scientific symposium using technology to monitor and counter

ICOMOS Scientific Symposium – Malta, 2009 Changing World, Changing Views of Heritage

Theme 2: Intangible Andrew Hall

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Scientific Symposium Changing World, Changing Views of Heritage:

the impact of global change on cultural heritage – Technological Change

7 October 2009 Valletta, Malta

USING TECHNOLOGY TO MONITOR AND COUNTER THE IMPACTS OF

GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ON TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR CULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Andrew Hall

Over the past twenty or more years the technologies needed for remote monitoring of large areas of land have been developed. Generally they are used to manage various aspects of the environment and have rarely been applied to the conservation of cultural heritage. The technologies available include the global positioning system (GPS), geographical information systems (GIS), electronic databases, cellular and satellite communications and management software. More recently there has been a trend for the communities that occupy and use the land concerned to be brought into participatory mapping and monitoring projects as active participants in the process. Ordinary people have become the users of the technology, primarily the instruments used to map and measure impacts on the landscape. Recently they have even been used in projects that integrate the indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) of communities. Combined together these developments create powerful tools that should be more frequently used to monitor and manage cultural landscapes and there is no reason why with a little adaptation such systems cannot also be used to measure the impacts of global climate change. Given the advent of affordable, automatic weather stations there is now no reason why climatic data cannot be combined into a system that will provide for the monitoring and measuring the impacts of cultural, climate and other environmental factors each upon the other. In 1995, shortly after South Africa rejoined the global family, I visited the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site and for the first time saw an information technology based monitoring system at work on a heritage site. It consisted of a process of regular measuring of shifts in the dry stone walling that makes up the structural part of the site. The information generated was fed into an electronic database which we were told would, after a number of years, be able to produce a model for both seasonal and cyclical movement of the structure that amongst other things would in time provide a predictive model for structural shift and warn of movement that was abnormal, in so doing enabling site management to take remedial action in advance of the periodic collapses that plagued the site. Six years later I again visited Great Zimbabwe and experienced at firsthand how data generated over a number of years was being used as a tool to anticipate the periodic collapses and the programme that was being implemented to use such predictions to the benefit of the site. Since that time I have read of many other such models for monitoring and managing structures and archaeological sites. Somewhere around the time of my second visit to Great Zimbabwe I became responsible for a process of nomination of, and ultimately a large part of the management of, a World Heritage Site that is very different, being a living cultural landscape inhabited by a transhumant people who migrate with their livestock as the seasons change, using patterns that archaeological investigation tells us have not changed in several centuries. The culture of transhumant sheep farming in the area is itself believed to be around two thousand years old. The inhabitants of the Richtersveld World Heritage Site are a remnant of the once numerous Nama, the only surviving branch of the KhoiKhoi (previously known as Hottentots). They inhabit one of the most inhospitable regions of the world, a small mountain desert in the north-west corner of South Africa, isolated on three sides by a range of what are some of the world’s most ancient mountains and on the other by the South Atlantic Ocean. It is not a culture that produces structures of any permanency, being known rather for a portable tent-like structure, the |haru oms (rush house), an untensioned, armature tent similar to that used by many transhumant and nomadic peoples.



