Loading...

Geographic Information Engineering and Social Ground Truth in Attappadi, Kerala State, India

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) and related technologies by private organizations or government agencies toward applied objectives may be defined as geographic information engineering (GIE). GIE is particularly well adapted to certain types of institutions and user groups, who can us...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wolfgang Hoeschele
Format: Printed Book
Published: Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 90(2), 2000, p. 293-321 2000
Online Access:http://10.26.1.76/ks/003328.pdf
LEADER 019090000a22001330004500
100 |a Wolfgang Hoeschele 
245 |a Geographic Information Engineering and Social Ground Truth in Attappadi, Kerala State, India 
260 |c 2000 
260 |b Annals of the Association of American Geographers , 90(2), 2000, p. 293-321 
520 |a The use of geographic information systems (GIS) and related technologies by private organizations or government agencies toward applied objectives may be defined as geographic information engineering (GIE). GIE is particularly well adapted to certain types of institutions and user groups, who can use it as an instrument of power over those people who have little or no access to the technology. In the case of Attappadi, a region in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India, a state agency has employed GIE in such a way that it obscures the fact that land-cover data have been substituted for land-usedata, which were never collected in the first place. Their analysis, based predominantly on satellite vegetation cover data, greatly overstates the amount of wastelands in the region, and consequently minimizes the productive roles of peasants and adivasis (tribals) in managing the land. This abuse of the power of GIE could be rectified technically by adding layers uses, and institutionally by a more participatory process of GIE. Such a response, however, is unlikely as long as governmental attitudes toward peasant and adivasi knowledge remain fundamentally unchanged, and the requisite levels of formal education are largely absent in the population affected. This demonstrates that technologies such as GIS must be evaluated not only in terms of technical measures of efficiency, but also in terms of social process  
856 |u http://10.26.1.76/ks/003328.pdf 
942 |c KS 
999 |c 72716  |d 72716 
952 |0 0  |1 0  |4 0  |7 0  |9 64680  |a MGUL  |b MGUL  |d 2015-08-01  |l 0  |r 2015-08-01  |w 2015-08-01  |y KS