EGU2020-2805
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2805
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

qConut: A mobile geospatial application for promoting sustainable and climate-smart Pacific Island agricultural landscapes

Eloise Biggs1, Bryan Boruff1, Michael Boyland2, Eleanor Bruce3, Kevin Davies3, John Duncan1, Clemens Grünbühel2, Viliami Manu4, Jalesi Mateboto5, Pyone Myat Thu3, Andreas Neef6, John Oakeshott5, Natasha Pauli1, Helena Shojaei7, Renata Varea7, and Nathan Wales7
Eloise Biggs et al.
  • 1Geography and Planning, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
  • 2Stockholm Environment Institute Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 3School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
  • 4Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests, Nuku'alofa, Tonga
  • 5Pacific Community, Suva, Fiji
  • 6Development Studies, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
  • 7School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

Successful ‘smart’ agricultural interventions provide mutually positive impacts to inhabitants’ livelihoods, landscape sustainability, and the capacity of a system to respond effectively to climate variability. Geospatial technological tools have the potential for accurate and timely locational monitoring within multifunctional landscapes. Information derived from using such tools can substantially inform environmental management, policy, and climate-resilient practice. Our research is developing a mobile geospatial application for contemporary data collection and monitoring, allowing the dynamic capture of landscape information. Through community consultations, stakeholder engagement activities, and Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) user requirements analysis, we have mapped government data flows and information needs of smallholder farmers in the Pacific Island nations of Fiji and Tonga. Subsequently, the barriers experienced by landscape users to access and understand relevant, reliable and usable environmental data and information were identified. We then designed an open-source mobile geospatial application to facilitate knowledge sharing between different landscape stakeholders. Our multi-user open source application – qConut – is being co-developed with the Ministry of Forests in Fiji and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests in Tonga, alongside collaborative participatory contributions from the wider farming communities. Here we present the methodological approach, application functionality, and prototype usability outcomes from field testing undertaken in the Ba Catchment, Fiji, and Tongatapu, Tonga. The qConut application has a current target user focus on agricultural extension officers who are trialling the application within cropping and forestry sectors. Results of trial usage highlight the importance of understanding the specific needs and capacities of all stakeholder groups in developing effective digitally-enabled climate information services. By utilising mobile geospatial technologies our research is helping to address shortcomings in location-targeted information delivery, environmental monitoring, and data sharing within Pacific Island agricultural communities. See www.livelihoodsandlandscapes.com for further information.

How to cite: Biggs, E., Boruff, B., Boyland, M., Bruce, E., Davies, K., Duncan, J., Grünbühel, C., Manu, V., Mateboto, J., Myat Thu, P., Neef, A., Oakeshott, J., Pauli, N., Shojaei, H., Varea, R., and Wales, N.: qConut: A mobile geospatial application for promoting sustainable and climate-smart Pacific Island agricultural landscapes, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2805, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2805, 2020

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