Integrating Ancestral Knowledge and Internet of Things For Sustainable Water Management In The Kisgó Indigenous Community

Sustainable water resource management is crucial in indigenous territories, where water is not only a vital natural resource but also a central component of cultural and spiritual life. In the Kisgó indigenous reserve (Cauca, Colombia), climate variability and reduced water flows have increasingly affected traditional agricultural cycles. Although Internet of Things solutions exist for water monitoring, they rarely incorporate the specific cultural contexts and ancestral knowledge of indigenous communities. This article presents the design and validation of a conceptual architecture and software prototype that articulates quantitative IoT data with qualitative ancestral indicators (e.g., signs from nature). Adopting a multi-cyclic action research approach and user-centered design, the proposal was developed through active community participation. The validation phase, which used the System Usability Scale, yielded an average score of 82, demonstrating high usability and acceptance. In addition, expert evaluation confirmed the architecture's conceptual integrity. The results suggest that integrating digital technologies with indigenous worldviews facilitates social appropriation and effectively supports decision-making for sustainable water management.