Thursday, May 6, 2010

UCLA doctoral student John Scott-Railton uses mapping technology to help villagers in Cambodia and Senegal

May 6, 2010
By Shoshee Jau
Daily Bruin

John Scott-Railton first stepped into Cambodia in 2006 carrying three global positioning systems receivers, determined to revolutionize the country’s water and sanitation systems.
“What if you take cheap, hand-held global position systems receivers, make points and make an objective ... map, and combine it with public health measures?,” Scott-Railton had asked himself. “I just wanted to see if this crazy idea would even work.”
Yet shortly after his arrival to Cambodia, he realized that water and sanitation were the least of his worries. After seeing the government bulldozing and claiming villagers’ land by force, Scott-Railton, currently a doctoral student at UCLA, said he redirected the goal of his project and decided to use his receivers’ mapping technique to salvage the property rights of thousands of Phnom Penh villagers.

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