Assessing health risk using regional mappings based on local perceptions: A comparative study of three different hazards

Abstract

International audienceUsually risk assessment falls within the competence of “hard sciences”through environmental and epidemiological measurements, evaluations, and modeling. Even if these approaches bring accurate assessment and evaluation of environmental processes, the perception of local inhabitants is often excluded or at least relegated to second place. Evaluation of human vulnerabilities and capacities to face such hazards requires us to understand the perceptions of the population exposed. Three case studies (Lao, Tunisia, and Ecuador) are presented where we applied a perception-based regional mapping, a mapping tool based on local perceptions, for assessing the connection between land uses and health issues. A selection of the results collected on these three study areas show that the perception of local inhabitants provides a good spatial representation of the different contaminations observed locally, with a good consistency with external data. It also indicates for a certain number of cases that the contamination extends far beyond the simulated radius and impacts peripheral areas. Beyond the analysis of such a method (methodological bias, spatial representation bias, etc.), the objective is to combine our results with epidemiological measurement

“Somos Amazonía,” a New Inter-indigenous Identity in the Ecuadorian Amazonia: Beyond a Tacit jus aplidia of Ecological Origin?

“…The Perception-Based Regional Mapping (PBRM) is a participatory method for spatializing environmental, sociopolitical, and health issues in six stages (Figure 1; Maestripieri & Saqalli, 2016;Saqalli et al, 2009). Each participatory map is geo-referenced 13 in a Geographic Information System (GIS), and the associated criteria are recorded in an attribute table.…”

“Not seen, not considered”: mapping local perception of environmental risks in the Plain of Mornag and Jebel Ressass (Tunisia)

“…It involves devising a scheme that can be used to inventory and spatially discriminate environmental issues in a uniform and rapid manner under unavoidable funding and logistical constraints. In the work reported in the present paper, the perception-based regional mapping (PBRM) methodology was used to map the perceptions of the local community and stakeholders spatially (Saqalli et al 2009;Maestripieri and Saqalli 2016) by considering survey interviewees to be imprecise but locally relevant risk observers. Collecting interviewees' statements on such issues highlights the gap between perception and data; in other words, the capacity of a population to comprehend risks, which is a significant component of resilience and willingness to cope with hazards (Becerra et al 2015).…”

Spatial inventory of selected atmospheric emissions from oil industry in Ecuadorian Amazon: Insights from comparisons among satellite and institutional datasets

“…Spatial gridding allocation of disaggregated emissions is useful for several purposes, such as pollution hotspot analysis, trajectory modelling, hazard and exposure mapping, multiple-pollutant and risk assessments (Andreo et al, 2006;Guttikunda and Calori, 2013;Lahr and Kooistra, 2010). Oil emission sources and present perception on contamination potential have been spatially interpreted for oil spills, from long-term datasets (Durango-Cordero et al, 2018), and from local population surveys (Maestripieri and Saqalli, 2016) but not for atmospheric contaminants. The present study was undertaken as a part of the transdisciplinary MONOIL research program focused on environmental monitoring, health, society and oil in Ecuador (MONOIL, 2017).…”