Problem Identification
In structuring the research/work, it is important to think about it as a project and adopt some basic project management skills to define it. When developing a project, researchers must think carefully about the scope, cost, and time dedicated to the project, as changes in any of these three dimensions impact the quality and subsequent outcome (deliverables) of the project.
Before a project begins, several questions need to be answered, including the following:
1. Can geospatial technologies be used to address the problem?
- Geospatial technologies are used in a wide variety of fields but are not necessarily suitable for addressing all of the contemporary environmental challenges that we face today. For example, if you were interested in studying peoples’ perceptions and/or understanding of different environmental challenges (e.g., Alberta oil sands, impacts of climate change, etc.), a geospatial approach to studying this environmental challenge would not be appropriate.
2. What are the spatial/temporal dimensions of the problem?
- When conducting a research project, it is important to define the spatial and temporal dimensions of a problem to place boundaries on the study. For example, it would be very difficult (not to mention impractical) to study the impact of forest clear-cutting across the globe. Thus, you might choose to constrain your study to a location in southern British Columbia. While it is useful to study a problem over a long period of time, a study is often constrained by time. Therefore, it is important to identify a time period over which you will study the problem.
- So, typically, a “problem” occupies a specific geographic space that can be defined using location-based information. In other words, the boundaries of the study area can be identified.
3. Who are the important stakeholders involved in the problem?
- In broad terms, stakeholders are people or organizations who are “actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project" (Stakeholdermap, 2017). In the context of environmental and natural resource management, stakeholders are typically defined as “communities, NGOs, the government and the private sector" (Kivits, 2011, p. 320).
- Clearly identifying the stakeholders involved in an environmental challenge is useful as these people/organizations may then be included in the project to increase the chances of solving the problem.
4. What cost might be incurred if we use a geospatial approach to solve the problem?
- Often the cost or budget assigned to a project can be used to define project scope.
- Project scope should be defined in the planning stages of a project and typically involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, tasks, deliverables, deadlines, and costs. Scope ultimately defines the work that needs to be accomplished to deliver the project. Project scope is a particularly important consideration when implementing projects that involve the use of geospatial technologies where time and cost can be quite easily under-budgeted (Herzner, 2003; Wing and Bettinger, 2008).
Here, you must also consider the project goal and objectives, tasks, resources, and schedule/deadlines for completing the project.
5. What is our budget?
- Are there existing data sources (e.g., free remote-sensing data, crowd-sourced data, etc.) that we can use to reduce the cost?
- Can we hire a third party to help with data collection, analyses, etc.?
