Village Maps Research Articles

Frie og ufrie bønder

Freemen and villeinsA longue durée perspective on villages, farmsteads and social structure in western Jutland
 Over the course of the last two decades, Danish archaeology has seen a vast increase in excavation activity supported by the introduction of GIS-based systems. Moreover, the digital revolution has made accessible an extensive collection of historical maps, thereby enabling direct comparisons between excavated structures and depictions of the landscape extending back to the late 18th century. The time-consuming process of building complete GIS-systems that include older excavations and reconstructing past landscapes from old maps is ongoing at most Danish museums. This has led to many intriguing correlations and insights. The current models for the settlement history in Denmark during the Iron Age and the Viking period are, however, still primarily based on the findings from the renowned Vorbasse excavations undertaken between 1974 and 1987, and only overviews of these results have been so far published. This article is based on finds and evidence held at the Museum of Southwest Jutland and focuses on western Jutland. With a foundation in excavation results and landscape models extracted from the historical maps of c. 1800, the aim is to apply a longue durée perspective in the search for the underlying structures constituting the agrarian landscape during the last two millennia.The shifting climate appears to have had a profound impact, but written sources like the church list from Ribe diocese of c. AD 1325 give vital clues, which can be compared with the data emerging from the booming research into palaeo-climatic change (figs. 1-4).Danish landscape laws written down in the 13th century distinguish between two types of agrarian settlement: the main village (adelby) and the thorp (torp). Thorps derived from main villages and were in some way subordinate to them. It is argued that this division may extend far back in the Iron Age, and a mapping of main villages has been attempted (figs. 5-7). Analysis of historical maps has shown that the arable areas cultivated in c. 1800 lie where the predecessors of the existing villages are to be found, extending all the way back to the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age. Finds recovered during metal-detector surveys are also found concentrated on this arable land. This indicates a direct continuity in the overall settlement pattern, the associated field systems and the growing community.Based on cases from western Jutland, the settlement structure during the Iron Age and the Viking period is discussed. The excavated villages and farmsteads, their associated cemeteries and the numerous finds recovered by metal detector portray a society based on family-run farmsteads apparently without major class differences – very closely resembling the landscape depicted on historical maps 1000 years later (figs. 8-14). Aristocratic sites or “central places” are also present in this area of southern Scandinavia, but they are few and far between. The second part of the text deals with Medieval (in Denmark c. 1050-1550) villages and farmsteads. Based on excavated examples, it is argued that these are not yet as well understood as their predecessors since large parts of the Medieval remains are hidden underneath existing villages. The structural similarities between the Iron Age villages and their Early Modern counterparts portrayed on the historical maps indicate, however, that Medieval villages also followed the same overall trajectory (figs. 15-27). The conclusion from the analysis is that village formation in western Jutland took place in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age. Climate- and disease-related events, like the volcanic dust cloud after AD 536 and the Black Death in 1350, appear to be traceable as hiatuses in the archaeological record, but the overall trend is one of continuity. Every village that existed around 1800 seems to have had predecessors going all the way back to the Iron Age. The number of farms in an individual village also seems to have been roughly the same through the ages, indicating that shared ideas about sustainability may, in one form or another, have determined this.

Agurumyela's art of connection: Christopher Azaare's project of curating Gurensi history and culture

AbstractThis article explores the innovative and hybrid intellectual project of Christopher Azaare Anabila. Since 1976, Azaare has been documenting the histories of the Gurensi and Boosi people of northern Ghana and has crafted genealogical maps of whole villages and clans. He has written manuscripts on taboos, totems, proverbs, missionary activities, cultural institutions and anti-colonial resistance. Because of this work, people have begun to refer to Azaare asAgurumyela, which in Gurene means ‘a person who digs into people's past’. Central to this lifelong endeavour is the museum of Gurensi culture that Azaare has been building in Gowrie. I present Azaare's views of this wide-ranging process of collection and re-casting and reflect on his motivation to reclaim history and curating authority from professional academics. I argue that Azaare's project allows us to recognize the ubiquitous existence of a vibrant strand of African intellectual creativity that combines multiple repertoires and draws on overlapping and diverse productions in different modes and media. Next, I turn to Azaare's manuscript on the institution oftindaanaship(earth custodians). I explore his genealogical method as anart of connectionthat highlights his role as an engaged community intellectual, weaving extensive networks between Gurensi communities, officials and academics.

