Photography and maps can be both inexpensive and valid tools for assessing and understanding changes in landscapes.

An article on the blog of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative outlines how many environmental scientists and land managers often overlook such simple tools (considering them out-of-date or less rigorous) and prefer to opt for tools that require costly equipment and special training to evaluate temporal and spatial changes in interdependent and multifunctional systems.

Two new user guides have been developed by EcoAgriculture Partners and Cornell University to help train landscape leaders and stakeholders in the use of photography and maps, and both are freely available online.

Ground-Based Photo-Monitoring of Landscape Changes Arising from Sustainable Land Management Practices: A User’s Guide describes how to plan and systemically use photography as an analytical tool to monitor changes and use visual indicators to measure management goals and outcomes.

Ground-based photo-monitoring makes use of basic photography techniques to monitor change. It allows visual changes to be documented and assessed in landscapes over time by repeatedly taking photographs from the same location. While this technique might lack the precision and accuracy of a modern GIS analysis, it can be easily interpreted by scientists, practitioners and local community members of any education level.

Spatial Planning and Monitoring of Landscape Interventions: Maps to Link People with their Landscapes: A User’s Guide presents steps to guide key stakeholders through a spatial planning process aimed at integrating goals for agricultural production, biodiversity conservation and livelihood security.

Often maps are not an integral part of landscape planning and monitoring due to lack of data, skills and time. This guide advises stakeholders how to collect and create maps – such as for water flows, suitable agricultural soils, vegetation cover and population - from available sources and use them in participatory planning to design interventions and demonstrate how one potential change might affect other elements in a landscape.

Read the full story: New Guides and Tools for Tackling Complex, Interdisciplinary Problems