Applications of Geospatial Technologies to Promote

Environmental Education and Sustainability

V. Chris Lakhan,1 Abdolhossein Parizanganeh,2 and Sajid R. Ahmad1

1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

University of Windsor

Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4

2Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences,

Zanjan University

Zanjan - Iran

ABSTRACT

This paper focussed on the application of geospatial

technologies in the form of global positioning

systems, geographical information systems (GIS),

remotely-sensed satellite images, and a Virtual Globe

to collect, analyze, and visualize environmental

survey data from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Data

from 9,062 survey questionnaires were first analyzed

with loglinear modelling techniques. After

statistically identifying that educational attainment,

age, gender, and location, were major factors

influencing concern for the environment and

sustainability issues, a GIS was used to map and

visualize the spatial differences in education and

concern for the environment. Numerous areas

throughout Iran were identified as having low concern

for the environment. These areas could be considered

as “hotspots” and should be the focus of spatial

targeting. With the geospatial results policy planners,

community leaders and environmentalists could now

prioritize areas in order to deliver effective

environmental education programs and environmental

sustainability practices.

Keywords: Geospatial Technologies, Geographical

Information Systems, Virtual Globe, Loglinear

Modelling, Spatial Targeting, Iran, Hotspots,

Environmental Education, Sustainability.

1. INTRODUCTION

While various strategies to improve environmental

governance and to ensure environmental sustainability

have been advocated yet environmental problems

continue to escalate, especially in many countries of

the developing world. One reason for the lack of

progress in attaining environmental sustainability

could be attributed to deficiencies in environmental

education at local and national levels. According to

[1, p. 37], “if real sustainability is to become

increasingly meaningful and mainstream, rather than

devalued and marginalized, education in all forms and

in all sectors has a vital role to play.” Given the

necessity to promote environmental education this

research demonstrates the application of geospatial

technologies to examine and target those areas and

regions with inadequate levels of educational

attainment. The assumption was made that high levels

of educational attainment will correspond with higher

concerns for the environment, and greater knowledge

of sustainability practices. To demonstrate the

effectiveness of geospatial technologies for

addressing and alleviating issues pertaining to the

delivery of environmental education, this research

utilized survey data collected with geospatial

technologies, and acquired by interviewers from the

Islamic Republic of Iran.

2. STUDY AREA AND DATA ACQUISITION

The focus was on Iran because the expectation was

that the country should be at the forefront of effective

environmental governance given the stipulation of

Article 50 of the Constitution which deemed

environmental protection to be a public duty in order

to safeguard the quality of life for both the present

and future generations. Recent findings by [2],

however, found that Iran is confronted by a broad

spectrum of environmental problems ranging from air

and water pollution, deforestation, desertification, soil

losses, pesticide contamination, excessive industrial

and agricultural wastes, and degradation of terrestrial

and aquatic ecosystems. The U.S. Energy Information

Administration [3] also reported that overfishing in

lakes and rivers has resulted in declines in fishing

stocks, wetlands and reservoirs are increasingly being

degraded, and oil and chemical spills in the Persian

Gulf and Caspian Sea continue to pollute the seas and

endanger aquatic life.

To obtain insights on why environmental problems

remain pervasive geospatial technologies were

employed to determine the levels of concern the

citizens have for the natural environment, and their

participation in sustainability issues and initiatives.

To parameterize the geodatabase with relevant

attribute data a questionnaire was designed to acquire

data from a broad cross-section of Iranians. To

balance time and cost and still acquire a

representative dataset, this research took into

consideration Iran’s population of nearly 68 million

people, where the male population is about 1% greater

than that of the female population. Nearly two-thirds

of the country’s population live in urban areas.

According to [4], “Iran also exhibits one of the

steepest urban growth rates in the world largely driven

by internal migration”. Six cities in Iran already have

more than one million people, and another six have

more than 500,000 people.

The demography of Iran dictated how the

questionnaire was designed and administered. The

decision was made to obtain data from 10,000 survey

questionnaires with representative samples taken from

each of Iran’s 30 provinces. Each questionnaire

collected data pertaining to age, gender, religious

background, residential location, education,

knowledge of sustainability, sustainability initiatives,

and personal concern for the environment.

