ARAS Vol.33 No.1 June 2012 165 Institutional capacity building for urban agriculture research using Participatory GIS in a post-conflict context: a case study of Sierra Leone 1 Alec Thornton University of New South Wales and University of Witwatersrand Jinnah Momoh University of Sierra Leone Paul Tengbe University of Sierra Leone Abstract In post-conflict societies, cities often experience drastic change in settlement and land-use patterns that transform human-environment relationships. These changes include internal displacement, often to urban areas, and environmental degradation. In many African cities, these patterns and relationships are being shaped by urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA), a production system that ensured food security for thousands of rural migrants seeking relative safety in urban areas. In a post-conflict scenario, UPA continues to provide food security and employment in an environment struggling to physically and emotionally recover. Methodologies using a geographical information system (GIS) for urban ecosystem assessment (UEA) are gaining currency among researchers, planners and practitioners to improve understandings and find solutions for sustainable urban development. This article will discuss the use of a GIS for post-conflict urban assessment of human- environment relationships in Sierra Leone, where a ten-year civil war, which ravaged the countryside, resulted in the internal displacement of thousands of rural inhabitants to the capital city, Freetown. Introduction The use of a geographical information system (GIS) is a valuable tool for spatial analysis, used for revealing land use types, such as urban and peri- urban agriculture (UPA) and its distribution patterns. The use of GIS software and a hand-held global positioning system (GPS) are powerful tools for gathering, storing and analyzing spatial data. Interest in the use of a GIS for livelihoods and land use mapping and as a participatory tool 1 The study discussed in this article was funded by a joint British Council- Department for International Development (DfID) initiative Developing Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE). A Learning and Teaching Project Grant from the University of New South Wales at Canberra, Australia, funded a subsequent visit to Sierra Leone for the corresponding author.