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Rather than being a designed landscape, the value of the site rests primarily in the dynamic relationship between people and nature, that is to say the way the Nama manage to farm livestock on a sustainable basis in an environment where survival of both man and beast will always be tenuous. Over the three and a half centuries since colonialism commenced its impact on the KhoiKhoi peoples of south-western Africa, the Richtersveld Nama alone have been able to adapt and adjust without being overwhelmed like their relatives who have either succumbed to extinction or lost the core values according to which their ancestors lived. In the context of climate change, it is important to understand that because of their extreme isolation the people of the Richtersveld have been able to absorb and adjust to outside influences at a rate that has not imperiled the culture itself. More rapid change and resultant inability to absorb outside influences at a rate that did not imperil core cultural values has meant that others groups in the region have not survived. Today the Nama of the Richtersveld are no longer simple subsistence farmers living in isolated camps way out in the desert. Whilst the hostile environment, their camps and way of life survive, signs of 21st century life are everywhere. All families have a modern home in one of the four villages in the area. Here children receive education; the elderly their pensions; the ill visit clinics and all receive the other benefits and influences of citizenship of contemporary South Africa. However, just as the 21st century is ever present so are the indications of a culture that has been able to adapt to its influences. Pre-school children are raised in camps out in the desert and during this time and over weekends and school holidays during their school years they continue to learn the old ways and grow up familiar with the harsh life of the nomad at his or her remote and ever mobile livestock post. They learn to read the landscape at each of their family’s three to four camp sites, knowing when and where to graze their sheep and when it is time to move on. The system is no longer one of subsistence and the transhumant livestock farmers are locked into South Africa’s cash economy selling their sheep and goats to abattoirs in the larger towns of the Northern Cape Province. They are, in the context of traditional communities, one of the more prosperous in the country. Survival of their culture has depended upon ability to continue farming and therefore the continuation of the traditional land management system by which they ensure that each season the desert yields sufficient feed for their livestock. The Richtersveld happens also to be part of the most botanically diverse arid ecosystem in the world, the so-called ‘Succulent Karoo’ centre of endemism. There are approximately 2000 plant species found in the Succulent Karoo and each year more are identified. This high level of species diversity is due to the nature of the terrain. The cold Bengula Current of the eastern shore of the South Atlantic has created the desert environment of Southern Africa and Namibia’s west coast and in the Richtersveld the diverse geology and mountainous topography has determined that each mountain valley traps sea mist, catches sunlight and loses or retains heat in a different way resulting in subtle variations in moisture, temperature and other environmental determinants – micro-climates – and hence a wide variation of species over very short distance. Often where the white quartz veins common to the area give way to the darker and more dominant granite plant life changes dramatically within a single step. Through careful and deliberate land management the Nama and their ancestors have over 2000 years ensured that this incredible species diversity has been retained, despite grazing by sheep and goats. Climate change is an obvious threat to the Richtersveld, both to the cultural practices of the Nama and to the botanical diversity of the area. If the climate changes so will the plant life and likely also the geomorphology. Many of the unwritten rules that govern the way the transhumant farmers manage the environment in which their livestock grazes will no longer be effective and there is a risk that if this happens at a rate at which the culture is unable to absorb, digest and adapt to it, the core values of the culture and with them the outstanding universal value of the site will disappear. Being no expert on climate change, I will not risk an opinion on what is likely to happen to Southern Africa’s west coast, other than to say that there are broadly speaking two theories which I understand as follows: a. The area will become wetter as the Bengula current warms and there is greater evaporation off the

sea which will be picked up by the prevailing south-west wind and driven inland. Similarly, as equatorial weather systems strengthen due to climate change, the moisture they carry will be driven further south than is currently the case. Either of these scenarios or both in conjunction will create higher rainfall, causing erosion of the relatively unprotected topsoil and/or replacement of current plant species by those that thrive in wetter conditions.



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b. The area will become even drier as worldwide desertification intensifies due to higher average global temperatures. The already tenuous existence of plant life will intensify and many species will die out leading to denudation and risk of erosion if and when there is rainfall.