ANALISA KESESUAIAN UNSUR PENYAJIAN PETA KELURAHAN PANYURAN BERDASARKAN PERKA BIG NO. 3 TAHUN 2016

Village map is a basic thematic map that contains elements and information on boundaries, transportation infrastructure, toponyms, waters, infrastructure, land cover and land use that are presented in several map forms. The diversity of village map types in Indonesia is one of the reasons for the Geospatial Information Agency to make a standardization policy of village mapping as a national reference. Procurement of village maps is needed to accelerate the process of village and rural development by utilizing spatial data. The final result of this study is a village map consisting of an image map, a map of land cover, and a map of infrastructure. The presentation of the Panyuran Sub-District map is adjusted to the map elements that must be displayed in accordance with BIG Decree No. 3 of 2016. The percentage of conformity of the presentation of image maps to the mandatory elements is 71.43%, 0% selected elements, and conditional elements 91.30%. Then the percentage of suitability of the presentation of the map of land cover to the mandatory elements is 71.43%, the optional element is 0%, and the conditional element is 88.89%. While the percentage of suitability of the presentation of infrastructure map is 75.00% mandatory element, 0% optional element, and 92.00% conditional element.

Drone Application for Generating a High Precision Orthophoto to Support Village Boundary and Land Use Mapping in Indonesia

Many existing village maps in Indonesia are available without spatial references, including in Pandanrejo village in Kaligesing Sub-district, Purworejo District, Central Java. To date, the available village map of the Pandanrejo is sketches map which potentially overlaps with the area of adjacent villages. In this study, we used a commercial drone DJI Phantom 4 for generating a high precision orthophoto to create the exact boundaries and land use information of the Pandanrejo village. The drone captured the aerial images from an altitude of approximately 100 m and automatically take an image every 3 seconds giving an overlap of each image around 70% of each pair of neighboring images. By this mission plan, the drone collected of about 1,312 aerial photographs. In order to obtain better geo-referencing results, eleven Ground Control Points (GCPs) distributed over the study area were obtained by GNSS geodetic tools. Furthermore, the Structure from Motion (SfM) algorithm was used to generate point clouds, digital surface models, and digital orthophoto model. These processes were carried out by using Agisoft PhotoScan software completing 10 steps in the workflow starting from adding drone images to the software to building orthomosaic as a basis for a digital orthophoto model. We then analyzed the errors of the resulted orthophoto map by comparing between the ratio of village boundary length to the total village area from drone mapping and terrestrial mapping using GNSS geodetic. The results showed that the drone mapping has successfully produced the village boundary map of the Pandanrejo village (i.e. a boundary length 7,473.2 m and an area 2.18 km2) that is comparable with the result of terrestrial area mapping corrected by GNSS geodetic. In addition, the drone has also successfully mapped the village land use with a total accuracy of 100% accurate. With these results, we suggest drone technology as an alternative method besides a traditional terrestrial method to create a definite village boundary and land use map to support the implementation of Indonesia Law No. 6 of 2014.

Factors Influencing the Biogas Acceptance in Rural Area

This study addresses how utilization of information such as livestock population, village maps and geographic information system (GIS) can be utilized to evaluate biogas production from livestock manure in rural areas. Cluster analysis was used to identify the appropriate locations for construction of anaerobic digester. The factors influencing the acceptance of biogas development were also analysed using regression analysis. The logistic regression model was employed for data analysis. The model was used furthermore to calculate the probability of acceptance of biogas development in the area of study. Calculation of potential biogas production is approximately about 24,560.64 MJ/day of energy can be produced. The determinants for biogas development acceptance ranges between 10% and 74.6%. The study was based on primary data that were elicited using open and closed-ended questionnaires. Empirically, the result indicated that number of cattle owned, age of household head, family size, land availability and knowledge are factors that have statistical significance (p < 0.05). Family size, land availability, knowledge positively influence the acceptance of utilization of biogas technology, while age of farmer and cattle ownership is inversely proportional to the acceptance. The model shows that if all factors drive, the probability can be increased up to 74.6% indicating that the use of livestock manure can be successfully developed in the area.

