The Application of PPGIS to Telecoupling Research: A Case Study of the Agricultural Landscape Transformation in an Indigenous Village in Taiwan

Abstract

Telecoupling theory studies how land use is affected by human–environmental systems in different ways and avoids a binary opposition at local and global scales. The current study attempts to use the PPGIS approach in telecoupling research, taking the Kalibuan village in Taiwan’s high mountains as a case study; defining the scope of telecoupling systems from a local perspective; and analyzing the effect and significance of PPGIS research methods. The study observed that researchers were able to collect the various perspectives and information obtained through public participation methods, including social relations, historical and cultural contexts, and ecological conditions, and improves the quality of the data through mutual discussions and data verifications. We can obtain historical data, social-nature coupled data, and cross-scale data via the contribution of GIS visualization, storage, and zoom in/out functions, as well as by facilitating telecoupling research.