Eliciting Local Spatial Knowledge for Community-Based Disaster Risk Management

Abstract

CyberTracker (CT) participatory field data collection software is used as an element of Participatory GIS for acquiring, geo-referencing, storing and transferring local spatial knowledge. It has been developed initially for animal tracking, ecological surveys and conservation management activities, but has extended into the social environment for health and welfare surveys, and it is being applied to social data collection about hazards, vulnerability and coping mechanisms in disaster risk management. This article provides a critical guide of CyberTracker under field conditions with representative participation. The practical experiences informing this critical review of field operations come from employing CyberTracker with staff of NGOs and local government agencies in a workshop in two hazard-prone communities in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia.