Martin K. Thomen and Shawn Strange
Introduction
In spring semester 2008, students in CRP 386: Applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS) conducted a participatory study of risk and vulnerability associated with flooding in an informal housing settlement in Santo Domingo Norte, Dominican Republic. The course was part of a new research and service learning relationship between the city of Santo Domingo Norte, the School of Architecture, and the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo that was initiated in summer 2007 by Dr. Kent Butler. There was also collaboration between University of Texas at Austin faculty in the School of Public Policy, Geography, Anthropology, and Latin American Studies. The intent of the ongoing partnership is to provide technical assistance to planning institutions in Santo Domingo and to create opportunities for fi eld research to students concerned with development planning in Latin America.
Following a series of meetings with the Dominican National Council on Urban Issues (CONAU), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the Dominican Republic, and community leaders in Los Platanitos, Dr. Bjorn Sletto developed a pilot project to document risk and vulnerability of people living in the community of Los Platanitos, an informal housing settlement located on a low-lying former landfill in the municipality of Santo Domingo Norte. The project focused on the social and health implications of the defining geographical feature of Los Platanitos, a large drainage ditch, also known as a cañada, which runs through the community. The cañada was at one time a natural creek, but in recent years it has been lined with concrete and, in places, covered with a cement cap. Because of inadequate sewage and solid waste management, the former creek is now severely contaminated with garbage and blackwater. When it rains, water laced with sewage and chemicals floods the houses that line the cañada, leading to high levels of gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory diseases.
The ten students enrolled in CRP 386 began their study of Los Platanitos in the winter of 2007 in classrooms at UT. They then traveled to the community to conduct field work in early 2008 and returned to UT for more class-based analysis. They later returned to Santo Domingo to present their preliminary work and get feedback from the residents of Los Platanitos and government planning officials. This entire interactive process was of key importance to the project and allowed the students to engage in an ongoing dialogue with community members and planning officials in Santo Domingo.
The research team used a mixed-methods approach that incorporated both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Mixed-method research transcends the traditional “qualitative-quantitative” divide and also combines multiscalar analyses and perspectives. A mixed-method approach is the hallmark of the Rapid Rural Assessment (RRA) design of this project. RRA is a commonly used approach for conducting quick assessments of the social and environmental issues facing marginalized communities. Rapid risk assessment, which draws on the principles of RRA, attempts to identify the nature and level of environmental risks (such as flooding) in a given area and to determine what individuals or groups are more vulnerable to these risks. Time constraints require that RRA practitioners efficiency and effectively identify major risk factors within a very limited period of time, and rapidly develop methods to study the impacts of these risks on different social groups and individuals. In this way, this approach is quite radical in that it goes against the rigid divisions of knowledge production found in academic institutions. Additionally, because RRA practitioners often have limited knowledge about local conditions, a mixed-method approach allows researchers on the RRA team to share information and data and critically evaluate each others’ work. A theoretical framework based on the precepts of social justice, critical development, and the application of mixed methods offers a more comprehensive and integral approach to the study of development and poverty. As such, this type of research moves beyond simply a technical evaluation of the physical conditions of a community. Instead, a mixed-methods approach helped the researchers better understand the various environmental, historical, social, economic, and political factors that may be contributing—in different ways—to the everyday realities of informal settlements in Santo Domingo by integrating the community’s local knowledge and experience.
The project drew on the theoretical framework of political ecology and developed a blend of research methods, including participatory mapping, architectural surveys, and ethnography, to document the flooding problem in Los Platanitos. In order to maximize time in the fi eld, the students were organized into three teams—physical survey, geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping, and social documentation—each working at a different scale and with different types of data in order to develop a comprehensive analysis of the challenges confronting the community. This article will explore the ways in which GIS was used to represent the local knowledge gathered in the fi eld and to meet the theoretical and practical goals of the research team.
GIS and Mapping
Mapping and GIS are essential tools in RRA, helping facilitate participatory fi eld research and comprehensive analysis and dissemination of spatial data. GIS can be used to conduct preliminary analysis of the study area, and also to document local knowledge of neighborhood boundaries, locations of hazards and economic activity, and distribution of social characteristics at different scales. Information on buildings and infrastructure can be incorporated in GIS and analyzed to assess structural quality and spatial relationships. This allows local communities and governments to make better-informed policy decisions. The goal of utilizing GIS technology in this study was to document the local knowledge of the community of Los Platanitos and utilize it when creating maps, documents, and analyses of geographic and social characteristics. This information could then be taken to local governing and planning bodies to help inform the decision-making process on projects that may alleviate some of the risk and vulnerability faced by the community of Los Platanitos.
