Mappa di Comunità, Niguarda, il fronte

Oltre un anno di lavoro fra tavoli di partecipazione, elaborazione e progettazione della mappa, raccolta del materiale
e stampa, ma, da ieri, abbiamo messo in circolazione 5000 copie della prima Mappa di Comunità dell’area urbana milanese: la Mappa di Comunità di Niguarda.

Mappa di Comunità, Niguarda, il retro

Un progetto coordinato dalle antropologhe di Tramemetropolitane nel quale il nostro compito principale
è stato quello di mediazione culturale realativa alla rappresentazione del territorio
e alla costruzione di partecipazione per la mappatura condivisa dello spazio urbano.

Schemi iniziali per il map design

Il progetto della Mappa di Comunità ha voluto tentare di
uscire da una tradizione passatista e naïf tipica delle parish maps.
Abbiamo utilizzato codici cartografici contemoranei, stratificando le informazioni e semplificando il senso e le relazioni grafiche e logiche.

La mappa rimane uno strumento aperto, incrementale, in costante modifica, e tende a tracciare elementi socialmente rilevanti, memorie, vissuti, per favorire una rilettura dello spazio da parte del fruitore.

La mappa delimita aree su cui far sedimentare nuove forme di conoscenza locale, favorendo la connessione fra memoria e spazio.

La mappa stessa spiega le sue ragioni:

“Non è una carta geografica o un catalogo di monumenti, bensì un mezzo che aiuta una comunità a percepire con più
chiarezza i contorni del proprio patrimonio storico e culturale. In quanto narrazione corale la Mappa di Comunità
contribuisce al processo di ricostruzione di storie collettive, con l’obiettivo di conservare la memoria per comprendere
il presente e immaginarci il futuro.”

Mappaura partecipativa con strumenti GPS

Ci siamo immaginati il futuro anche attraverso nuove tecniche di mappatura
partecipativa, utilizzando  GPS, cartografie libere basate sul web, come Open Street Map e GIS che possano facilitare lo scambio e la stratificazione dei dati
territoriali.

Il passo successivo riguarda ora l’estensione del processo di mappatura a tutta
l’area dell’ecomuseo e lo sviluppo di strumenti innovativi con cui raggiungere ampie fasce della popolazione in grado di arricchire il percorso.

I recently gave a talk about community mapping at a Living Streets Aotearoa meeting. This post contains the examples of community mapping that I mentioned in the talk. All these examples all fall within my general area of research, i.e. social health and wellbeing, and almost all of these examples use google maps.

Note:  By “community mapping” I mean maps made by the community. There are other things it might possible be called or related to: neogeography, participatory mapping, volunteered geographic information, collaborative mapping etc. I didn’t have time to figure out the appropriate name.

Example 1: Mapping the location of fruit and urban edibles

• City Fruit (Seattle)
• Bloomington Urban Harvest
• Fernwood Fruit Tree Project
• Fitzroy Feral Fruit Map
• New Zealand Fruit and Food Share Map

Example 2: Bicycle routes

• MapMyRide
• Bikely
• Ride the City – safe bike routes in NYC,. This is more a map for the community than a map by the community, but I thought it was interesting

Example 3: Walkability & Cycleability audits

• Woodbridge Township Safe Routes to School project - schools & community participate in walkability audits to figure out safe routes to school.

Example 4 – Mapping perceptions of the environment

• Rescue Geography’s Eastside project - not all these are collaborative, but there are interesting google earth and google maps that include stories, quotes, photos, video and ambinet sounds of the city. There is also an interesting cycling perceptions project underway.

By Kendra Bridges

On May 14 and 21, members of two south Sacramento communities joined staff from the Coalition On Regional Equity, the UC Davis Center for Regional Change, Legal Services of Northern California, and Sacramento Mutual Housing Association to discuss the state of their communities. The workshops were held in the Avondale / Glen Elder neighborhood at Max Baer Park, and in the Lemon Hill neighborhood at Sacramento Mutual Housing Association’s Lemon Hill Estates.

During the workshops, community members discussed issues related to the health of their communities, including access to health care, transportation, safe and decent housing, and other issues that help build a quality living environment. Lively discussions took place at both events. Participants identified assets in their communities, and things they would like to see changed. They spoke about their personal habits in the neighborhood, how they got to frequent destinations, and what services they used locally. All had something to say about what they would like to see improved in their communities.

The information gathered from the community members of Avondale / Glen Elder and Lemon Hill will be made into maps of community knowledge. These maps will be presented to the communities in future meetings, and will be used to begin a discussion of next steps. Ultimately, the data created in these mapping workshops will be used to support advocacy for change in these neighborhoods.

