Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Pastoralists in India are experiencing increased difficulties to sustain their livelihood, which is partly due to deterioration
and diminishment of the pastoral lands that they depend on. Remote sensing (RS) is a powerful tool for investigating
large-scale land cover change dynamics; however, a more complete and socially aware analysis of land cover
change can be produced when incorporating qualitative data into the analysis. Through a case study in southern India,
this study used interviews, participatory mapping, and RS to investigate how qualitative GIS methodology could be
developed by comparing quantitative and qualitative data in order to highlight differences and similarities between
them. RS findings showed that open land, which is an important source of livestock feed, has decreased while agricultural
land and built-up land have increased. This result corresponded quite well with the qualitative data although the
pastoralists experienced the decrease in open land to be more extensive than RS results indicated. The geographical
locations where loss of pastures had occurred according to the pastoralists did not correspond with the RS analysis possibly
since the respondents referred to small but significant areas of change which were not observable on satellite imagery.
This result illustrates the partiality of both methodologies and of knowledge in general and also points to the
value of mixing methods within land cover research, a field which usually has a strong preference for exclusively quantitative
methods.