Like all parts of this project, the GIS-based analysis started before any of the students had visited Los Platanitos. The first step of the GIS analysis was a data-gathering process that involved the compilation of spatial data from various sources in Santo Domingo, in particular GIS shapefiles produced by CONAU. These fi les gave the research team an initial understanding of the geographical and demographic makeup of Santo Domingo, but they were of limited use due to the variances in scale between city data and the local community. To produce larger-scale spatial data on Los Platanitos, the team captured aerial images from Google Earth before traveling to Santo Domingo. These aerial images were added to the GIS program ESRI ArcGIS 9.2 and georeferenced to match (overlay) the data fi les provided by CONAU. After this, a grid was superimposed on top of the medium-scale image, which allowed the team to disassemble the larger image into grid sections and reproduce these in a map book. The primary reasons for creating the map book were to help student researchers orient themselves in the fi eld and to correctly mark locations of important points, which would later be digitized and used to create the final maps.
Once the small-scale map books were created, a series of large maps (forty inches by sixty inches) were printed from the georeferenced images. They were printed at various scales: a larger, regional map, a medium-scale map encompassing the Los Platanitos neighborhood and the surrounding area, and a more detailed map of the neighborhood itself. A variety of map types were created so that the different research teams, working at different scales in the analysis, would have a choice in which maps to use. The GIS team would use the book to record hydrographic data, footprints of buildings, public spaces, important locations, and other data. The map books would also allow each team member to record significant locations and locations where photos were taken. Worksheets were designed to facilitate data management and correspondence between locations on the maps and the data.
The GIS mapping team worked on the largest (regional) scale of all the teams to better understand the context of the flooding and solid waste problem as well as other conditions of the community. Before leaving for Santo Domingo the GIS team had georeferenced aerial photography of the area into the GIS program. The team also formulated a list of features in the community that they wished to identify with community members once they were in the fi eld. These included locations that are important for everyday life in the community, such as businesses, residences, and public places, and also features relevant to the flooding problem, such as the locations of storm drains or the various branches and other features of the cañada.
Field Work
Once in Los Platanitos, GIS team members utilized the various maps for different aspects of their fi eld work. The first step was a participatory mapping exercise where community members drew boundaries of the Los Platanitos neighborhood to help define the study area. Community members distinguished the community of Los Platanitos from the surrounding neighborhoods. These boundaries were also essential for the social documentation team, which performed a community survey based on a random sampling of households in the study area. After this, students developed, with community participants, methods and techniques that would assist in identifying important community resources by way of these images. This participatory action method was essential in building the framework of the GIS mapping project and built teamwork between students and the community. The goal was to have the local residents “own” the maps and actively participate in compiling data that were relevant to the community’s needs.
The next task was working with community members to trace the roads and the footprints of buildings, and to mark important nonresidential locations, which we categorized as either commercial or public spaces. The methodology in the fi eld was straightforward. The student GIS team members walked around Los Platanitos with community members who helped identify the important locations and features of the neighborhood. Most streets and alleys of the neighborhood were marked on the aerial photos, as were stores, churches, and public areas. Each entry’s information, such as ownership, purpose, and condition of the structure, was recorded on the worksheets. The data recorded on the worksheets helped build the GIS shapefile attribute tables once the students returned to UT.
Important hydrological features in the watershed upstream and downstream from the cañada, along with areas of impermeable surfaces around the community, were documented. Specifically, lagoons, rivers, areas of water accumulation, and points where water entered the cañada were recorded. Additionally, community members were consulted in the recording of the highest flood level they remembered, specifically in the aftermath of Hurricane George in 1998. These data helped determine the floodplain in the area. Dates of flooding were recorded to distinguish between catastrophic floods and common, annual floods that occur during the rainy season. Community participants also helped the research team understand the flows and accumulations of water that lead to heavy flooding, and at which areas the cañada is inundated with trash that impedes the fl ow of water.
Back at UT
After returning from the fi eld, the GIS team compiled data from what they had gathered, as well as data from the other two research teams, and transferred them to GIS using various methods. While the GIS team was mapping important community features and the floodplain, the environmental survey team was working in a smaller scale by documenting, measuring, and drawing the cañada and its immediate surroundings as well as assessing the quality of the structures of the houses. The physical survey team focused on the material and cultural landscape of the one-kilometer-long cañada itself. The social documentation team performed a community survey questionnaire based in part on the official census of the Dominican Republic throughout Los Platanitos. Their goal was to collect data on the social reality of community members, in particular focusing on the impact of the flooding on the living conditions of the people they surveyed. All three of the teams’ data were incorporated into the GIS platform once the teams had returned to UT.
