Evaluation of UAV-based technology to capture land rights in Kenya: displaying stakeholder perspectives through interactive gaming

Limitations of western-oriented land administration systems and traditional surveying approaches have indisputably contributed to a reality where approximately 70% of the world’s land rights are not recorded. Amongst others, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are evolving as a remote sensing tool for alternative data acquisition. However, so far UAVs have only been tested and rarely been implemented in the context of land tenure mapping. To investigate technology uptake and to unlock the potential of UAV-based remote sensing, this paper introduces an interactive workshop approach. Key stakeholders are asked to rank four different means of data acquisition, namely satellite images, aerial images, UAV images, and ground surveying according to six predefined parameters. The results of the board game visually unveiled opportunities and drawbacks of each data acquisition technology from the perspective of the stakeholder while the group discussion provided valuable insights into existing workflows and different perceptions. Results reveal that on average, UAV-based images have the potential to compete with the currently most prevalent data collection technology - field surveying - as UAV-based images mostly ranked similar, except in terms of time efficiency (UAV images outperform field surveying) and accuracy (field surveying outperforms UAV images).