Mapping Climate Knowledge
We use ArcGIS StoryMaps and data visualization to weave together oral histories, geospatial data, documentary media, and community knowledge into dynamic, place-based climate narratives.
OUR PROJECTS
By integrating spatial data with personal narratives and participatory action research, we make climate adaptation work more accessible, human-centered, and grounded in lived experience. These interactive platforms connect women-led climate adaptation efforts across diverse communities, regions, and ecological contexts.
Mirroring Hope: The Bhungroo Irrigation Technology Oral History Project (India)
Mirroring Hope is a Climate Knowledge Collective oral history project and interactive platform that explores how women in Gujarat, India, are transforming their communities through the Bhungroo irrigation system, an innovative water-storage technology they helped develop in response to climate challenges. Drawing on field research, oral histories, and interactive data visualization, the project examines how this locally adapted approach strengthens climate resilience while enhancing women’s agency, agricultural livelihoods, and social standing.
Collaborators/Partners: Schema Design and Naireeta Services LTD
Climate Change and Maya Women of the Cloud Forest (Guatemala)
Women of the Cloud Forest is an ArcGIS StoryMap developed by the Climate Knowledge Collective exploring how Maya women in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala are responding to climate change while protecting cultural and ecological heritage. Through oral histories, watershed mapping, documentary photography, and geospatial analysis, the project examines the interconnected challenges of water insecurity, deforestation, and agricultural change in these communities. Interviews with Maya women leaders and participants in the Women in Agroecology Leadership for Conservation (WALC) program reveal how environmental stewardship, education, and traditional weaving practices are becoming forms of climate activism, linking cultural identity, forest conservation, and community resilience.
Collaborators/Partners: Community Cloud Forest Conservation (CCFC), Women in Agroecology Leadership for Conservation (WALC) program
OTHER PROJECTS BY CKC TEAM MEMBERS
In addition to collaborative work developed through Climate Knowledge Collective, our researchers lead and contribute to projects through universities, nonprofits, and research institutes around the world. Each project is clearly attributed to its originating institution and collaborators.
Tiempos de Muralismo (Times of Muralism), Chile’s Coastal Mural Project, SECOS Social-Ecological Millennium Institute, (Chile)
Tiempos de Muralismo (2019–present) is a community-centered arts–science initiative led by the SECOS Millennium Institute that explores co-creative approaches to socio-ecological research. Building on Chile’s muralist tradition, the project brings together scientific, territorial, and traditional knowledge through participatory art, oral history, mapping, and creative practice to foster climate resilience and ocean sustainability. Working closely with coastal communities in Chile, the initiative engages artists, scientists, educators, and residents through co-creation workshops, artist residencies, scientific illustration, immersive media, and school collaborations. Together, these activities transform public spaces into platforms for dialogue, collective storytelling, and shared knowledge creation.
Originating Institution: SECOS Millennium Institute, Chile
Project Lead: Fernanda Oyarzún (SECOS), Genevieve Tremblay (SECOS, CKC)
Collaborators/Partners: SECOS arts, science, and communications teams; educators, students, and community partners across seven coastal communities in Chile; Millennium Nucleus UPWELL; CEAZA.
Visualizing 90 Years of Water Tower Transformation in the Peruvian Andes, (Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru), National Geographic Society
Visualizing 90 Years of Water Tower Transformation in the Peruvian Andes is a National Geographic Society-supported research initiative exploring how glacier retreat is transforming mountain ecosystems, water resources, and the lives of Indigenous communities in Peru’s Cordillera Vilcanota. Using historical and satellite imagery, repeat photography, interactive mapping, and community engagement, the project documents 90 years of glacier change and its environmental, cultural, and social impacts. The StoryMap combines scientific research with Indigenous knowledge to support stewardship of Andean water resources and inform climate adaptation through participatory mapping, climate education, and community dialogue.
