Mapping Digital Ecologies: Ethnographic and Geospatial Analysis of Digital Infrastructure, Mining, and Environmental Justice
Matthew Potts, Professor
Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Applications for Spring 2026 are closed for this project.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Digital infrastructures—such as cryptocurrency mining, AI data centers, and renewed metal mining—are reshaping landscapes, ecosystems, and communities worldwide. This project is part of the Digital Ecologies Research Group, an interdisciplinary initiative examining the socio-environmental health impacts of digital transformations across El Salvador, the Pacific Northwest (Oregon/Columbia River Gorge), and comparative international sites (including potential field sites in China).
El Salvador serves as a central case study as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender and to reverse a national metal mining ban, triggering rapid land-use change, infrastructure expansion, and renewed pressure on protected areas, watersheds, and Indigenous territories. Recent developments in AI and data infrastructure in El Salvador further extend these dynamics, intensifying demands on energy systems, land, and governance structures, and reinforcing the country’s role as a critical case study for emerging digital–ecological transformations.
This research is guided by an emerging Digital–Ecological Nexus (DEN) approach, which examines how digital infrastructure, energy systems, land use, ecosystems, and community health are co-produced and mutually reinforcing. Undergraduate researchers will support ethnographic fieldwork data analysis, remote sensing, GIS, and qualitative research, thereby contributing directly to dissertation research, working-group outputs, and policy-relevant scholarship.
WHY THIS PROJECT MATTERS
This research addresses urgent and interconnected challenges:
- Environmental Degradation: Assesses deforestation, biodiversity loss, land-use change, and ecosystem disruption linked to digital infrastructure and mining.
- Environmental Justice: Examines how ecological harms and health risks disproportionately affect Indigenous and marginalized communities, while documenting local resistance and resilience.
- Global Digital Transformations: Investigates how emerging digital industries reconfigure land governance, sovereignty, and sustainability across regions.
Students will engage in real-world, justice-oriented research at the intersection of environmental science, technology, and society.
Role: RESEARCH TRACKS
Apprentices may contribute to one or more of the following interconnected tracks:
1. Ethnographic & Qualitative Data Analysis
- Support analysis of field notes, interviews, visual ethnography, and community documentation from El Salvador and Oregon.
- Assist with coding qualitative data, thematic synthesis, and narrative analysis focused on land, health, and environmental justice.
- Contribute to comparative analysis across regions and cultural contexts.
2. Sentiment Analysis of Media Coverage
- Use natural language processing (NLP) to analyze media and public narratives surrounding cryptocurrency, AI infrastructure, and mining.
- Identify discourse trends, political framings, and regional differences in how digital industries are portrayed.
3. Remote Sensing: Digital Infrastructure & Protected Areas
- Use Google Earth Engine (GEE) to assess land-use change linked to crypto-urbanism, energy infrastructure, and industrial expansion.
- Map vegetation loss, deforestation, and landscape transformation in ecologically sensitive zones.
4. Remote Sensing: Expansion of Metal Mining
- Conduct predictive and retrospective analyses of environmental risk following renewed mining activity.
- Examine impacts on biodiversity, water systems, and human health.
APPRENTICE CONTRIBUTIONS
Undergraduate researchers are treated as collaborators, not assistants. Contributions may include:
- Ethnographic Data Analysis: Coding and synthesizing qualitative and visual data from fieldwork.
- Geospatial Analysis: Supporting GIS and remote sensing workflows using GEE, ArcGIS, and QGIS.
- Literature Reviews: Reviewing scholarship on digital infrastructure, mining, environmental justice, and land governance.
- Mapping & Visualization: Creating maps, figures, and visual narratives for research outputs and public showcases.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Working alongside other URAP students, graduate researchers, and faculty mentors.
Student work will contribute to conference presentations, working group showcases, policy briefs, and academic manuscripts.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1. Map Digital Ecologies: Identify and analyze landscapes disrupted by digital infrastructure and extractive industries.
2. Assess Justice Implications: Examine how environmental change affects community health, sovereignty, and livelihoods.
3. Enable Comparative Insight: Connect El Salvador’s experience to Oregon and global sites to understand shared patterns and divergences.
4. Inform Policy & Practice: Generate evidence to support more just and sustainable governance of digital and natural resources.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the semester, apprentices will gain:
- Ethnographic Research Skills: Exposure to qualitative analysis, visual ethnography, and mixed-methods research.
- Geospatial & Remote Sensing Skills: Hands-on experience with GIS, satellite imagery, and spatial data visualization.
- Interdisciplinary Training: Engagement with environmental science, data science, political ecology, and justice-oriented frameworks.
- Professional Research Experience: Mentorship in collaborative research, data ethics, and public-facing scholarship.
Qualifications: QUALIFICATIONS
-Strong interest in environmental justice, digital technologies, geography, anthropology, environmental science, or data science.
- Experience with GIS, Google Earth Engine, Python, R, or qualitative research is a plus but not required.
- Motivated students from all majors are encouraged to apply; training will be provided.
- Commitment to respectful, community-centered, and justice-oriented research practices.
Project Status: Recruiting
- Day-to-Day Supervisor: Deibi Sibrian, Ph.D. Candidate (Environmental Science, - Policy, and Management; Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering)
- Research Group: Digital Ecologies
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Deibi Sibrian , Ph.D. candidate
Hours: to be negotiated
Social Sciences Environmental Issues Biological & Health Sciences