Deep Learning Segmentation and Classification for Urban Village Using a Worldview Satellite Image Based on U-Net

Unplanned urban settlements exist worldwide. The geospatial information of these areas is critical for urban management and reconstruction planning but usually unavailable. Automatically characterizing individual buildings in the unplanned urban village using remote sensing imagery is very challenging due to complex landscapes and high-density settlements. The newly emerging deep learning method provides the potential to characterize individual buildings in a complex urban village. This study proposed an urban village mapping paradigm based on U-net deep learning architecture. The study area is located in Guangzhou City, China. The Worldview satellite image with eight pan-sharpened bands at a 0.5-m spatial resolution and building boundary vector file were used as research purposes. There are ten sites of the urban villages included in this scene of the Worldview image. The deep neural network model was trained and tested based on the selected six and four sites of the urban village, respectively. Models for building segmentation and classification were both trained and tested. The results indicated that the U-net model reached overall accuracy over 86% for building segmentation and over 83% for the classification. The F1-score ranged from 0.9 to 0.98 for the segmentation, and from 0.63 to 0.88 for the classification. The Interaction over Union reached over 90% for the segmentation and 86% for the classification. The superiority of the deep learning method has been demonstrated through comparison with Random Forest and object-based image analysis. This study fully showed the feasibility, efficiency, and potential of the deep learning in delineating individual buildings in the high-density urban village. More importantly, this study implied that through deep learning methods, mapping unplanned urban settlements could further characterize individual buildings with considerable accuracy.

Spatial Distribution of Leptospirosis and Land Use in Bantul District, 2010-2018

Land use is an important environmental factor in the dynamics of human health. In the case of leptospirosis, environmental transmission cycles are caused by rat transition, environmental changes and populations at risk. Utilization of GIS-based spatial analysis may help detecting distribution patterns of leptospirosis cases, allocating resources and planning effective control and surveillance programs in endemic areas. This study aims to analyze the spatial distribution of leptospirosis based on land use and stream flow in Bantul District, 2010-2018. This ecological study was conducted in Bantul District, Yogyakarta for 9 years. Spatial analysis overlays processed data on leptospirosis cases per village and land use maps of 2016 using QGIS 3.0. Spatial distribution of 12 of high leptospirosis villages (18-35 cases) are in residential areas, tributaries, croplands, irrigated fields, rain-fed rice fields, and plantations. Those villages was crossed by major river basin which is potentially as transmission media of leptospirosis cases after heavy rainfall. It is suggested to increase the Early Awareness and Alert (EAA) system by active surveillance of early case finding from the government and endemic villagers.

Village as A Regional Development Axis

The planned development should be aimed at increasing the capacity of the village government and the Village Consultative Body through facilitation, training, and assistance in planning, implementing and monitoring village development, managing village assets and finances, preparing village maps and setting village boundaries, implementing village planning and developing centers village information. Overall capacity building refers to preparation of local resources.

Participatory mapping and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images for developing village level coastal geoinformation

Village maps can provide geospatial data and information that would enable them to become an important instrument in regional development planning. The purpose of this study was to produce geospatial data and information on coastal village resources based on the Indonesian Geographic Information Agency (BIG) reference guidelines. The study was conducted in Langnga Village, Mattiro Sompe District, Pinrang Regency, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. This research used raster and vector data. Raster data consisted of high-resolution images obtained from Unmanned Areal Vehicles. The ground truthing used open access applications and interviews with the community. The licensed Arc.GIS 10.5 software was used for the spatial analysis. The dominant land cover/land use categories were aquaculture ponds and rice fields. These areas have historically undergone a dynamic change of land use from rice fields to ponds and back again. Other land uses were settlements inhabited by farmers and fishermen. White sand beaches are one potential resource in this villages, but they are prone to abrasion. The spatial information contained in the village resource and boundary map can be considered as a breakthrough step and could become a pilot for other villages to follow.

Pembuatan Peta Citra Desa Ngargosari Kecamatan Samigaluh Kabupaten Kulon Progo

Availability and understanding about the importance of spatial data, especially Village Maps, forrural communities are still minimum. Ngargosari Village, a village in Samigaluh District, KulonProgo Regency, was almost never used spatial data or maps to support the development.Whereas, UU 6 of 2014 concerning Villages states that Village Maps are the basis of informationand support systems in policy making. Village Map is a basic thematic map that containselements and information such as regional boundaries, roads/ infrastructure, topography,waters, facilities, and land use, which were presented in image maps, maps of facilities andinfrastructure, as well as land cover maps and land use (Perka BIG No. 3 in 2016 concerningTechnical Specifications for Presentation of Village Maps). Therefore, this community serviceaims to emphasize an understanding of the importance of Geospatial Information. Thecommunity is involved in making Village Maps through participatory mapping. The methods thatwere used are a remote sensing approach, field survey, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD)involving the Village Head, Village Officials, Hamlet Heads and Community Leaders. The resultsof this service are in the form of a map of the image of the Ngargosari Village which containsinformations about the boundaries of the village administration and hamlets, and also regionalfacilities and infrastructure.

