Theoretical Frameworks for Participatory Remote Sensing in Post-Conflict Environmental Monitoring in North East Nigeria

Conventional remote sensing approaches to environmental monitoring in conflict-affected regions of North East Nigeria face fundamental constraints of limited ground truth access, institutional incapacity, and exclusion of local knowledge. This study develops an original theoretical framework for participatory remote sensing that integrates Earth observation analysis with community-generated spatial knowledge in post-conflict environmental monitoring. The framework is developed through an iterative action research process involving 24 communities across Borno and Adamawa states, combining structured participatory mapping workshops with high-resolution satellite image interpretation. A conceptual model of participatory remote sensing, drawing on critical GIS theory, community-based environmental monitoring traditions, and post-conflict reconstruction literature, is formalised and tested. The framework demonstrates how community-validated ground reference data generated through participatory methods improves classification accuracy by 11 percentage points compared to remote-expert-only classification in data-scarce conflict contexts. A structured protocol for scaling participatory remote sensing is developed and evaluated for institutional feasibility within the operational constraints of humanitarian organisations operating in North East Nigeria. Keywords: participatory remote sensing, post-conflict, North East Nigeria, community mapping, critical GIS