Participatory GIS in a post-conflict context: a case study of Sierra Leone1

In post-conflict societies, cities often experience drastic change in settlement and land-use patterns that transform human-environment relationships. These changes include internal displacement, often to urban areas, and environmental degradation. In many African cities, these patterns and relationships are being shaped by urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), a production system that ensured food security for thousands of rural migrants seeking relative safety in urban areas. In a post-conflict scenario, UPA continues to provide food security and employment in an environment struggling to physically and emotionally recover. Methodologies using a geographical information system (GIS) for urban ecosystem assessment (UEA) are gaining currency among researchers, planners and practitioners to improve understandings and find solutions for sustainable urban development. This article will discuss the use of a GIS for post-conflict urban assessment of human-environment relationships in Sierra Leone, where a ten-year civil war, which ravaged the countryside, resulted in the internal displacement of thousands of rural inhabitants to the capital city, Freetown