Abstract
This thesis investigates a potential platform for communities and environmental management groups to compile and communicate their environmental data. With natural resource management shifting from government-led to place-based, it is important to have a way of archiving information and communicating it within its context in a community-friendly way. ESRI Story Map ArcGIS may provide a solution as it enables research to be shown as a multimedia narrative, with access to ArcGIS mapping.
This thesis begins by reviewing place-based management, and the history and motives behind the East Otago Taiāpure, a hāpu-led marine and freshwater management area. Before describing the creative component of this thesis (a Story Map platform), the concepts of citizen science and web-spaces as monitoring and communication tools are discussed. The design and intentions for the Story Map are then described, with relation to the East Otago Taiāpure. The Story Map platform produced for this thesis is the start of a living resource that details student science research on blue cod (Parapercis colias) population parameters, eel (Anguilla dieffenbachii and A. australis) populations, and the spread of Asian kelp (Undaria pinnatifidia) within the East Otago Taiāpure. The intention of the Story Map is to be used by the East Otago Taiāpure Management Committee to contribute towards the information it requires to base environmental management policies on. Through the methodology of practice-led research, a discussion was held with members of the East Otago Taiāpure Management Committee to evaluate the existing platform, and its potential within the management committee. This thesis also discusses the potential for ESRI Story Map ArcGIS to be used in schools and by wider communities to inform and guide environmental management.