Whilst either prospect will be disastrous for the ecology of the area and puts at risk a great botanical treasure, what we are primarily concerned with from a heritage conservation perspective is what the impacts of these possible scenarios may have on the culture of the Nama people and their ability to retain their culture in a more extreme desert environment, or one that yields greener pastures. Fundamentally the ability of any culture to retain its core values in the face of any outside influence, whether it be acculturation, globalisation, or climate change is determined by the rate at which it is able to adapt. Rate of adaptation is in turn determined by many things, but primarily it is the speed at which change occurs that is the ultimate determinant of survival or extinction. That said, the speed at which adaptation can occur will vary depending upon the nature of the culture, the type of influence and the degree to which those affected have the power to influence or control change. As has been said already, the Richtersveld was in the past cushioned from outside pressures by its wall of mountains and an extreme climate that made the area relatively inaccessible and unattractive to outsiders. The issue with global climate change is whether the same community can be cushioned against influences that its mountains cannot resist and which will change the very environmental conditions that acted as their guardian in the past. This is where the use of technology as a management tool comes into play. Technology has been used in many ways as a tool to protect the cultural landscapes of transhumant and nomadic people all over the world. Primarily the system used is GPS driven and GIS based, that is to say that fixed points that show some or other cultural context or phenomena are generated and then placed on a digital map. It is in short simple cultural mapping as has existed for many years, but based on information technology. In Africa the technology has been used in several projects that combine environmental and cultural factors. In Cameroon it has determined the area traditionally used by the Baka Pygmies and the key resources within it, amongst other things to justify boundaries for and protect the land that they traditionally own and which provides their sustenance. It has been used to plot the movement of nomads in the Sahel and to monitor the condition of the areas in which their goats graze. In South Africa it was used by the ≠Khomani Bushmen to provide evidence of previous occupation in support of a successful land claim. The technology is neither new, expensive nor particularly difficult to use and can be adapted for communities that are not literate, using icons rather than the written word to indicate phenomena in a landscape that are to be mapped or monitored. In the Richtersveld where one of the major potential threats is from climate change, thought has for some time been given to how such a threat might be managed. I deliberately use the term ‘potential’ as there has been no systematic measurement of climatic conditions, and any projection of impact is at this stage simply speculative. The South African Weather Service does maintain reporting stations in areas around the Richtersveld and recently an automated weather station has been set up in the World Heritage Site itself. The transhumant farmers themselves appear to be of the opinion that the climate is getting wetter, but that may simply be a result of the fact that Southern Africa is currently in the wetter part of its ‘natural’ climatic cycle, albeit that the wet cycle appears to have lasted beyond any of the various time spans that are considered average by different experts. Only a sustained effort of regular measuring of climatic conditions will reveal the truth for the Richtersveld and it will take around two decades (a full wet and dry cycle) to produce data than can begin to be compared with future cycles. The idea is that it should ultimately be possible to create for a cultural landscape like the Richtersveld a predictive model that is similar in effect to those in use at Great Zimbabwe and at other major monumental structures around the world. That is to say an information technology based system that adds to the concept of cultural mapping a data processing system that is able to warn site managers of changes over time in the nature of the site and allow them to initiate interventions that will ensure protection of its core. In the Richtersveld (and for any other transhumant or nomadic cultural landscape) it is envisaged that such a system would work as follows: Ideally each transhumant stock-farmer, but in reality probably a sample group, would be given a GPS device either to carry in his pocket wherever he went, or to attach to one of his sheep, or perhaps both. These devices would track movement of the flock and/or the farmer, on both a daily and seasonal basis. This would provide insight into the grazing patterns of the flock whilst it is based at a particular camp, for example how frequently there is movement between grazing areas in the valleys around a camp, and the times at which the seasonal migrations between camps occur in the annual cycle of transhumance.



