Publications

Indigenous communities, highly vulnerable to climate change and biodiversity loss, often find their knowledge excluded from climate research and policymaking. This Situated Action is the finale of the project, entitled; Indigenous Climate Observatories: local knowledge for Local Action, which addressed this contradiction. This project was done in parallel by 7 different Indigenous communities, in collaboration with (local) researchers and other societal actors. Together we explored Indigenous Climate Observatories as a conceptual entity which is focusing on 1) defining local change indicators, 2) using those change indicators to observe and track change, 3) reflecting on this change and 4) collaboratively planning for action in relation to this change. Through the Situated Action, where we assemble the project outcomes, we aim to further reflect on what Indigenous Climate Observatories can be, after which we co-create a Climate Observatory as a representation of these reflections and different perspectives.

ACM Reference: Lizette Reitsma, Diana Azlyn William, Meshack N. Dludlu, Gugu Sibandze, Molibeli Taele, Charles Tseole, and Tariq Zaman. 2024. Assembling Indigenous Climate Observatories – Local knowledge for Local Action. In Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2024: Situated Actions, Doctoral Colloquium, PDC places, Communities – Volume 3 (PDC ’24), Vol. 3. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 48–51. https://doi.org/10.1145/3661456.3666061

‘Modern’ design research is situated in and emerged from a specific worldview, which it still echoes. This has implications when we design with groups who hold other worldviews, such as Indigenous communities. It can, for example, affect colonial power structures of dependency as well as be colonising by imposing worldviews and prescribing solutions and methods. If we consider ‘modern’ design as just a specific type of design, among other ways, we could follow a pluriversal understanding of design. In order to meet respectfully in a pluriverse, there is a need to collaborate and to hand-over control to the community. One way of thinking about design in a pluriverse could be to think through an Indigenous knowledge approach to design, in which we respectfully show care and awareness in how we identify, explore and assess meaning – acknowledging that our view is always incomplete. In the project described in this chapter, the author has attempted to take up such a respectful approach to design, which required a re-learning of what it means to be a designer/researcher. She goes into the project, the different designs that evolved from it and examines whether, and how those designs were designed through a respectful design approach.

Reference: Reitsma, L. (2023). Respectfully navigating the borderlands towards emergence: Co-designing with Indigenous communities. In The Routledge Companion to Design Research (pp. 166-176). Routledge.

Weather variations play a significant role in peoples’ short-term, medium-term or long-term planning. Therefore, understanding of weather patterns has become very important in decision making. Short-term weather forecasting (nowcasting) involves the prediction of weather over a short period of time; typically few hours. Different techniques have been proposed for short-term weather forecasting. Traditional techniques used for nowcasting are highly parametric, and hence complex. Recently, there has been a shift towards the use of artificial intelligence techniques for weather nowcasting. These include the use of machine learning techniques such as artificial neural networks. In this chapter, we report the use of deep learning techniques for weather nowcasting. Deep learning techniques were tested on meteorological data. Three deep learning techniques, namely multilayer perceptron, Elman recurrent neural networks and Jordan recurrent neural networks, were used in this work. Multilayer perceptron models achieved 91 and 75% accuracies for sunshine forecasting and precipitation forecasting respectively, Elman recurrent neural network models achieved accuracies of 96 and 97% for sunshine and precipitation forecasting respectively, while Jordan recurrent neural network models achieved accuracies of 97 and 97% for sunshine and precipitation nowcasting respectively. The results obtained underline the utility of using deep learning for weather nowcasting.

Reference: Senekane, M., Mafu, M., & Taele, M. B. (2021). Weather Nowcasting Using Deep Learning Techniques. Data Mining-Methods, Applications and Systems, pg.107.

To stay within the planetary boundaries, we have to take responsibility, and this includes designers. This requires new perspectives on design. In this work, we focus on a co-design project with indigenous communities. Within such communities, indigenous knowledge is central. Indigenous knowledge acknowledges that the world is alive and that we, as humans, are merely a small part. Central in our approach is Sheehan’s respectful design, which ensures a central place for indigenous knowledge in the design process. However, Sheehan’s approach does not state in pragmatic terms how such a design approach can be achieved. Some of the co-design processes we engaged in led to respectful design spaces, others did not. This helped us to identify patterns of dynamics that are essential for respectful design. At the core of our findings lies the observation that in order to reach a respectful design space, in which indigenous knowledge is embedded, a shared dialogical space between community and designer is essential.

