Tourism and environmental change in Barbados: gathering citizen perspectives with volunteered geographic information (VGI)

Abstract

New map-based online tools have the potential to facilitate citizen participation in discussing the impacts of tourism. This research investigates the use of Geospatial Web 2.0 (Geoweb) tools to gather volunteered geographic information (VGI) on tourism-related environmental change from citizens of Barbados. We hosted participatory mapping workshops where groups of Barbadians directly contributed content to a series of online maps. These maps were made with the free Google My Map tool, allowing users to interact with detailed satellite imagery of Barbados. Qualitative observations were added and geo-referenced to these maps identifying several types of environmental change concerns, both those generated by tourism, and those with implications for tourism development. We analysed how participants used Google My Maps, identifying concerns of accuracy, data completeness and digital/computer literacy amongst users that could affect further use of this tool. Overall, the Geoweb approach provided participants with a unique perspective on environmental change that facilitated deeper discussion of issues and produced a publicly available, spatially referenced record of citizen concerns. Further research needs are demonstrated, including user interface design, accuracy and uncertainty, and how to manage varying levels of digital literacy.

巴巴多斯的旅游和环境改变：集合市民对自愿提供的地理信息（VGI）的看法

新的地图为本的网上工具在讨论旅游的影响上有协助市民参与的潜力。该研究调查了地理空间网络2.0（地理网络）工具的使用来集合巴巴多斯市民对旅游相关的环境改变来自愿提供的地理信息(VGI)。我们组织了参与性地图测绘小组，小组中多组的巴巴多斯人直接贡献于一系列网上地图的内容。这些地图是用免费的“谷歌我的地图”该工具来做成的，允许使用者与巴巴多斯的详细的卫星图像相互关联。定性化的观察被加入和地理参考到这些地图上，以至于确定一些环境改变关注的类型。这些环境改变关注包括那些由旅游产生的和由旅游发展衍生物产生的。我们分析了参与者如何使用“谷歌我的地图”，确认了准确性的关注，数据的完整性，和使用者中对数字/电脑认知程度以至于可能影响这个工具的进一步使用。总地来说，地理网络的方法为参与者在环境改变上提供独特的观点，并协助更深层次的问题讨论，产生一个关于市民关注的公开发布的，空间参考性的记录。进一步的研究需求在文中提到，包括使用者界面设计，准确性和不确定性，和如何管理各相不同级别的数字文化。

Keywords:

• volunteered geographic information
• Geoweb
• environmental change
• Barbados

关键词:

• 自愿提供的地理信息
• 地理网络
• 环境改变
• 巴巴多斯
• 参与

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Geomatics for Informed Decisions (GEOIDE) Network Centre of Excellence Project 41. We would also like to thank the contributions of the anonymous reviewers and to express our utmost appreciation to the participants in this study. Without their valuable contribution, this study would not have been possible.

Notes

1. Now known as Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).