Trinidad and Tobago

Knowledge transfer of public participatory GIS innovation

This research will transfer innovative Public Participatory Geographic Information System (PPGIS) technical skills and knowledge from the University of New Brunswick, Canada to the University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad and Tobago. UWI researchers will then be able to test and further develop PPGIS for targeted Caribbean coastal communities, and to train community stakeholders in the use of the system. This PPGIS technology incorporates volunteer geographic information (VGI) to mitigate lack of official information (e.g., large scale maps) for community adaptation planning for sea level rise.

With this technology, community stakeholders will be able to participate more directly in policy support decision making processes that depend on spatial and thematic data. A second part of this project is the development of a community user friendly set of guidelines for identifying, collecting, and managing spatial information to support the community planning process. Additionally the collaborating university partners will have opportunity to assess the role of universities in innovation systems and their real-world applications.