Geo-Photovoice to Capture Desertification Landscapes and Perceptions

GeoPhotovoice aims to explore environmental problems while bringing together art, human geography and ethnoecology. It innovatively combines the adoption of a visual anthropology method (photovoice) together with the use of maps and remote sensing images. This combination in a research project can create a powerful and comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing complex issues such as environmental change, resource scarcity, community resilience, and land use. GeoPhotovoice, visually connects macro and micro levels of investigation allowing for the integration of quantitative visual data at a broad scale with insights that can only emerge from a more in-depth, context-sensitive investigation.

This case-study is about a visual synthesis that aims to understand the perceptions of farmers and shepherds of desertification in Sicily by combining community-driven visual narratives (photovoice) with scientific data from remote sensing and thematic maps. The goal is to develop a holistic approach to land management and climate change that incorporates on the one side local experiences, challenges and knowledge, and on the other scientific analysis and understanding of the phenomena. Specifically, remote sensing images and maps help observing changes in land use, water resources, wildfires, deforestation and environmental degradation over time and space, and therefore they help to study, to understand and to frame desertification as a scientific, measurable phenomena. However, while remote sensing and maps are essential for gathering large-scale data and to visually communicate complex data and trends, it is fundamental to go beyond this narrative in favor of pluralistic one. This is why this research coined GeoPhotovoice method with the aim of studying environmental problems not only as scientific, technical and measurable phenomena. Rather, it aims to explore the narratives coming from community understanding, feelings and everyday actions related to the causes and effects of desertification, and to more general natural resource management and climate changes issues.