An extreme citizen science approach to digital mapping in Ethiopia

The briefing explores the use of the Sapelli platform to enable indigenous people in Ethiopia's Lower Omo region, regardless of literacy levels, to create digital maps of their territories. By co-designing a pictorial interface, six collaborators from the Nyangatom community recorded over 1,700 map contributions between August 2021 and August 2022, including grazing areas and water sources. The resulting 'land-user generated maps' provided significantly more detail and density than machine-generated or standard user-generated maps, though the authors note that the utility of such data for defending land claims depends on the willingness of legal systems to accept citizen-generated evidence.

• The 'extreme citizen science' model differs from standard citizen science by ensuring that the goals of data collection are co-created with the community and that collaborators are included regardless of their digital or print literacy levels.
• In the Lower Omo region, state-led projects such as the Gibe III dam, which stopped annual river floods in 2015, and the establishment of commercial plantations have threatened indigenous livelihoods by annexing riverside land and grazing territories.
• The use of the Sapelli platform allowed collaborators to customize the mapping tool, replacing hand-drawn icons with photographs, adding quality indicators (thumbs-up/down), and incorporating captions in Nyangatom and Amharic.
• Between August 2021 and August 2022, six collaborators in Nyangatom recorded more than 1,700 map contributions, primarily focusing on villages, grazing areas, and ponds used for animal watering or recession farming.
• Land-user generated maps produced by local residents show greater detail, density of features, and overlapping boundaries compared to machine-generated maps (such as the European Space Agency WorldCover Map) or standard user-generated maps (such as OpenStreetMap).
• Significant barriers to the scalability of this approach include the high cost of smartphones and data bundles, as well as legal environments that may not recognize citizen-generated data as evidence for defending communal resource claims.

APA

Stevenson, E. G. J., Moreu, M., & Tekle, D. (2022). An extreme citizen science approach to digital mapping in Ethiopia. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-brief-digital-mapping-ethiopia-osborne-2022.pdf

Chicago

Stevenson, Edward G. J., Marcos Moreu, and Dessalegn Tekle. An extreme citizen science approach to digital mapping in Ethiopia. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-brief-digital-mapping-ethiopia-osborne-2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Stevenson |first1=Edward G. J. |last2=Moreu |first2=Marcos |last3=Tekle |first3=Dessalegn |title=An extreme citizen science approach to digital mapping in Ethiopia |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=August 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-brief-digital-mapping-ethiopia-osborne-2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stevenson2022extreme, author = {Stevenson, Edward G. J. and Moreu, Marcos and Tekle, Dessalegn}, title = {{An extreme citizen science approach to digital mapping in Ethiopia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/sei-brief-digital-mapping-ethiopia-osborne-2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }