A decade of participatory mapping – the road
to Mapping for Change
Participatory GIS – a decade ago
Using mapping at the community level
• Expensive software
• Difficult to use
• Availability of data
Using mapping on the internet
• Slow connections
• Small display area
• Limited number of users
• Not fun!
Source : OfCom 2009s
http://maps.google.co.uk/
OpenStreetMap
(Image source: OpenStreetMap)
Positive aspects
• Web-based mapping easy and fast
• More data available for merging and integrating
• Inexpensive and free GIS
• Base map information available
Socio-economic disparities
Remaining problems
• Spatial literacy (map reading)
• Usability of GIS and web mapping applications
• Bridging the skills gap
• ‘So what?’ – linking information to action
Citizen Science
• Usually, the collection of scientific observations
by volunteers who are not trained or professional
scientists
• However, citizens can also participate in defining
the problems, envisioning possible projects and
participate in the analysis
• Can (and should) participate in the discussion of
the results of what they’ve collected
Archway Pedestrian Surveys were carried
out in collaboration with Space Syntax
who specialised in pedestrian movement
analysis
Saturday 12:00 to 14:00
500 to 700
350 to 500
200 to 350
100 to 200
1 to 100
Space Syntax
Noise Mapping
School
Community Centre
School
Scrap yard
Mapping for change
• Online and offline mapping
• Extensive community engagement knowledge
• Integrating community mapping and citizen
science
• Producing action relevant maps