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GeoWestCoast

GeoWestCoast

Engaging Ireland's West Coast communities in Heritage Landscape Conservation and Development Projects: A Participatory Approach. The GeoWestCoast Project was funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC) under the New Foundations Scheme (NF/2019/15934803) under the theme of Enhancing Civic Society, which supports small, discrete collaborative projects between researchers and civic society groups in the community and voluntary sector. The team are very grateful for the support of the IRC in funding this research.

GeoWestCoast StoryMap Collection - access here
Mulranny: Community Perspectives on Community Planning
Cromane: Community Perspectives on Community Planning
Asdee: Community Perspectives on Community Planning

About GeoWestCoast

The aim of the GeoWestCoast action-research project was to bring together academics, experts and local communities to review and evaluate experiences in conservation and development designs. The project charts the process, and subsequent evaluation of a community-led approach utilising geodesign, by capturing and reflecting on the experiences of the communities that promoted the first-ever Geodesign projects in Ireland, namely Mulranny (Co. Mayo), Cromane and Asdee (Co. Kerry).

The partnership is between University College Dublin and the three rural communities on Ireland's West Coast. The impacts and benefits of the project are:

  1. Co-creation of knowledge on best practices in community planning;
  2. Critical review of Geodesign as a participatory planning tool; and
  3. Knowledge transfers and exchange with civil society and planning practitioners.

The Geodesign process assists communities to prepare a range of thematic maps based on their ideas to address local development needs. The software for the workshops was developed by Dr Hrishikesh Ballal of  Geodesignhub

Individual partners were:

  • Dr Hrishikesh Ballal - Founder and Lead Developer
  • Dr Breandán Ó Caoimh - Independent Consultant and Researcher
  • Paul O'Raw - Independent Consultant and Researcher

StoryMaps

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Asdee pioneered the use of GeoDesign in its community planning process in Kerry in 2019. GeoWestCoast Asdee StoryMap
Asdee pioneered the use of GeoDesign in its community planning process in Kerry in 2019.
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Cromane pioneered the use of Geodesign in its community planning process in Kerry in 2017. GeoWestCoast Cromane StoryMap
Cromane pioneered the use of Geodesign in its community planning process in Kerry in 2017.
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Mulranny was the first community in Ireland to use Geodesign in community planning (2015). GeoWestCoast Mulranny StoryMap
Mulranny was the first community in Ireland to use Geodesign in community planning (2015).

Contact the Citizen Rural Research Lab

UCD Agriculture and Food Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
T: +353 1 716 7858 | E: karen.keaveney@ucd.ie |