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 Syntaxwho specialised in pedestrian movement analysis

500 to 700

350 to 500

200 to 350

100 to 200

1 to 100

Saturday 12:00 to 14:00

Space Syntax

Noise Mapping

Scrap yard

Community Centre

School

School

Mapping for change

• Online and offline mapping

• Extensive community engagement knowledge

• Integrating community mapping and citizen science

• Producing action relevant maps