Educational attainment was categorized into four

groups, namely less than 6 years, 6 to 9 years, 10 to

12 years, and 13 to 16 years. The age of respondents

was grouped into five categories, these being less than

25 years, 25 to 34 years, 35 to 44 years, 45 to 54

years, and greater than 54 years.

3. DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Loglinear Modelling

Of the 10,000 questionnaires which were

administered only 9,062 were fully completed. The

data from these questionnaires were then summarized

and tabulated in multi-dimensional frequency tables.

Loglinear models were then utilized to identify

associations and interrelationships of the principal

factors influencing personal concerns for the

environment, and knowledge of sustainability issues.

Details on the loglinear approach could be found in

several studies [5, 6, 7, 8], and a good example on the

application of loglinear models for analyzing

environmental data was presented by [9]. This paper

utilized hierarchical loglinear models because once a

higher-order effect is included in the model all its

lower-order effects are automatically included.

While space limitations do not permit a full

discussion on how loglinear models were selected it

is, nevertheless, worthwhile to note that the five-

dimensional frequency table, cross-classified the

dependent variable, personal concern for the

environment, with the independent variables

educational attainment, age, gender, and residential

location. Due to the large number of possible

loglinear models that could be constructed from the

five-dimensional frequency table, this research used

K-factors [10] to reduce the number of loglinear

models to be tested. The partial and marginal

association tests and backward elimination procedures

were applied to select the best loglinear model. After

testing of various models, the most parsimonious

model that was chosen highlighted that high

educational attainment had a close correspondence

with high concern for the environment. This was

especially evident from the graphical plots of the

results which highlighted that the youngest (<25

years) urban male respondents with the highest

education (>12 years) had the highest concern for the

environment (Figure 1). Similar results were obtained

for the youngest urban female respondents with the

highest education. While there was decreasing

concern for the environment with increasing age of

Figure 1: Increasingly Higher Concern for

Iran’s Environment by the Youngest Male

Respondents with Higher Levels of Education.

both male and female respondents from urban and

rural areas there were, however, noticeable

differences in concern for the environment by

respondents from urban and rural areas. The

differences in concern for the environment between

urban males (Figure 2) and rural males (Figure 3) of

the same age category are illustrated.

3.2 Geospatial Analysis

Although the loglinear modelling results and

associated graphical plots proved to be invaluable in

highlighting how the interacting factors of

educational attainment, age, gender, and location

influenced concern for the environment and

sustainability issues no clear insights were, however,

provided on the spatial variations in environmental

education and associated concerns for the natural

environment. Geospatial technologies were therefore

utilized to ascertain whether there were spatial

variations in concern for the environment across Iran.

To collect, analyze, and visualize the acquired data

geospatial technologies in the form of global

positioning systems (GPS), geographical information

systems (GIS), remotely-sensed satellite images, and

a Virtual Globe were utilized. The GPS was used to

acquire locational coordinates from all cities, towns

and villages from which questionnaire data were

obtained. A GIS was utilized to analyze and visualize

the spatial disparities in environmental education

because a GIS has the capabilities of data

management (acquisition and storage), data analyses,

data display and visualization [11]. The GIS

incorporated a spatial database and an attribute

database. A digitized map of Iran, with accurate

geographic coordinates, was created. Each of the 30

provinces was digitized and stored as polygons. The

coordinates for all cities, towns and villages were

stored as point data. The attribute data for each of the

9,062 respondents were stored in the geodatabase of

ArcGIS 9.2 [12]. In the attribute database the tables

related to gender, age categories of respondents,

educational attainment, and location of respondents

were joined and related.

Each of the mapped and surrounding areas was then

overlayed on Landsat Thematic Mapper remotely-

sensed images to show the associations between and

among environmental resources, environmentally

sensitive areas, educational facilities, and human

communities. The Virtual Globe provided by Google

Earth (http://earth.google.com/) was used to examine

the geographic features and the transportation

infrastructure of each of the surveyed areas. In

addition Google Earth was used, to some extent, to

delineate urban areas from rural areas.

