Use of GIS for integrated resource management planning in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories

Geographic information systems ("GIS") are being adapted for use in a wide variety of activities involving management and analysis of spatial information. In the Canadian north, aboriginal communities engaged in integrated resource management have begun to use these systems. To aid understanding the implications of GIS implementation in aboriginal communities, a conceptual framework of thirteen linked issues grouped into five overlapping areas of concern is proposed. These issues are: capital requirements for GIS; physical infrastructure requirements; interactions of GIS and community social organization and culture; requirements for education and training; availability and maintenance of data; distribution of power within the resource management agency; distribution of power between the community and external interests involved in resource management; distribution of power in the community; legitimation of knowledge through GIS use; the possibility of positivist assumptions affecting forms of knowledge GIS favour; limits imposed on GIS by cartographic theory; limits to representation of knowledge in GIS; and technical limitations to GIS analysis. Field research was carried out in the Incorporated Hamlet of Fort Providence, a community on the Mackenzie River some 75 kilometres downstream from Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories in Canada. The study was conducted using unstandardized and semi-structured interviews, analysis of documents, and an unobtrusive research strategy involving technical analysis of computer systems. Interview notes were analysed initially using iterations of open coding with a wide coding approach, with final analysis achieved using systematic axial coding around the categories in the conceptual framework. Analysis of the unobtrusive research was guided using the set of questions developed to shed light upon evidence of intensity of computer use. The research illustrates the practical implications of many of the issues identified in the conceptual framework. A number of recommendations are made for other aboriginal communities considering using GIS as aids for resource management.