ABCD-Training-of-Trainers-Tools-July-2013

2.8.a. Transect Walk
(Adapted from Chambers, 1998, by the Coady Institute)
Session Title
Session Objectives
Duration of Session
Resources
Training Materials
Transect Walk
Further analyze the physical and natural resources within a community
60 minutes
Flipchart
Markers
Existing Community Map (from previous exercise)
Transect Example
Introduction
A transect (below) is an effective way of documenting natural and physical assets in more detail. A
transect is an imaginary line across an area to capture as much diversity as possible. By walking along
that line and documenting observations, an assessment of the range of assets and opportunities can be
made. For example, by walking from the top of a hill down to the river valley and up the other side, it
will be possible to see the full range of natural vegetation, land use, soil types, crops grown, land tenure
etc.
Instructions at the community level
As demonstrated by the previous tool, a community map can be drawn by people in the community to
show land use, land tenure, water sources, buildings and facilities, roads, boundaries etc. Using the map
of physical and natural resources from the previous exercise, ask participants to make a transect line
through the map that will best represent the community’s diversity, as the example shows below:
Figure 8: A Community map with a transect line drawn across areas of maximum ecological variability
On this map, the line from “X” (top left) to “Y” (bottom right) is a transect line cutting across diverse
ecological or natural resource zones. The natural resource details of these different zones are
elaborated below.
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