Penyuluhan dan Pendampingan Pemetaan Partisipatif di Kecamatan Anggeraja Kabupaten Enrekang

Maps are presented to provide information in the form of boundaries, facilities, buildings, land use and roads. Regional boundaries are one element of the village map so that it needs to be mapped in detail as a document in development planning. Enrekang Regency, which has a majority of its elders as protected areas, is still very limited in the ownership of mapping documents. The community still does not have knowledge about this mapping so that the problem of regional boundaries, regional boundaries and land use limits is still a trigger for problems in the community. Participatory mapping is a method that is needed in order to provide spatial information so that the mapping process and the resulting map are aimed at the interests of the community. In this case, counseling and mentoring activities are the beginning of the development of competence and capacity for the community in making mapping documents in Enrekang District. It is expected that this community service activity will continue in partnership activities between Unhas and the Enrekang District Government, both in training, formal education in regional and city development master programs, and assistance in planning and implementing the development of Enrekang Regency, in line with the tridharma activities of higher education.

Memberdayakan Desa Melalui Pariwisata Berbasis BUMDES

In overcoming the problems of economic, many rural communities in Gunung Kidul Regency have switched to developing natural asset-based village tourism. The village tourism management is mostly carried out through BUMDes. The problem of developing rural tourism is the problem of tourism promotion, where the process of promoting village tourism tends to be carried out separately, especially through online promotion. It has an impact on tourists who are not easy to find tourist destination maps of villages in Gunung Kidul Regency. This study uses a combination of asset-based approach and integrated information system as an effort to provide a way out to promote the exoticism of natural assets such as beaches, hills, caves, culinary and other assets to be more explored and more heavily promoted among tourists. As a result, tourism promotion which was originally carried out separately has now been integrated, so that a new spirit is created for tourists to visit these tourist sites. The integrated information system makes easier for tourists to see the map and the beautiful charm of a tourist village in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta.

PEMBUATAN PETA BLOK RT DESA BINGKULU KECAMATAN TAMBANG ULANG

ABSTRACT &#x0D; Geodetic science is practically making maps of the earth's surface. Bingkulu village currently has problems with the absence of a village map for village government officials and local residents. The absence of this village map made difficulties for village and community equipment to find out information on Neighborhood Association boundaries and land use in the Bingkulu Village area at Tambang Ulang District. To make a map of the Neighborhood Association boundaries, using survey method with a GPS handheld equipment and identifies the Neighborhood Association boundaries according to the direction from the village officials who is very familiar with the conditions in the field. Making Neighborhood Association boundary maps is done through digitizing in the QGIS application by displaying corrected satellite images. Through the QGIS application, digitization is carried out in accordance with the conditions in the research location, by paying attention to the appearance of the earth in the satellite image of Bingkulu Village. The objects digitized in this process are roads, Neighborhood Association boundaries, village boundaries, public facilities. Furthermore the interpretations did and the result is that land use in Bingkulu Village includes plantations, rice fields, and built land. The Plantations distributed in almost the Bingkulu region with two types of commodities, namely oil palm and rubber trees. In addition, land use in all Bingkulu region is dominated by oil palm plantations. So that oil palm trees are still the main commodity of plantations in Bingkulu Village.&#x0D; Keywords: survey, satellite image, boundary, village

Development of GNSS Receiver for Mobile CORS with RTK Correction Services Using Cloud Server

