University Of Southampton Designs New Mobile App To Empower Kerala Fishers

Study in UK: The mobile app designed by the University of Southampton will help Kerala’s fishers tackle climate change impacts.

University of Southampton’s researchers have created a new mobile app which will help small-scale fishing communities in Kerala, India. The fishers will be able to navigate better the challenges of climate change and diminishing fish stocks.

Dr. Bindi Shah, Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Southampton said, "Along with our Indian partners, we've researched the issues facing Kerala's fishing communities over the past decade and the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss. This app empowers these marginalized communities with accessible tools to mitigate some of these challenges."

University Of Southampton's New App Details

The new mobile app connects fishers and allows them to share real-time data about sea conditions, fish locations and catch details. This application promotes sustainable practices and optimizes fishing trips.

“Fishers in Kerala face numerous pressures, including climate change affecting resource availability, habitat degradation, marine pollution, and enforcement issues. This new app addresses these challenges by fostering collaboration within fishing groups. When a boat locates fish, its GPS location is shared via the app, saving other fishers time and fuel. The app also encourages photo sharing to document sea conditions and catches, providing valuable data for researchers to understand the local marine environment and inform policy development,” says the official notification.

After the successful trials with Kerala’s fishing communities, the app is currently being refined and it will be soon rolled out for other regions as well.

"Our key hope is that the app will stabilize incomes for the fishing community, saving them fuel and time, and helping them get the best price for their fish," added Dr. Shah.

Research Team Details

The experts in the team are from the University of Newcastle, the University of Exeter, the University of Southampton, and the ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology in Kerala. For the local government, the team also developed policy recommendations to address pressing issues including competitive disadvantages, marine mammal interactions, extreme weather events, mangrove loss, and infrastructure needs.

The policy also talked about financial and practical support for fishers including mangrove replanting projects, incentives for marine litter collection, and compensation mechanisms.

University of Southampton's Researchers Call For Resilience Index

The researchers of the University of Southampton, University of East Anglia, and UCL have called for a ‘resilience index’ for policy success instead of GDP. They argued that it is more appropriate for policy decisions than the GDP.

Professor Ian Townend, lead author of the paper from the University of Southampton said, “Resilience is about the ability of a system to prepare for, resist, recover and adapt to disturbances in order to function successfully."

“This invites us to take a more holistic view, accommodating both human and natural components of complex systems that extend across environmental, social and economic domains," added Professor Ian Townend.

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