How to use geoinformatics in indigenous communities

As part of ADELANTE2, an EU funding programme, a project („Contribución a la Transformación digital en Comunidades Indígenas”) was supported that aims to promote digital transformation in indigenous communities in Latin America. In this context, Sebastian Schmidt and Umut Nefta Kanilmaz – both PhD researchers at Z_GIS – were able to give members of various indigenous communities from Panama, Ecuador and Argentina insights into geoinformatics data and methods. Particularly in the area of satellite remote sensing and freely available geodata, they showed how this data could be used to overcome difficulties in relation to territorial issues, environmental quality and climate change.

There were two workshops, one in Panama City and one in Quito, in which several members of indigenous communities took part in person to gain practical experience with GIS tools. Leo Zurita Arthos and Richard Resl, UNIGIS International Programme Directors, were instrumental in organising the workshop at the San Francisco University Quito, together with Elizabeth León Velásquez (EAN University, Bogotá, Colombia) and UNIGIS instructor Bárbara Constantinidis Migoya (ESRI Panama). The content of the workshops was diverse and combined theory and practice. For example, the indigenous participants learnt about satellite remote sensing methods and how to fly drones to take pictures from above.

The dialogue with the various indigenous communities, who came from different countries, geographical regions and cultural backgrounds, revealed that they face many similar problems. Environmental pollution and the consequences of climate change were described as particularly pressing. “My most important takeaway from this project is that we as researchers need to think much more about the end use of our activities. There are numerous urgent problems, ranging from contamination of drinking water, deforestation and illegal hunting to the lack of presence of indigenous communities in national and international organisations. Our research in geoinformatics and related sciences – or even better in the context of interdisciplinary projects – must be geared towards being able to help here“ says Sebastian Schmidt.

UNIGIS would like to thank in particular all participants from the indigenous communities from Panama, Ecuador and Argentina for their active participation, the high level of interest and the incredibly fascinating exchange!