Abstract

Coastal communities create their story through Spatial Narrative Geotools
Track: Ocean, Coastal, and Marine Resources
Authors: Janet Silbernagel

Every place has a story. This Wisconsin Sea Grant-funded project, in collaboration with the Esri Applications Prototype Lab, developed geotools to foster citizen engagement and spatial literacy of the socio-environmental complexities of Great Lakes coastal communities. Bay Renassaince group in Green Bay, Wisconsin is participating with us to pilot the geotools and design their own place-based stories. A suite of three Spatial Narrative 'geotool' apps that leverage ArcGIS Online, have been piloted: 1) an authoring tool to construct places and topics; 2) a surfer tool to support community leader input and moderation in a Story Map like format online; and 3) an explorer tool that allows citizens to engage the narrative in place and submit photos, audio, video and journal entries based on their experiences. We share findings from community workshops on the effectiveness of spatial narrative geotools in allowing citizens to craft their own map story.