Collaborative mapping

“Collaborative Mapping: Integrating Top-Down and Bottom-Up Data for Sustainable Planning”

“Collaborative mapping and co-design” aims at assessing the quality of urban spaces and combining climate-related considerations with needs and expectations of local authorities, practitioners and communities. Relevant local strategies and plans are critically analysed to identify barriers and opportunities for integrating climate resilient design principles.

Residents, local administrations, neighborhood and category associations are engaged through collaborative mapping and co-design exercise to collectively develop a shared reading of the main critical aspects of the urban system in relation to environmental, functional-spatial and socio-economic aspects. The synthesis of the results outlines a picture of shared needs and possible divergence elements between categories of stakeholders to integrate in the project.

Depending on the size of the focus group, on the level of detail desired, on UCDCW formats and on participants

OUTCOMES

Digital map integrating baseline information from city-level strategies and regional, municipal, district planning documents with key information mapped by local stakeholders and communities engaged.

OBJECTIVES

• Engage community in collaborative mapping
• Gather information about urban environment
  Geospatialize the collected data
• Exchange knowledge, between experts and non-experts
• Inform urban policies, promote resilience
• Promote community bases resilience goals

FACILITATORS

Experts in collaboration with key stakeholders (e.g. representatives of local organizations/ Third Sector, community leaders).

TARGET GROUP

Communities, decision makers, policy-makers, city officials, local experts, practitioners, students, community leaders, NGOs, Third Sector, private stakeholders.

BASELINE MATERIAL
PREPARATION

At this stage, experts prepare digital maps of a specific area (aerial photographs; satellite imagery) with geospatial information (e.g. open street maps, google maps) also define set of categories to be mapped in the collaborative mapping exercise organized in macro-groups.

NEIGHBOURHOOD
WALK OR FOCUS GROUP

Through a focus group or a neighborhood walk, we initiate the engagement of participants in the collaborative mapping process to gather information about the urban environment.

MAPPING
EXERCISE

Participants are invited to develop a mapping exercise on physical maps to collect bottom-up data. These data are depending on the specific aim of the activity and on the specific local focus and issues to be interlinked with climate topics.

CREATING
DIGITAL MAPS

Experts gather the collected data and incorporate it into digital maps in which both top-down (expert-driven) and bottom-up (participants) information are overlapped and available for communities and decision-makers.

USING PUBLIC
PLATFORM

The ultimate objective is to geospatialize the information using an open-source tool creating a public platform for knowledge sharing that is accessible to communities and decision-makers.

CATEGORIES

Set of categories to be mapped in the collaborative mapping exercise (depending on the purpose and characteristics of the area) for example:

Environmental quality
Critical spaces affected by environmental factors (e.g., waste, illegal dumping, fire risk, high pollution)

Socio-cultural capital
Critical spaces affected by socio-spatial factors (e.g., unsafety, segregation, local initiatives)

Urban quality
Abandoned areas, spaces for leisure activities, meeting spaces

MATERIALS

• A1 printed base map(s) of the study area for the collaborative mapping exercise (with names of streets), 1 each 6 participants
• A1 printed diagram with city visions (pdf file shared by facilitators)
• Sticky notes
• Printed stickers (provided by facilitators) with categories of elements to be mapped
• Markers

Experts gather the collected data and incorporate it into digital maps in which both top-down (expert-driven) and bottom-up (participants) information are overlapped and available for communities and decision-makers.
The collaborative mapping if web-based (on-line open source map such as open street map or google maps) allows to create a platform in which both top-down (expert-driven) and bottom- up (participants) information are overlapped and available for communities and decision-makers.
Digital maps of a specific area (aerial photographs; satellite imagery) or on-line open source maps with geospatial information (e.g. open street maps, google maps). Baseline data can be spatial information available depending on the on-line mapping platform (e.g. open street maps, google maps) or additional information implemented by researchers on the map such as data on climate-related risks and other environmental risks, vulnerability of population, building typologies etc.

Ask for more

Communities, decision makers, policy-makers, city officiels, NGOs please contact us for further informations