Participatory GIS

Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS), and the related Public Participation GIS (PPGIS), are approaches in which communities themselves create and use spatial data and maps to represent local spatial knowledge for resource management, land and resource tenure, and planning. Spanning a continuum from sketch mapping with sticks and stones on the ground to georeferenced data held in formal GIS, the approach merges the empowering ethos of participatory development, articulated by Robert Chambers, with the analytical and communicative power of geographic information technology.