Developing Ethical Guidelines and Best Practices for the Use of Volunteered Geographic Information and Remotely Sensed Imagery in Crisis Situations

制定在危机情况下使用自愿地理信息和遥感图像的道德准则和最佳实践

• 批准号: 1560948
• 负责人: Jessica Wyndham
• 金额: $ 23万
• 依托单位: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1560948&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Developing; Ethical; Guidelines; Best; Practices

This project will develop ethical principles and guidelines, as well as draft best practices for the use of remote sensing and volunteered geographic information (VGI) in crisis situations. Since there are no existing guidelines or best practices to guide such research, the results of the project will be transformative for researchers and collaborators in the field. Moreover, it will have a ripple effect through development of educational materials to prepare future researchers to understand and give priority to their responsibilities when conducting collaborative research with non-scientists. Remote sensing and VGI generate geolocated data used not just by scientists, but also by practitioners with little scientific training seeking to intervene in crisis situations, which often unfold in remote and dangerous locations inhabited by vulnerable populations and may involve human rights abuses, humanitarian and disaster responses, and threats to cultural heritage during conflict. Hence, the project will not only promote the ethical and rigorous use of these techniques for researchers, it will also guide the work of stakeholders outside academia, a crucial step to reducing risks to populations. Given the global settings in which crises emerge, this project reaches beyond traditional scholarly audiences to disseminate research findings and approaches. It will include non-scientist users and the voices of under-represented groups, such as people in the developing world and women, in order to diversify discussions on the best ways to protect on-the-ground researchers, the volunteers of information, and those threatened by the misuse or careless distribution of geolocated information. Geographers are well-positioned to develop and apply remote sensing and VGI approaches to socially important issues. Nevertheless, methodological lapses may impede further progress. Some methodological issues addressed by this project include: data provenance; quality control in data collection and analysis; representativeness of the collected data; and potential data gaps due to factors such as gender and access to technology. These are core matters for how a professional discipline establishes standards for assessing the rigor and accuracy of its methods and instrumentation, and how it applies those methods in an ethically acceptable manner. While such matters fall into the domain of the profession, they cannot be understood fully in the present day social context without dialogue with non-scientist users. Two key research questions explored by this study include:1. What standards are needed for the collection, analysis, use and dissemination of geolocated data during crisis situations? Operating without standards endangers the safety and security of people on the ground and complicates efforts to identify appropriate policy and interventions to protect and assist populations. 2. What are the best means for engaging a diverse set of geographers and users in developing and disseminating those standards - ethical principles and guidelines and best practices - so they are accepted and implemented in studies that use geolocated data in crisis situations?These and other questions will be addressed through a series of invitational workshops and solicitations of feedback from stakeholder communities. Participants will be drawn from the international academic, humanitarian, cultural heritage, crisis mapping, disaster, and human rights communities.

该项目将制定道德原则和指南，并起草在危机情况下使用遥感和自愿地理信息（VGI）的最佳实践。由于没有现有的指南或最佳实践来指导此类研究，因此该项目的结果将对该领域的研究人员和合作者产生变革性影响。此外，通过开发教育材料，让未来的研究人员在与非科学家进行合作研究时理解并优先考虑自己的责任，将产生连锁反应。遥感和 VGI 生成的地理定位数据不仅被科学家使用，也被缺乏科学训练的从业人员用来干预危机局势，危机局势往往发生在弱势群体居住的偏远和危险地区，可能涉及侵犯人权、人道主义和灾难应对以及冲突期间对文化遗产的威胁。 因此，该项目不仅将促进研究人员道德和严格地使用这些技术，还将指导学术界以外利益相关者的工作，这是降低人群风险的关键一步。鉴于危机出现的全球环境，该项目超越了传统的学术受众，传播研究成果和方法。它将包括非科学家用户和代表性不足的群体的声音，例如发展中国家的人们和妇女，以便使关于保护实地研究人员、信息志愿者以及受到地理定位信息的滥用或粗心分发威胁的人的最佳方式的讨论多样化。地理学家有能力开发和应用遥感和 VGI 方法来解决重要的社会问题。然而，方法上的失误可能会阻碍进一步的进展。该项目解决的一些方法论问题包括：数据来源；数据收集和分析的质量控制；所收集数据的代表性；由于性别和技术获取等因素造成的潜在数据差距。这些是专业学科如何建立评估其方法和仪器的严谨性和准确性的标准，以及如何以道德上可接受的方式应用这些方法的核心问题。虽然这些问题属于专业领域，但如果不与非科学家用户对话，就无法在当今的社会背景下充分理解它们。本研究探讨的两个关键研究问题包括： 1．在危机情况下收集、分析、使用和传播地理定位数据需要哪些标准？没有标准的运作会危及当地人民的安全和保障，并使确定适当政策和干预措施以保护和援助人民的工作变得更加复杂。 2. 让不同的地理学家和用户参与制定和传播这些标准（道德原则和指南以及最佳实践）的最佳方法是什么，以便它们在危机情况下使用地理定位数据的研究中被接受和实施？这些问题和其他问题将通过一系列邀请研讨会和利益相关者群体的反馈征求来解决。参与者将来自国际学术界、人道主义界、文化遗产界、危机测绘界、灾害界和人权界。