Designing a blueprint for sustainable landscapes

Multiscale analysis of land covers for the Zona Bananera municipality | SAN

Assessing environmental and social sustainability at the landscape level poses significant challenges related to the availability of accurate cultural, economic, and ecological information. In this sector, decision-making must take this intersectional information into account to develop management strategies that enhance the sustainability of the territory, prevent detrimental actions to ecosystem services, and defend against poor socioeconomic management of a region.

To obtain key information in planning and land use planning processes, it is important to generate accurate spatial data associated with land cover and/or land use. This data is crucial to create monitoring and follow-up indicators of socio-ecological sustainability, as well as define actions that enroll different actors to work towards the sustainable management of said territory-landscape. This report aims to give an approximation on how to obtain land cover maps at different cartographic scales with aims to facilitate the analysis of information and ultimately evaluate which scale and method combinations offer the best balance between precision of data generated and resources invested.

Multiscale analysis of land covers for the Zona Bananera municipality | SAN775.99 KB

How to select useful secondary data at landscape level | SAN

This document describes the process that the project team of the Blueprint Landscape Sustainability Assessment system has engaged in from 2020-2022 to select meaningful secondary sustainability data at local level (communities, municipalities, or similar local jurisdictions) and how Blueprint envisions the role of secondary data for future replicas in other tropical regions dominated by agriculture land uses.

How to select useful secondary data at landscape level | SAN283.14 KB

Steps to encourage participation in the Blueprint | SAN

In general, in a territory the social actors work collaboratively, they themselves define the channels and mechanisms of participation in accordance with their cultural framework and the roles recognized for each one.

For the design of the Blueprint tool, local actors were considered in two contexts, one in the design and selection of the indicators and the other in the use that will be given to the tool as such. Regarding the design and selection, the participation of the actors who make decisions about the territory was sought, both in the construction of the rules of use and of those who use the territory for the development of different activities. As for who will use the tool, it was considered that most of these actors are potential users, but the number and profile of indicators may be different according to the vision, mission, and role within the territory/landscape.

Based on the foregoing, a mapping of actors was defined to identify them, classify them and establish the strategy for the construction of indicators and queries for validation

Steps to encourage participation in the Blueprint | SAN270.05 KB

Matrix of Indicators | SAN

A matrix of indicators for use with farm owners and when using the ODK Mobile App, as part of the Blueprint Project.

Matrix of Indicators | SAN125.24 KB

GIS replication protocol | SAN

This document provides a system for replicating the land use cover monitoring and analysis system developed by the Blueprint Project. The document aims to summarize the steps to replicate the land cover analysis in the same pilot area (Zona Bananera municipality, Magdalena, Colombia) as general guidance to apply it in other productive agricultural regions in tropical or subtropical zones, and facilitate the development of a land use cover monitoring system in accordance with the objective, scale, and level of local studies to be implemented over time.

GIS replication protocol | SAN228.17 KB

Key recommendations to VSS on how to function more efficiently at the landscape level | SAN

This report presents the findings and recommendations from the Blueprint Project. Blueprint describes the sustainability status of municipalities with a combination of high-precision visual classification of land cover types, and interviews with a representative sample of local stakeholders to reflect the economic, social, and environmental reality on the ground. It illustrates sustainability challenges and flags opportunities from the perspective of the inhabitants of a territory.

Key recommendations to VSS on how to function more efficiently at the landscape level | SAN287.42 KB

Manual for completing Blueprint questionnaire on ODK mobile app | SAN

This document provides instruction to aid users in using the ODK tool. The function of the ODK tool within the Blueprint project has been to provide offline data collection capabilities and data that can be stored in SAN’s technology platform the iHub which provides a secure, agile, and scalable backend for the mobile app.

Manual for completing Blueprint questionnaire on ODK mobile app | SAN1.38 MB