Boundaries and roads drawn by community members and the qualitative research team were digitized over the georeferenced images. Meticulously documented features of the physical environment, including measuring the channel depth and width and all the buildings lining the channel and photographed taken by the physical survey team were georeferenced. Excel spreadsheets with data from the household survey were joined with the shapefile of survey boundaries, and also with shapefiles of the upper and lower regions of Los Platanitos. This allowed the team to produce maps showing spatial distributions of social characteristics. Building footprints were digitized and information was added to that shapefile’s attribute table to distinguish between different land uses and displayed the names of buildings and their structural quality. The worksheets filled out for each recorded feature contained the pertinent information that was included in the attribute tables. Initial maps of the road network, maximum flood levels, the regional hydrography, and points of water entry and fl ow from the area were produced to bring back to the community for their feedback.
Back to Los Platanitos
All of the maps and representations of the data gathered during the fieldwork were compiled for the community when the research team returned to Los Platanitos in the spring of 2008. The entire research team was well aware of the profound effects that mapping and representations of place can have on the relationships between people and their lands. The points, lines, and areas on maps can suggest a finality and a legitimacy to land tenure issues that may, in fact, be in considerable flux and contention. The symbols and text can imply, in the selection of shapes and language, the importance of one culture over another. The fact that these maps were the first maps ever produced of Los Platanitos made the return trip an important and crucial step in the development process of this research.
With preliminary findings in hand, the students returned to Santo Domingo to present maps, posters, and an initial report to the residents of Los Platanitos, representatives of the municipality, scholars from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), and NGOs engaged in the project. Additional fieldwork was conducted to fi ne-tune and further develop initial research. A roundtable discussion was held with the various actors to foster an open dialogue about the problems facing the cañada.
The physical survey team drawings that had been transferred into maps and diagrams using AutoCAD, ArcGIS, and PhotoShop were used in participatory workshops where community members identified areas of solid waste buildup and flooding, places where children play, and unsafe locations. Maps created with data gathered during the fieldwork were essential during the second field trip, when students walked with a hydraulic engineer and community members to gather further regional and water flow data. The students also worked with community members to field check all the maps, including the building footprints and important nonresidential locations, and to confirmed rm the quality of the roads and alleyways in detail.
More importantly, the students and community members held a roundtable discussion and presentation of the research findings with city officials and NGO representatives at the CONAU. This dialogue was a vital step in integrating the research findings, community concerns, and perspectives of the municipality and NGOs into a cohesive framework that could be applied to conduct further risk and vulnerability assessments in Los Platanitos and other cañadas. The GIS-based maps were used in a powerful way to convey local knowledge about the causes and effects of the flooding and sanitary and solid waste issues present in the community of Los Platanitos. The open, unprecedented dialogue between residents of Los Platanitos, city officials, and NGO representatives was one of most important achievements of the class project. The roundtable discussion during this follow-up trip provided a crucial opportunity for community members, students, municipal and university officials, and nonprofit representatives to discuss the future of the project in Los Platanitos as a whole. In conjunction with the roundtable discussion, students facilitated a community visioning workshop to develop a community-based plan for social and environmental improvements in Los Platanitos.
The visioning process was chosen as a way of widening the lens with which both the researchers and the residents were approaching the problems facing the cañada. The deliberations were informed by an important question posed by a community leader during the roundtable discussion: “So, now what?” Whereas the other facets of our mixed-methods approach had been used primarily to collect data on existing conditions within the community, the visioning process was aimed at uncovering the future possibilities imagined by the residents and placing them before the collective.
The model was comprised of three core components, which were conducted in sequence:
- developing the community’s vision of the ideal neighborhood environment;
- identifying the existing resources within the community that were available at different scales; and
- creating an action plan that combines the components of the vision identified in step one with the resources identified in step two.
All activities were facilitated over the course of two days within a local church in order to accommodate seating for the participants. Residents who took part in the activity were notified through word of mouth by the researchers and the project community partners, and were generally representative of the demographic makeup identified through the household survey. Several of the participants had not taken part in any of the previous project-related activities, and therefore provided perspectives that were potentially less biased by project parameters. Since residents had responded favorably to the use of images to represent ideas in the initial January focus groups, one of the students in the qualitative research team drew graphic representations of community responses.
The visioning process was an open-ended activity where residents were asked to disregard any perceived financial, political, or logistical constraints and instead imagine what their ideal community would be like. The task was initiated with a minute of silence, when participants closed their eyes to envision the community they would like to live in. After completing the moment of silence and opening their eyes, participants were asked to look at a blank sheet of white poster paper on the wall in front of them and share their visions with the group so that they could be added to the poster.
Ideas began to pour forward, and each one was noted in words and graphics as it was presented to the group. Community members did not hesitate to propose specific components of an ideal community, and clearly justified the significance of each factor. As each proposal was presented, the group was given time to consider the relationships between the different factors and to discuss their roles and significance in the overall vision. This method proved useful for facilitating the discussion of local needs on a larger scale, both in spatial and social senses.
