Biophysical impacts tend to dominate environmental impact assessments (EIA), yet social values of the environment have an important role to play in decision-making. To foster the inclusion of social values in EIA we developed and applied public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) methods to map Fijian social values of the Sigatoka River estuary in Nadroga-Navosa Province, Viti Levu, Fiji, and threats to these values. Mapping interviews with 31 participants reveal that the estuary is valued as a source of food, primarily for subsistence but also for income and is overlayed with intangible sociocultural and spiritual values that are connected to physical locations and/or are virtual in space. Current and potential threats to these values include episodic (e.g., mining) and chronic events (e.g., pollution). We conclude that PPGIS offers an approach to map social values of an environment that are predictive of land use conflict and can be used in EIA to understand the human impacts of a proposed development.

生物物理影响往往在环境影响评估 (EIA) 中占主导地位，但环境的社会价值在决策中发挥着重要作用。为了促进将社会价值观纳入 EIA，我们开发并应用了公众参与地理信息系统 (PPGIS) 方法来绘制斐济维提岛纳德罗加-纳沃萨省 Sigatoka 河口的斐济社会价值观以及对这些价值观的威胁。对 31 名参与者的绘图访谈显示，河口被视为一种食物来源，主要用于维持生计，但也用于收入，并且覆盖着与物理位置相关和/或在空间中虚拟的无形社会文化和精神价值。这些价值的当前和潜在威胁包括偶发事件（例如采矿）和慢性事件（例如污染）。