Merging geospatial technology with community resilience
Throughout his academic career, Prince Obosu has been passionate about the diverse applications of geographic information technology (GIS) and how it can be applied to community resilience. With a background in geomatic engineering and geospatial analysis, he joins the University of Maine’s School of Forest Resources as a Ph.D. student and part of the NSF EPSCoR RII E-RISE Maine-FOREST program.
Currently, Obosu is developing a spatial community resilience framework for forest-dependent communities in Maine, using geospatial techniques, such as collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data by creating custom maps. Obosu’s framework generates a custom map of forest dependent communities in Maine, organized by their community resilience scores.
“This place-based framework aims to assess community resilience across multiple community capitals and provide a clearer understanding of strengths, vulnerabilities and areas for improvement,” said Obosu.
He is currently reviewing literature as a first step in the process, analyzing preexisting frameworks to see their strengths and weaknesses. “Once I know the strengths and weaknesses of these frameworks, I’ll know how to integrate them and what data to use going forward,” said Obosu. He then sorts data into groups called community capitals, which splits a community’s resources into different categories.
This includes a breadth of data ranging from environmental to socioeconomic issues that a community may face. For example, Obosu collects data on responsiveness to natural disasters as well as the impact of Maine’s aging population. By combining social science data with data surrounding environmental risks, it creates a more holistic framework for understanding forest-dependent communities.
By the end of this project, Obosu will have a complete conceptual and digital framework available for anyone to view. The finished product will be available online, where people can view a map of Maine with multiple layers representing different community capitals and overall community resilience of each forest dependent community. This allows filtering the map for specific information, like seeing a community’s social or economic resilience score.
Obosu hopes that this format will allow the information to be accessible to everyone, not just experts in the field. The framework will serve as a tool for Mainers for years to come, as the data will be updated on a yearly basis to reflect any changes.
This work has an opportunity to positively impact forest-dependent communities, a topic he hopes to further pursue in the future. “My goal has always been to produce work that benefits society, so being part of this project brings a strong sense of personal and professional fulfillment,” said Obosu.
He also highlights the collaborative nature of the work and the diverse perspectives it has brought. “This project is pushing me beyond what I thought I could do, and I am truly appreciating each step of the process,” he remarked. Obosu would like to recognize Professor of Nature-based Tourism Sandra De Urioste-Stone, Associate Professor of Remote Sensing of Natural Resources Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, and Professor of Forest Biometrics and Modeling Aaron Weiskittel for giving him the opportunity to do this project. As he continues his work, Obosu’s perseverance keeps him going.
“Above all, I live by a simple quote that motivates me: ‘The hard is always easy’” said Obosu.
Story by Heather Johnson, Graduate Assistant
Contact: Daniel Timmermann, daniel.timmerman@maine.edu
Categories: Maine FOREST