After residents were satisfied with the vision components, they were asked to consider the resources (both capital and social) that existed within the community. Key goals of this activity were to consider and identify resources in order to create the action plan in the third step of the process, and to widen the scope of the community’s area of reference when developing their planning strategy. Residents were asked to list local resources first, then municipal, national, and international resources, respectively. The final phase of the visioning process consisted of the drafting of a planning framework. Participants were guided to consider who would be in charge of leading the actions for each objective, what the specific action would be, and when they would achieve it. A comprehensive strategic plan was not attempted; however, residents worked through several goal-specific plans with an emphasis on becoming familiar with the model in order to replicate it for a variety of community development needs.
Further GIS Work
The mixed methods and public participation used by the research team allowed the community participants’ local knowledge and desires for their community be represented in a powerful way to local officials and representatives of various groups. The second trip to Los Platanitos was essential for fi ne-tuning the data collected and analyzed by the team during the first trip. It also allowed the students and community members to connect the local knowledge with policy makers. Upon return to UT, parts of the GIS shapesfi les and spatial analysis were adjusted based on community feedback received during the second trip. Finally, the GIS team attempted to construct a 3-D representation of the community using ArcScene. Physical attribute and structural information collected by the physical survey team about each building was joined to the shapefile containing the buildings in the community. ArcScene was used to interpolate a digital elevation model of Santo Domingo provided by CONAU, which allowed the team to “drape” all of the shapefiles over the resulting 3-D surface. The building heights were then “extruded” from the building footprint layer and the physical survey drawings for 3-D display. 3-D modeling allowed the team to better visualize the elevation differences between the upper and lower regions of the neighborhood, and to more effectively represent water flows and areas at greater risk of flooding. This representation, combined with the other data collected, informed the research team’s final report. The report provided detailed steps that could be taken by policy makers to asses and lessen the risk and vulnerability posed by flooding and other issues to the community of Los Platanitos and others in the region. GIS allowed the team to locate and analyze Los Platanitos in several layers of analysis, including within the larger watershed and floodplain, in a social context, and with details about the built environment of the community. The final class products included 2-D and 3-D GIS maps, architectural drawings of the cañada and the built environment, posters, photography, and life stories, which combined to paint a profound picture of the social and environmental conditions in Los Platanitos.
The students also created a model for rapid assessment of cañadas that is being implemented throughout Santo Domingo. The city of Santo Domingo Norte is developing infrastructure projects to address the serious conditions in Los Platanitos. However, the project was more than a technical exercise: it was also an opportunity to demonstrate the enthusiasm and talent of the CRP program in a real-world setting while also illuminating ways in which GIS-based analysis can assist in risk and vulnerability assessments in informal settlements. Students were also able to participate in efforts to resolve a complicated planning issue and witness the very real ramifi cations of environmental risk. Developing and implementing multidisciplinary research methods in a limited time frame was an invaluable learning experience for the students. It also proved a beneficial experience to be able to incorporate the local knowledge of the Los Platanitos community in the search for effective solutions to decrease the risk and vulnerability of the people living there.
This project was made possible through a Mebane Grant provided by the School of Architecture, with additional funding from the Department of Geography, the LBJ School of Public Policy, and the Institute for Latin American Studies. The students included David Baumann, master’s student in public affairs; Monica Bosquez, master’s student in Community and Regional Planning, and Latin American studies; Meredith Bossin, master’s student in Community and Regional Planning, and Latin American studies; Erin
E. Daley, master’s student in public affairs and Latin American studies; Rosa E. Donoso, master’s student in Community and Regional Planning; Maritza Kelley, master’s student in public affairs and Latin American studies; Solange Muñoz, doctoral student in geography; Dana Stovall, master’s student in Community and Regional Planning and Latin American studies; Shawn M. Strange, master’s student in Community and Regional Planning; and Martin Thomen, master’s student in Community and Regional Planning. The project was led by Professor Dr. Bjørn Sletto of the graduate program of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin.
MARTIN THOMEN is a recent Community and Regional Planning graduate (May 2008). He earned a masters in CRP with a transportation planning specialization and also has a BA and BS from UT Austin. He currently works as a transportation planner.
SHAWN M. STRANGE is studying for a Master of Science degree in Community and Regional Planning at The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture. He is engaged in economic development research at both the national and international level. His interests are sustainable development in transitioning economies and the integration of informal economies into rapidly urbanizing regions. He is also focused on social equity by way of transportation accessibility. Prior to graduate study, he worked as a Corporate Relations Associate for the Council of the Americas and as a Program Specialist for the 2005 Texas Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Strike Force. He earned a BBA in International Business/ Spanish and is the Co-Founder and Career Development Chair of the Society for International Planning and Public Policy (SIPPP) at UT Austin.
