Shark-ambassadors on mapping

The “Shark-ambassadors” form the Science Club within the framework of the Environmental Education Program of the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF). This is a non-formal education project that aims to provide a learning space for these young people on various topics related to the socio-ecosystems of the islands; develop skills and abilities; and apply this knowledge in the community of which they are part.

Shark-ambassadors ventured into the new adventure of participatory cartography; toured the streets of the “El Mirador” neighborhood located in Puerto Ayora, with the purpose of obtain a didactic map of various types of waste.

The map on the right shows the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz Island in its urban population center: Puerto Ayora.

To carry out this activity, Shark-ambassadors received an introductory workshop on Geography and Cartography in order to understand the relationship between society and space. These sciences invite young people to meditate about comparative characteristics of the places where they live, in order to explain and propose solutions to current environmental problems and make visible the needs and interests of their community.

In teams, Shark-ambassadors walked all the streets following a printed map. The exercise consisted of marking the precise location of the waste found and quantitatively characterizing the volume (1 very low, 2 medium, 3 accumulated). Each team member had a role (special location, geography references, identification of the object to be removed, qualitative and quantitative categorization) in the activity in order to achieve the objective. The results of the work carried out by our Shark-ambassadors are shown digitally below:

In order to better understand the process of urban consolidation of “El Mirador” neighborhood, an animation has been made in which different years are visualized how the constructions have been populating. The pattern that has followed construction of buildings and how the expansion of the urban area of Puerto Ayora, formed an essential part of what was once used as a " waste dump", to be now a neighborhood in the process of conformation, which still requires basic services, attention from the authorities and better land management.

In this activity, as the geography team, we want to highlight certain lessons from the collaborative mapping experience:

• Mapping features of a specific area can be possible with the support of human resources willing to learn, and also, without the need of having the most advanced tools. The support of a printed map was key to this task.
• The planification of this activity is of great importance to prevent any issues that may arise in the field. The collaboration between IID and Eco-Program researchers was important to prepare the logistics required, the time required, the data models to be collected, and the expected results.
• “El Mirador” neighborhood, as being an area of area of urban expansion, requires, attention from the authorities. The lack of regulation in waste management has led to areas of considerable debris accumulation. The lack of regulation in the Management of Debris, has led to areas of debris accumulation. This can result in health affectations, or can also have deadly effects on the environment: aesthetically (bad landscaping), natural landscapes and their species, and water, soil and air pollution.
• According to the urban consolidation map between 2006 and 2021 exhibited in this storymap, the trend line indicates that for each year there is a minimum of 100 new constructions in “El Mirador” neighborhood. This annual rate calculated approximately with the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the field experience of visualizing disorderly constructions, leads us to the question: if this type of growth is in line with the policies of sustainable development for the socio-ecosystems of Galapagos.