Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué

Earth Observation (EO) data can enhance understanding of human-environmental systems for the creation of climate data services, or Decision Support Systems (DSS), to improve monitoring, prediction and mitigation of climate harm. However, EO data is not always incorporated into the workflow for decis...

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Main Authors: Ovienmhada, Ufuoma, Mouftaou, Fohla, Wood, Danielle Renee
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Format: Article
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132918
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author Ovienmhada, Ufuoma
Mouftaou, Fohla
Wood, Danielle Renee
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Ovienmhada, Ufuoma
Mouftaou, Fohla
Wood, Danielle Renee
author_sort Ovienmhada, Ufuoma
collection MIT
description Earth Observation (EO) data can enhance understanding of human-environmental systems for the creation of climate data services, or Decision Support Systems (DSS), to improve monitoring, prediction and mitigation of climate harm. However, EO data is not always incorporated into the workflow for decision-makers for a multitude of reasons including awareness, accessibility and collaboration models. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a collaborative model that addresses historical power imbalances between communities. This paper highlights a case study of a climate harm mitigation DSS collaboration between the Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab and Green Keeper Africa (GKA), an enterprise located in Benin. GKA addresses the management of an invasive plant species that threatens ecosystem health and economic activities on Lake Nokoué. They do this through a social entrepreneurship business model that aims to advance both economic empowerment and environmental health. In demonstrating a Space Enabled-GKA collaboration model that advances GKA's business aims, this study first considers several popular service and technology design methods and offer critiques of each method in terms of their ability to address inclusivity in complex systems. These critiques lead to the selection of the Systems Architecture Framework (SAF) as the technology design method for the case study. In the remainder of the paper, the SAF is applied to the case study to demonstrate how the framework coproduces knowledge that would inform a DSS with Earth Observation data. The paper offers several practical considerations and values related to epistemology, data collection, prioritization and methodology for performing inclusive design of climate data services.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1329182022-09-23T14:56:40Z Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué Ovienmhada, Ufuoma Mouftaou, Fohla Wood, Danielle Renee Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory Earth Observation (EO) data can enhance understanding of human-environmental systems for the creation of climate data services, or Decision Support Systems (DSS), to improve monitoring, prediction and mitigation of climate harm. However, EO data is not always incorporated into the workflow for decision-makers for a multitude of reasons including awareness, accessibility and collaboration models. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate a collaborative model that addresses historical power imbalances between communities. This paper highlights a case study of a climate harm mitigation DSS collaboration between the Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab and Green Keeper Africa (GKA), an enterprise located in Benin. GKA addresses the management of an invasive plant species that threatens ecosystem health and economic activities on Lake Nokoué. They do this through a social entrepreneurship business model that aims to advance both economic empowerment and environmental health. In demonstrating a Space Enabled-GKA collaboration model that advances GKA's business aims, this study first considers several popular service and technology design methods and offer critiques of each method in terms of their ability to address inclusivity in complex systems. These critiques lead to the selection of the Systems Architecture Framework (SAF) as the technology design method for the case study. In the remainder of the paper, the SAF is applied to the case study to demonstrate how the framework coproduces knowledge that would inform a DSS with Earth Observation data. The paper offers several practical considerations and values related to epistemology, data collection, prioritization and methodology for performing inclusive design of climate data services. 2021-10-08T19:06:47Z 2021-10-08T19:06:47Z 2021-09 2021-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2624-9553 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132918 Ovienmhada, Ufuoma et al. "Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué." Frontiers in Climate 3 (September 2021): 717418. © 2021 Ovienmhada et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.717418 Frontiers in Climate Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Frontiers Media SA Frontiers
spellingShingle Ovienmhada, Ufuoma
Mouftaou, Fohla
Wood, Danielle Renee
Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué
title Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué
title_full Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué
title_fullStr Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué
title_full_unstemmed Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué
title_short Inclusive Design of Earth Observation Decision Support Systems for Environmental Governance: A Case Study of Lake Nokoué
title_sort inclusive design of earth observation decision support systems for environmental governance a case study of lake nokoue
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/132918
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AT wooddaniellerenee inclusivedesignofearthobservationdecisionsupportsystemsforenvironmentalgovernanceacasestudyoflakenokoue