Requirements for precise Real Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning have been significantly growing in Indonesia since early 2010, resulting from the national programs on village mapping, land cadastre certification, infrastructure developments, and one map policy. The activities require a sub-decimetre level of positioning accuracy to produce detail maps to the scale of 1:500. RTK positioning with CORS should be the most reliable technique to meet the accuracy level. However, the existing distribution of Indonesia CORS Network, consisting of 150 active stations, is still far from adequate since the inter-station distances are of around 500 km while an ideal range should be less than 50 km. This paper related to an initiative for the development of a GNSS receiver that can be transportable and easily set up in the field as a base station to provide RTK CORS correction services with local contents. The initiative supports national efforts on the densification of Indonesia CORS Network to better distribution. The development was started using the Tersus OEM GNSS board series BX305, including the integration of the board to a mini PC. Further developments have been made covering the following, namely: i) to add a long-term stable power supply in the receiver, ii) customization of receiver command settings, iii) to add a GSM modem and internet protocol for data communication from the receiver to a cloud server, iv) installation of SNIP software in a cloud server to provide CORS corrections with NTRIP caster, and v) testing the NTRIP client performance in the rover receiver. Results from the land cadastre surveys carried out in Bandung, Padang and Tangerang Cities show that the length of time for the fixed positioning with resolved ambiguities could be obtained within less than 5-7 seconds with the rover locations less than 10 km from the base station. A longer time to obtain fixed solutions required for the distance at the range of 10 to 20 km, and it is becoming more difficult to get fixed solutions over 20 km. Further developments would be carried out using affordable price GNSS OEM boards provided by different manufacturers.

Application of Lagging Village Mapping And Pre-Prosperous Family Using Back Propagation Algorithm In Bathin III Ulu District Bungo District Jambi Province

Lagging villages are areas that are generally located in districts that are relatively underdeveloped and have relatively underdeveloped populations compared to other regions on a national scale. Batin III Ulu District Bungo has 9 (nine) villages which have promising space potential including abundant forest resources, natural tourism, agricultural land and plantations. Village development has not yet had an optimal impact and there are still disadvantaged families in each village in Bathin III Ulu Subdistrict. Development of application mapping of disadvantaged villages and underprivileged families in Bathin III Ulu Subdistrict, Bungo District, Jambi Province is a qualitative research that aims to support the government in accelerating the implementation of services for underdeveloped villages and underprivileged families. Automated learning stage to determine mapping of disadvantaged villages and underprivileged families through the application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) as an adaptive system to model complex relationships between input and output to find patterns in the data and collaboration with Leaflet.Js as a library used for making thematic spatial maps that can emphasize priority objects to be addressed immediately. The application is built on a web-based basis so that users can easily access it anywhere and anytime as a reference in determining future development policies.

Participatory Village Spatial Planning in Efforts to Save Conservation Areas in Mantan village, Semitau Sub-district, Kapuas Hulu District

The community’s interest in the necessities of life that depend on natural resources through slash-and-burn cultivation is always in conflict with the interests of territorial conservation. On the other hand, the conversion of agricultural land into oil palm plantations with a profit-sharing scheme eliminates community tenure rights of the Mayan tribe. The clarity of village boundaries with concession areas is unclear, as well as demands from village legislation about village maps. This research was conducted in Mantan village, Suhaid Sub-district, Kapuas Hulu District. This study took 2 years with a quanlitative inductive method. The results of this study indicate that the rights of indigenous peoples of Mayan tribe become the cultural conservation area GupungNibungTujuh became the cultural center of the community in Mayan village. There is a customary law that prohibits logging and slash-and-burn shifting cultivation systems. The boundaries of community-owned palm oil management are coordinated through cooperatives with a fair sharing system for both parties. Oil palm companies make the village of Mantan as a priority village in corporated with social responsibility activities in the form of organic crops and moringa. The map of the village community mapping is adjusted to the Mantan village spatial plan which includes the structure and pattern of village space, land ownership, and land use. The mapping results provide guidance for villages in developing the region.

Fuzzy risk assessment modelling of wild animal life in Bijar protected area

Bijar protected area (BPA) is suffering from land use change and livestock grazing. Since 1977, the number of main species (Ovis orientalis gmelini) living in BPA has reduced from 2000 to 435. In order to study the wild animal life (WAL) risk of BPA, a Fuzzy model in Geographical information system (GIS) environment and remote sensing was utilized. The seven selected input indices for the model were 'BPA conversion rate', 'Natural resource', 'Population density', 'Population growth rate', 'Social status', ' Security threat', and 'Livelihood status'. BPA conversion rate was obtained based on Landsat 8 Satellite images of 2016 and agricultural area maps of BPA villages. The weight and Fuzzy rules ranges of the sub-indices were created based on an expert opinion survey (questionnaire) developed according to the related literature. Sub-indices were union in vector format in the GIS environment to acquire the main indices and they were overly in raster format based on Fuzzy membership functions to obtain the WAL risk in three levels of high, moderate and low. Results showed that the areas with high risk were (i) agricultural lands, (ii) lands that underwent use change (rangelands to agricultural lands), (iii) areas with a large number of livestock, (iv) areas within the proximity to roads, and (v) areas far from the protected stations. From the results it can be concluded that low level of livelihood, low number of protective stations and weak protective regulations are the main reasons behind increasing WAL risk in BPA.

