs and seek solutions either among themselves or with their local authorities. Used in this way, GIS helps facilitate the bottom-up approach to rural governance’. Again, this suggests that the paradigm has shifted from technology to development.
13.
Twenty-one environmental programs were listed in the database. Most of the projects listed involved Geographic Information System (GIS) applications. Geographic information systems applications have also been used to map out, contour, hydrology, land use, soil type, erosion, land cover, population, among others.
Use of ICT’s for the environment also involved empowering people to report cases of environmental pollution or degradation. Notable is the use of SMS to link up citizen with government in monitoring the environment. The topic is defined as ‘E-environment’ and is linked in with the Millennium Development goals. Radio and television have also been used to raise awareness about the importance of the environment.
14.
linked with 15
Water is still an extremely important issue in developing countries. Here, an ICT Development Group was used to implement Bangladesh's Environmental Monitoring Information Network. However, this is an extremely expensive project as the agreement, valued at $4.45 million CAD, enables the ICT Development Group to implement its innovative Environmental Monitoring Information Network (EMIN) Project, which aims to improve water, flooding and erosion management in Bangladesh by linking national and local water resource organizations through a spatial Decision-Support System. The reason such as system has been created is to be used, for example, at both local and national levels to help villagers better predict incidence of flood or drought, and to allow Bangladeshi authorities to address multiple water management issues
16.
The headquarters of this company are, unusually, situated in the developing countries themselves. The use of high-tech laboratories ‘on-site’ means that analysis of data can be conducted without any significant delay. Again, the use of clearly laid out objectives is necessary so that surveying can be carried out at the most efficient level. It also has a full-fledged Training Division, which undertakes the training and skill up-gradation for its personnel, as also for the staff of our clients on a situation based requirement
17.
Deichmann, U and Wood, S, suggest that the role of ICT is accelerating development. ICT promises to help isolated and disenfranchised communities transform themselves into development participants who are better informed and integrated. It is still a very specialized area, and there is no specific reference to the training of the locals on this technology. Locals can obtain the data, but a technological divide currently still exists.Constraints to widespread use of GIS have been its high cost and complexity and the difficulty of obtaining geographically referenced (geo-referenced) data. However, as the technology has become cheaper and less complex, it has become more accessible to non-specialists.
18. Dar, W.D, Gowda, C.L.L, & Sharma, H.C (2003): Role of modern science and technologies in agriculture for poverty alleviation in South Asia.South Asia Conference on Technologies for Poverty Reduction, New Delhi
Accessible at
These authors link the potential problems of a rising world population to the problems of ensuring that there will be enough food. They describe traditional methods, but then they describe how ICT can be used to ensure food security. The locals have to ability to share information, knowledge and skills with the poor, and also inaccessible communities. This method combines the potentials of open distance learning (ODL) and information and communication technology (ICT)
19.
This site is unusually in this company because it focuses on land in Europe, and land that has already been contaminated. What the author suggests is that we should try to make optimal use of innovative ICT applications for sustainable land use management. Areas where they are applied range from site assessment and site investigation to data storage and management. ICT enables industry and other stakeholders to perform site investigation and remediation more targeted and cost-effectively. Computing technologies, like GIS applications can be helpful for decision making and communication purposes.
20.
ICT can make a valuable contribution to sustainable environmental management by improving monitoring and response systems, facilitating environmental activism and enabling more efficient resource use.ICT is also being deployed extensively to monitor and respond to environmental disasters in developing countries. This is demonstrated in Mexico, where fire emergency services are using satellite images to direct response teams to critical areas—resulting in significant reductions in casualties and property loss. This study shows that land use management is also about maintaining infrastructure and housing. Many of the other sites use ICT purely as a mapping exercise, when there are a lot of other things that it can be used for.
21.
In parts, this site is a bit technical. It tends to focus on how the GIS application works, rather than the deeper meaning of why it is being used. For example, they define Geographic information systems (GIS) as the ability to store and display maps and associated information. There are two methods for doing this - as "networks" in which the geographical area is divided into a number of polygons whose corners and interconnections are stored, and as "rasters" in which the area is divided into many small uniformly sized rectangles. Over these can be laid further networks of roads, rivers, boundaries and so on, as well as the locations of towns and similar features. Areas can be divided along theme lines, dividing the area according to certain criteria and displaying the theme map to highlight these areas. As with many of these sites, there are the standard set of limitations and reason why the local population need to be trained. There are some good case studies and valid conclusion as well.
22.
The lack of training inferred by many of the other sites makes this one unusual. They describe how to train people in using the technology. The courses can be up to 6 weeks in duration and are available at different times of the year. There is both theory and practical exercises, but this site does not display how much they cost.
23.
The Ministry of Science and Technology has an important role to play in initiating appropriate programs to effectively use science and technology for development of the Sri Lanka. During the past two decades, most of the South and South East Asian countries have developed considerably by effective use of science and technology. This site is more about how ICT has not been used and describes a great many detrimental affects that have occurred because the technology has not been in place. Now there is a push by the government to stop these mini-disasters happening as frequently.