Ecofeminist Geospatial Tool to Monitor Crisis Levels in the Lake Chad Basin

Lake Chad is among the most urgent complex crises in the world. The underlying environmental change caused by human development, agriculture, and climate change has destabilized Lake Chad, a life source for 30 million people (United Nations, Drying Lake Chad Basin gives rise to crisis. Africa Renewal. [Online] Available from: https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2019-march-2020/drying-lake-chad-basin-gives-rise-crisis, 2020). Although each demographic segmentation faces its challenges, the specific conditions occurring in Lake Chad have led to the rise of what is being called “ecofeminism.” EcofeminismEcofeminism recognizes the intersectional challenges women face by applying feminist principles to ecological issues. Through exhaustive research and consultations, gaps in data were identified as a major barrier for effectively addressing the crisis. With technology being inaccessible and rarely used by the residents of Lake Chad, it was determined any innovative technological solution must be aimed at the policymaker level. This chapter proposes an ecofeminist geospatial tool called “Lake Chad Lens.” This tool utilizes ArcGIS application builder to tailor services to women’s needs in the region by feeding data to broader spatial and temporal scales at considerably finer resolutions for far more extended periods. The benefit is the access to real-time data collected in a standardized way that decision-makers will have on crisis levels, environmental change, and social threats to women of Lake Chad. The expected results involve improving women’s lives by enabling more holistic, informed, and effective data-driven crisis management initiatives. Ultimately, the proposal demonstrates the value of tailoring existing technological solutions to regional demographics and cultures. Crisis managers can adopt the same philosophy globally to capture the intersectional and nuanced challenges of demographic subsets in the face of conflict and climate change.