ANALISIS KETELITIAN GEOMETRIK CITRA SATELIT PLEIADES 1B DAN SPOT 6 UNTUK PEMBUATAN PETA DESA

In this study, Pleiades 1B and SPOT- 6 images can be reviewed the extent to which the geometric accuracy of the actual conditions that will be used as source data for making village map with a large scale. In research conducted process of rectification by using data of ground control points (GCP) on the satellite image Pleiades-1B and SPOT 6, which using two methods, namely polynomial order 1 and order 2, then test the accuracy of geometric on the results of rectification the image to determine the level of precision horizontal based on Perka BIG No. 15 of 2014, so be analyzed the accuracy of horizontal imagery for making village map. The results obtained from the process of image rectificaation with 8 GCP, RMS value obtained method of polynomial 2 nd orde is better than 1 st orde, i.e. 0,188 pixel on the Pleiades 1B image and 0,350 pixel on the SPOT 6 image. Based on geometric accuracy testing obtained value of RMSE on the Pleiades 1B image is 0,801 meters and on the SPOT 6 imaage is 2,489 meters on the image of the results of the polynomial 1 st order rectification method and on the polynomial 2 nd order rectification method, RMSE values obtained for the image of the Pleiades 1B is 0,647 meters and 2,386 meter for the SPOT 6. For the feasibility of high-resolution imagery for creating village maps based on Technical Specifications Mapping Village 2016 by BIG, Pleiades 1B image eligible cartography village with a scale of 1: 2500, 1: 5000, 1: 10.000, while on satellite images SPOT 6 meet requirements for the manufacture of a village map with a scale of 1: 10,000.

ILMU UKUR TANAH BAGI PERANGKAT DESA PANASEN KECAMATAN KAKAS BARAT KABUPATEN MINAHASA

The village map becomes a reference in the village development plan and supports the village budget acceleration policy. The village map will also assist the asset inventory, so it can be used as a management capital of the Village Owned Enterprise (BUMDes).In Law 6/2014 on the Village it is clear that the boundaries of village areas are expressed in the form of village maps. The village map is the geospatial data and information that will be the basis for rural area development planning. With the existing village map, village officials can know the boundaries of the villages, identify and inventory thepotential or assets of the village. Through the village map, also known what are the obstacles in the effort to empower the potential.As a social society there are many problems that often arise among the community itself, as there is often a misunderstanding of the people against the boundaries and land /land ownership, it is due to lack of understanding of the people about the basic knowledge of the Soil Measure Science. The training that has been carried out in relation to how to measure, calculate, map out the measurements and determine the boundaries of the soil and how to correctly use the land measurement tools provides expertise for the village apparatus.

Assessment of Health Problems, Needs and Cultural Beliefs of Women in a Rural Area of Karnataka, India: A Participatory Rural Appraisal Method

Introduction: Mothers and children are not only a vulnerable group but even a major group consuming health services. In Indian society, Mother and child health (MCH) is surrounded by a wide range of customs and beliefs. Possible attention is necessary to focus on wrong practices and beliefs to prevent health systems to suffer from inefficiency and poor utilization. One of the methods to involve community in identifying and analyzing the problem is participatory rural appraisal (PRA), which helps in drawing framework to understand, analyze and develop programs with communities. Objectives: (1) To determine the health problems and needs of women in a rural area. (2) To assess the cultural beliefs related to mother and child health in the rural community. Methodology: Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was conducted with women of a rural village, Giriyapura in Davangere taluk. The methods used in the PRA technique were village mapping, village transect, and focus-group discussion. All the women of the village were informed about the objective of the study and those who came voluntarily (n=37) to participate were included in the study. Results: PRA resulted in empowering community involvement among the participants. The participants took charge of identification of health problems and their perceived causes for the same. The health needs were identified and prioritized. Need of transportation was the main priority of the participants. Cultural practices related to mother and child health were charted out. Conclusion: The most important perceived need of villagers was transport facility. Many cultural beliefs surrounded the mother and child health, of which some were unscientific. PRA was successful to an extent in obtaining information about health problems and needs of the community.