4. GEOSPATIAL RESULTS

To comprehend the interactions of educational

attainment, age, location, concern for the

environment, and sustainability initiatives the ArcGIS

9.2 software was utilized to obtain a spatial

perspective of the results. The GIS results

demonstrated that respondents with different levels of

Figure 3: Education Levels Related to

Environmental Concern for Rural Males, Ages

25–34.

Figure 2: Education Levels Related to

Environmental Concern for Urban Males,

Ages 25–34.

educational attainment were in all 30 provinces of

Iran. Figures 4a and b provide insights on which

provinces have respondents with the highest

educational attainment (greater than 12 years), and

those provinces where respondents had lower levels

of educational attainment. Interestingly, only five

provinces in Iran have more than 40% of the

respondents with greater than 12 years of education.

This is demonstrated by Figure 5. On the other hand

there were seven provinces in Iran where more than

20% of the respondents had less than 6 years of

education. This is highlighted in Figure 6.

The GIS also revealed large spatial variations in

personal concern for the environment. This concern

varied between the different provinces. The stacked

bar chart (Figure 7) illustrates this occurrence. When

education was related to concern for the environment

it was found that with less than 6 years of education,

only 5% of the respondents in 23 of the country’s 30

provinces were highly concerned for the environment.

This is clearly demonstrated by Figure 8. However,

when respondents obtained between 10 to 12 years of

education it was observed that more than 10% of the

respondents in 23 of the country's provinces have high

concern for the environment. This finding is

emphasized by Figure 9.

5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

By combining various aspects of geospatial

technologies results were obtained which permitted

not only the visualization of spatial disparities in

Figure 4a: Distribution of Various Education

Levels in Iran (Educ > 12 yrs and Educ 10–12

yrs).

Figure 5: Respondents with Educational

Attainment of More than 12 Years.

Figure 4b: Distribution of Various Education

Levels in Iran (Educ 6–9 yrs and Educ < 6 yrs).

education and personal concerns for the environment,

but also identified provinces where there were

deficiencies in environmental education. Obviously,

all the provinces (see Figure 10) where respondents

have low concern for the environment should be

targeted with effective environmental education

programs. The province of Sistan in particular

requires special consideration because more than 15%

of the respondents have no concern for the

environment. Figure 11 also demonstrates that

numerous urban areas in each of the provinces have

low levels of concern for the environment. These

areas could be considered as “hot spots”, and should

be the focus of spatial targeting. Without doubt, far

more effective environmental and sustainability

programs and initiatives should be undertaken and

encouraged, especially in targeted priority areas. It

will be beneficial to introduce GIS freeware programs

(for example, http://opensourcegis.org and

http://gislounge.com/ open-source-gis-applications/)

and associated open map sources (for example,

Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/), NASA

World Wind (http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/), and

Bing Maps (http://www.bing.com/maps/)) to policy

planners, environmentalists, and community leaders

in order to visualize, assess, and encourage

community participation in environmental protection.

In addition to enhancing environmental awareness at

the local, urban, and national levels relevant

environmental instructions, strategies, and practices

could be disseminated to promote environmental

protection and sustainability.

Evidently, this paper demonstrated that geospatial

technologies could be functionally useful for

identifying priority areas which will benefit from

additional environmental education programs. In a

policy paper [13] emphasized that geospatial

Figure 8: Provinces with High Concern for the

Environment and Educational Attainment of less

than 6 Years.

Figure 6: Respondents with Educational

Attainment of less than 6 Years.Figure 7: Environmental Concern (% by

Province).

Figure 9: Provinces with High Concern for the

Environment and Educational Attainment of

10–12 Years.

technologies are now essential and effective spatial

targeting tools which could be used to assess and

address a broad spectrum of environmental problems

and issues. The utilization of geospatial technologies

can, therefore, facilitate not only increases in

environmental education and awareness, but also help

to promote the diffusion of environmental education

so as to ensure environmental sustainability not only

in Iran, but elsewhere.

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Figure 10: Respondents with Low Concern for

the Environment.

Figure 11: Urban Areas with Low Levels of

Concern for the Environment Which Could Be

Targeted with Environmental Education

Programs.