Digital engineering for local and global challenges
This year’s Earth Day encouraged us all to ‘Invest In Our Planet’ – and digital tools and data collection technologies can be a great investment to help us to understand complex global challenges like climate change and biodiversity.
Digital engineering can enhance the efficiency of natural resource management by enabling real-time monitoring and data collection, supporting community engagement, and allowing organisations to store, analyse and visualise data. For example, digital monitoring of coastal and freshwater resources can help to ensure water quality, protecting and restoring habitats, preventing overfishing, and controlling non-native species invasions. Developments in machine learning have also allowed researchers to process large amounts of data more efficiently and enable more informed policy decision-making. Machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics all have a role to play in building more sustainable fishing practices, as demonstrated by FishLove, a Nigeria-based project awarded seed funding through the Frontiers programme that applies these technologies through storytelling videos, animations and games to identify challenges and opportunities to support Indigenous fish farming communities.
Image credit: Lazarus Mason
It’s important to remember that data collection does not require ‘high-tech’ solutions. Innovative engineering with ‘low-tech’ tools can also help to facilitate data collection in low-resource or remote settings. However, the data collected should complement human efforts and not replace them. Technology and innovation can support and help to preserve the knowledge of Indigenous communities, especially relating to environmental conservation.
Challenges with implementing digital tools
In many cases, there have been gaps in delivering technology to Indigenous communities or a lack of technological literacy efforts – including a lack of funding for Indigenous projects and relevant government services and prejudices against Indigenous knowledge.
Current evidence on best practice for improving technology adoption among Indigenous people and local communities in natural resource management is fragmented, making it difficult for stakeholders to identify opportunities or replicate successes. Studies such as ‘Exploring Barriers and Incentives to Digital Solutions in Natural Resource Management’ by GSMA ClimateTech are continuously trying to fill this evidence gap.
It is clear, however, that several structural, informational and behavioural barriers persist, including the lack of infrastructure, affordability, digital literacy, and local content, that inhibit access to data. There are also discrepancies in access to technology between different demographics – young men are often found to have the most access to and use of mobile phones. Digital solutions need to consider how to onboard women, who traditionally have less access, and older community members who may be less familiar with digital tools. Cultural shifts within communities are also inevitable as they become more exposed to new technologies, which is a risk that needs to be managed by both the communities themselves and external agents.
The Frontiers seed funding project ‘Leveraging technology to foreground nature in the everyday city’ based in Nepal addresses the need to gain a more nuanced understanding of the impacts of biodiversity and urbanisation on different segments of society, particularly marginalised communities. The project uses digital visualisation to map the biodiversity impacts and capture the diverse, lived experiences of the population to provide critical inputs for future urban and climate planning.
Data sovereignty and security is also an increasing concern. While there has been more interest in insights from traditional knowledge to address climate change and biodiversity loss, Indigenous groups need to be empowered by equitable collaborations. These communities often help to build data sources but do not always have access to the data itself or receive information on the outcomes of their participation.
Image credit: Ken Kahiri
Successful digital integration within local communities
Integrating digital tools should start with the premise that data and its collection must reflect the needs, ethics, perspectives and protocols of the community it derives from – and the communities themselves should have access to the data. Researchers should facilitate ownership and leadership of solutions by local communities, and they must be properly informed about the use of and access to their data. Ensuring that projects do not put community safety at risk is paramount.
Understanding the local barriers to adopting digital tools and co-creating solutions with end-users can lead to new technologies being implemented more successfully. Making tools available in local languages or using symbols where illiteracy is prevalent can make a huge difference in natural resource management outcomes. Introducing resources through existing systems such as local governments or service providers can also help to build trust with local communities. It is equally important to develop measurements to track impacts at the onset of a project, including metrics for the economic, social and environmental benefits to a community.
Citizen science can empower communities to be a part of the solution and data collection process, while also providing insights into local environments. Working with young people in Indigenous communities can also be critical in the long term. These young people can be local champions for new solutions that incorporate and preserve traditional knowledge while also creating opportunities for professional growth.
The latest round of seed funding projects following the recent Frontiers symposium on ‘Digital tools for reversing environmental degradation’ is attempting to implement these best practices for empowering local communities and citizens while tackling global challenges like food security, water management and inequality. The digital environment is increasingly having an impact on how we preserve our physical environment – but we must understand our diverse social and cultural environments too.
Frontiers connects and empowers enthusiastic and proactive researchers, innovators and practitioners from the UK and around the world to work together on new ways to solve complex global challenges. By putting collaboration and interdisciplinary thinking at the heart of development, it aims to catalyse creative solutions that deliver impact and build a global lasting community with integrity at its heart, equipped to achieve a sustainable and inclusive society.
Frontiers seed funding is designed to strengthen collaborations developed at the symposium, sustaining ideas and bringing them to fruition.
Our partner for the Frontiers symposium, Reversing Environmental Degradation in Africa and Asia (REDAA) is a programme that catalyses research, innovation and action at local, national and regional levels across Africa and Asia through a series of grant calls. Funded projects are interdisciplinary, often locally led and focus on solutions for ecosystem restoration and wildlife protection, enabling people and nature to thrive together in times of climate, resource and fiscal insecurity.
REDAA is funded by UK Aid from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and managed by The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
The Frontiers programme is actively seeking new partnerships and funding. If you are interested in working with us, please get in touch: [email protected]
Image credit: Esteban Bentites