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The advantage of having both the farmer and a sheep carry a device is that the frequency of movement of the farmer between his camp and the village, sources of water, etc. could also be plotted. Data would be downloaded during visits to the village and batteries kept charged using solar power. The second leg of the programme relates to the generation of climatic data. Since the Richtersveld consists of many micro-climates, a single weather station in the World Heritage Site is insufficient and ideally one should be established at each camp used by each family in the site, or more realistically at a cross-section of camps used at different seasons by different families. Given the dependence of much of the plant life on moisture content of the air rather than direct rainfall, a variety of climatic data will be important to the project eg: rainfall, humidity, pressure, temperature, dew point and soil moisture levels are all relevant. Another important factor is the Orange, or Gariep River which is fed by sources far west in the interior of the sub-continent and which forms the northern and eastern boundary of the site. Farmers depend upon it during the extremely dry late summer period. Measuring of its water level may also be an important factor. Botanically and/or zoologically it should also be possible to identify ‘indicator species’ which could be counted by a stock farmer as he moves daily with his livestock. Depending upon the technology used this is possible and palm computers have been used in other contexts to make counts of indicator species, the user simply touching an icon on a screen each time a particular plant or animal is seen, thus providing both a count and a location for the species in question. Changes in species counts, both increases and decreases that are out of sync with normal seasonal patterns, are an important way of determining changes in an environment and could be useful in the context of the Richtersveld where plants, insects and reptiles are highly adapted and likely to be easily affected by change. Most importantly, a project of this nature requires technology in the form of programming that is capable of using the wide variety of data on weather and climate; indicator species and the movement of farmers to generate a model that on the basis of sets of seasonal and cyclical information establishes the conditions that drive transhumance in the Richtersveld. If the data is accurately and efficiently collected and processed it should within a few years be possible for the system to determine the conditions under which migration from one place to another will occur. As data builds up over a period of years it should also begin to show with some accuracy how conditions at individual camps influence movement. Ultimately, as data is collected over full climatic cycles of several years the system might even be able to predict in advance the time at which a particular farmer might be expected to move from one particular camp to another. It will be at this point that it really becomes a useful tool in the battle against the impacts of global climate change. It is foreseen that, just as information technology is able to warn of unprecedented structural shifts in buildings, a model for a transhumance could achieve the same for deviation from expected patterns of transhumance. That is to say that shifts in what should be relatively predictable schedules of migration, whether sudden or gradual, will be detectable as will the environmental situation that drives them. In short, the system should ultimately be in a position to measure the impacts of climate change and determine the nature of the change that has occurred. Collecting the data that is needed to make the system work is probably the most simple part of the project as there is little doubt that the farmers would have no difficulty with the idea of carrying a GPS or palm computer in return for a small stipend. A greater challenge is developing the programming that is needed to generate the model described above, but there are precedents from other areas of conservation that could probably be adapted to the purpose. It is then a matter of sustaining the system to the point where it becomes a really useful tool. Thereafter the real challenge will undoubtedly be the decision making on what interventions are appropriate. On sites involving structures there is usually long debate on matters of intervention: Does one buttress a failing wall or rebuild it? What materials should one use to stabilise an archaeological deposit that is unstable, etc. etc? In the case of a living cultural landscape these issues may be more difficult to resolve because of the ‘human factor’. Modifying the way people think about and behave within the landscape that gives them sustenance is a complex matter. In the Richtersveld, if one approaches a transhumant farmer at a camp and asks when he plans to move on the response will be premised not only upon an estimated span of time, but a set of conditions that have to be in place for him to know that it is the correct time to move on. These conditions differ widely from camp to camp and may have to do with factors as variable as a slight change in the shade of colour of an adjacent hillside; the coarseness of the soil; the feel of the leaves of a certain shrub, etc. all in addition to more obvious indicators such as general condition of the veld and livestock. These indicators are learned from grandparents and passed down from generation to generation within the family that uses a particular set of campsites. What will happen when age old indicators of the environment’s ability or inability to sustain livestock are no longer reliable or cannot be predicted?



