Program on the Environment

Water security continues to limit the progress of many developing nations, and requires improved methods for visualizing barriers and solutions to water access and contamination. Geospatial Information Science (GIS) is an increasingly prominent tool used to display data in spatial dimensions to communicate science and inform decisions and policy, and in many research contexts, its highly valuable. To what degree, however, is GIS capable as a tool for researchers conducting water-related work in remote and developing world regions, and what is its effectiveness for communicating important findings to relevant stake-holders? Working on an orphanage compound in Sodo, Ethiopia, I gathered water quality data and designed a map of the compound’s water infrastructure to address the water security issues within the compound, and to better understand the extent of GISs practical applications. After conducting a literature review of the foundational uses and applications for GIS, from a diverse number of interdisciplinary sources, I evaluated how impactful my map product was for the use of the village, and relevant stakeholders involved in its maintenance and expansion.

I reached the understanding that the applications of GIS in remote and developing locations can have uniquely profound impacts on the decisions of future developments related to infrastructure, architecture, public health, and water security. Additionally, language and cultural barriers to communication can be lessened or abridged through the use of data visualization.