Reference: Reitsma, L., Light, A., Zaman, T., & Rodgers, P. (2019). A Respectful Design Framework. Incorporating indigenous knowledge in the design process. The Design Journal, 22(sup1), 1555-1570.

As concretely shown through a pilot project by van Gevelt and Zaman (2019) with Indigenous communities in Borneo, Malaysia, knowing about concepts that are central in climate research, such as drought and rainfall, does not necessarily translate to action because the communities have other markers to understand change in their environment. As also shown through the outcomes of the pilot study by van Gevelt and Zaman (2019) simple community-led processes that allow community members to come together and reach a common understanding of climate anomalies can lead to shared perceptions and positively influence adaptation behaviour.

Reference: van Gevelt, T., Abok, H., Bennett, M. M., Fam, S. D., George, F., Kulathuramaiyer, N. Low, C.T & Zaman, T. (2019). Indigenous perceptions of climate anomalies in Malaysian Borneo. Global Environmental Change, 58, 101974.

The Endangered Warburgia salutaris (Bertol. f.) Chiov. (Canellaceae), a sought-after medicinal plant in southern Africa, is on the verge of extinction as a result of overexploitation for illegal trade. As part of formulating a conservation strategy for the species in Swaziland we sought to determine its distribution and population status and to revise its national conservation status. Field surveys were conducted in all physiographic regions of Swaziland. Eighteen locations of species presence were found, of which 14 were new records. Three were within protected areas, and seven were in areas worthy of protection. The largest subpopulations occurred in two of the latter areas, Ngudzeni and Sitsatsaweni (351 and 230 individuals, respectively), and one unprotected area, Bulunga (250 individuals). Warburgia salutaris has a severely fragmented distribution and an area of occupancy of 192 km2. Of 700 mature individuals 38% were ring-barked and 7% felled, and some subpopulations had ring-barked juveniles. This indicates a plausible decline in number of mature individuals. Most localities in unprotected areas are eroded and invaded by alien plants, indicating a decline in habitat quality. Our findings indicate that W. salutaris should be categorized as Endangered nationally based on criteria B2ab (iii,v). Although this status implies a lower level of threat than the previous national categorization as Critically Endangered, it does not imply an improved conservation effort in the country, but rather a more accurate assessment based on more data. We have clarified the conservation status of W. salutaris in Swaziland, discovered some previously undocumented subpopulations and identified potential conservation interventions. We recommend that this information be used in setting priorities to ensure conservation of the species

Reference: Dludlu, M. N., Dlamini, P. S., Sibandze, G. F., Vilane, V. S., & Dlamini, C. S. (2017). Distribution and conservation status of the Endangered pepperbark tree Warburgia salutaris (Canellaceae) in Swaziland. Oryx, 51(3), 451-454.

This research focuses on designing with indigenous communities. The use of design raises concerns in this context. Because of the aim to ‘improve’ lives and the emphasis on innovation, design approaches have the probability to colonise. As designers, we have to find ways to deal with such concerns. Approaches that do this within the context of indigenous communities are Sheehan’s respectful design and Tunstall’s culture-based innovation. Both approaches acknowledge that the community should benefit from projects. In this, the role of the designer becomes to spark the resourcefulness of the community members to find such benefit. However, neither approach states in pragmatic terms how such a space can be reached. Therefore, this research aims to: explore the dynamics of a respectful design space in co-creative and co-reflective encounters with indigenous communities; and to provide recommendations to reach such a space. The explorations were performed by introducing co-creative design methods during a case study with three indigenous communities. Some co-creative processes led to respectful design spaces, others did not. All processes were analytically studied by combining annotated portfolios and content analysis in timelines. The aim was to find patterns of dynamics essential for respectful design. The dynamics that arose were: 1) ownership through the type of design participation, 2) indicators of ownership, 3) the type of novel expressions made and 4) the type of material culture introduced. This led to contributions of this research being, firstly, a framework of a respectful design space and recommendations of how to reach such a space. Secondly, the concept of constellations of design initiatives, to understand respectful design in situ. Thirdly, the importance of inclusion of the community’s own material culture to facilitate dialogical spaces, and, finally, the analytical approach used to find the dynamics.

Reference: Reitsma, E. S. (2015). Dynamics of Respectful Design in Co-Creative and Co-Reflective Encounters with Indigenous Communities. University of Northumbria at Newcastle (United Kingdom).