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If the environment ‘improves’ in the sense of becoming wetter, it is possible that in the future it may not be necessary to move at all. Families might settle down in one place, build a more conventional home and the system of transhumance would disappear. On the other hand, should it become drier movement could become more frequent as resources at a campsite are more quickly exhausted. Alternatively there is the danger of over-grazing. Either way pressure will be put on resources with dire consequences for the system of farming. Several possible courses of intervention spring to mind, but it is not the intention to discuss their merits in a paper the primary purpose of which is to address ways in which technology might be of assistance in identifying impacts of global climate change. Suffice it to say, the interventions to be selected in the future will more than likely depend largely on the speed at which change occurs and this in itself is an area in which the assistance of an information technology based system could be invaluable. As has already been said, the ability of any culture to adapt depends upon the speed at which change occurs. A system of the sort under consideration can in a sense look into the future, through predicting not only the type of change, but the speed at which it is likely to occur. This is simply through factoring in the rate of change already found and extrapolating it into the future. This also gives it some ability to formulate the rate at which a response via adaptation is needed and in this way further assists not only in determining that intervention is needed, but the form it might take. No doubt the same applies to the application of similar technology in other areas of heritage conservation, but in the context of managing a behaviour rather than a materials-driven situation the ability to look into the future is perhaps of more value. There are many other spin-offs of the introduction of a system of the sort described that are not related to climate change. At present relatively little is known about the movement of the transhumant society of the Richtersveld in terms of what it actually is about their indigenous knowledge systems that enables them to manage their environment, or what the indicators they use to read the landscape at various places mean in terms of actual environmental and climatic conditions. Turning the indigenous knowledge into scientific data may in the future also be useful to future generations of the society itself having a scope beyond the curiosity of scientific enquiry of those who wish to study the culture. To make such a system a reality requires funding and that has to be on a sustained basis over many years. Sustaining the collection and processing of data will take considerable effort, but the costs thereof need not be large and could probably found within the agencies that are responsible for the site. The issue is the start-up costs, principally those related to programming and the equipment needed to generate data. These have to be found somewhere and as yet no sponsor has been found. Until that happens we have no choice but to trust in the ability of an ancient people to manage their affairs on the same basis that their forefathers. Bibliography: Ayenekulu E et al, ‘Monitoring & Evaluating Land Use/Land Cover Change Using Participatory GIS Tools: A Case Study of Begasheka Watershed, Tigray Ethiopia’, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries [O], Vol 25, 2006 (http://www.ejisdc.org/) Chambers R, “Participatory Mapping and GIS: Who’s Map? Who is Empowered and Who Disempowered? Who Gains and Who Loses?’ Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries [O], Vol 25, 2006 (http://www.ejisdc.org/) Keane F, ‘GPS helps Pygmies defend forest’, BBC News [O], 30 Jan 2008 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7218078.stm) Kyem P & Saku J, ‘Web-Based GIS and the Future of Participatory GIS Applications within Local and Indigenous Communities’, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries [O], Vol 38, 2009 (http://www.ejisdc.org/) Mannak M, ‘Environment: Climate Change Threatens Livelihoods Along Africa's Coast’ Inter Press Service News Agency [O], 19 Feb 2009 (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45823) Prussin L, 1995, African Nomadic Architecture, Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press Shrestha H, ‘Using GPS and GIS in Participatory Mapping of Community Forest in Nepal’, Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries [O], Vol 25, 2006 (http://www.ejisdc.org/)

http://www.ejisdc.org/


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7218078.stm





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Sylla C, ‘A Cyber Shepherd at Work in the Sahel’ International Development Research Centre [O], 17 Nov 2003 (http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-47038-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html) Tripathi N & Bhattarya S, ‘Integrating Indigenous Knowledge and GIS for Participatory Natural Resource Management: State-of-the-Practice’ Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries [O], Vol 17, 2004 (http://www.ejisdc.org/) Turpie J et al, Economic Impacts of Climate Change in South Africa: A Preliminary Analysis of Unmitigated Damage Costs [O], University of Cape Town: Southern Waters Ecological Research & Consulting & Energy & Development Research Centre, Feb 2002 (http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/pdf/turpie02.pdf) Williamson G, Richtersveld: The Enchanted Wilderness, Pretoria: Umdaus Press, 2000 Captions: All photographs by Andrew Hall

1. Sea mist moving into the Richtersveld Mountains


http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/pdf/turpie02.pdf



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2. Botanical diversity at Rooiberg in the Richtersveld

3. The foggy, cold South Atlantic at Port Nolloth south-west of the World Heritage Site



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4. The Damrog Family's winter camp

5. The Orange or Gariep River near Grootderm in the Richtersveld



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6. |Haru Oms traditional housing at Glybank near Kuboes village

7. Shepherd and Flock at Tierhoek in the Richtersveld

scientific symposium using technology to monitor and counter

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