These workshops are part of a project called SCORECARD, or Sacramento Coalition on Regional Equity Collaborative Assessment of Regional Development, which is a collaborative between the Coalition on Regional Equity and the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. The SCORECARD will serve as a vital resource for advocacy, organizing, and building a critically-informed people’s movement for regional equity and health. It enhances the ability of populations typically marginalized in regional planning efforts (such as immigrants, low-income people, communities of color, youth) to have their visions seen and heard by regional policy makers.

The goal of the SCORECARD is to provide a tool to empower and engage community partners to assess development and advocate for change in the region at multiple scales, from the neighborhood, to the municipality, to the county, to the full region. It will involve a dynamic process that links community involvement with cutting-edge mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) technology.

Much of the data for the SCORECARD will come from secondary data sources to allow for consistency across the region over time. But it will also include data garnered through collaborative public participatory GIS (PPGIS) system that reflects residents own knowledge of their neighborhoods. This PPGIS system will be developed through conducting workshops such as those held in May that are novel in the non-profit, community development, and social empowerment fields. It will capture local data by conducting mapping workshops where community members will have an opportunity to participate in hands-on mapping of information they feel is relevant to their community’s well-being.

The British Transport Police have an innovative site that will show you where crime is occurring on the rail network at a local level across Britain.  The police department’s objective is to keep the railway network is a safe and secure environment.  They work closely with train operating companies using GIS to prevent crime and disorder and create an environment where passengers feel safe. Since 2005, reported crime on the railway network has reduced by more than 20 per cent.

It’s easy to find your local crime statistics. Just select your region on the map and use the local map to find your station, or use the search box and type in the station name. Choose the type of crime that you want to know more about and filter your search by total number of crimes or crimes per 100,000 passenger journeys. Select whether you want to view crimes recorded at the station or onboard a train. Onboard crime happens along the route of the train but is often reported at end of line stations meaning figures could be higher at those station locations.

For more information, please visit this site.

Anne Galloway published a fantastic essay on community mapping, locative media and their potential impact on everything from pollution control to politics and just fun things like emotion mapping in urban environments.

Community mapping and sensing projects that use commonly available consumer electronics as environmental measurement devices, enable people to collect and view a wide array of location-based data. As a form of public science, such projects stand to reinvigorate environmentally focused civic engagement. However, given public concerns around environmental risks and their connections to technological progress, I believe that this kind of active citizenship should promote more critical reflection on the values and goals of the very projects that expect to create such profound changes in these domains, and carefully consider the limits of its own power.

Read full article here.

An article by Chief Mark W. Bowersox of the Polk City police department highlights how GIS can be used in preventing transportation problems in small cities.  In 2003, the city of Polk City, Iowa had to prepare for the Allianz Golf Championship, a PGA Champions Tour event which was to be held in 2005.  Polk City and its population of 3,000 needed to be ready for the 40 – 50,000 visitors expected during the week-long event.  Handling the influx of visitors and traffic became an immediate concern especially to Polk City’s six-person police force.  Fortunately, the chief and the city were in the process of installing GIS capabilities for citywide application. Through past contacts and with the use of aerial imagery and mapping capabilities, the city was able to put together a plan to handle the expected traffic demands of the tournament.

The police department believed that for the tournament to be well received by the community it needed to have a minimum effect on the daily routines of citizens.  Maps were used to inform citizens and alleviate any anxieties they had during the months prior to the tournament.  A Microsoft PowerPoint presentation was developed that featured aerial views of Polk City and included a map that illustrated potential problem areas if no traffic plan was used.  A second map showed the same areas and how traffic-related problems would be minimized with the use of the traffic plan.  The PowerPoint presentation was used numerous times at city meetings and informational meetings, where citizens were allowed to see the traffic plan and gain an understanding of how it was going to work.

Maps were used during the tournament as well. Several officers were brought in to help Polk City police provide security. Officers from other cities were given an aerial view of the golf course and its 6.5 miles of cart path. The maps helped the visiting officers orient themselves to the venue. The Polk City Fire Department also used the maps to assist medical personnel in responding to any calls for assistance. By using GIS, the Polk City police departments were able to see the golf tournament go off without a hitch.

For more information on this topic, please visit this site.

The West St. Paul police department has made use of several strategies to help increase crime prevention. Among those strategies are, child car seat inspection, neighborhood watch, child safety tips, crime prevention tips, and a crime mapping database, all of which are made available to the public. TheCrime Map allow residents to view the locations and dates of crimes in the city that had accrued within the last 90 days. This map is updated weekly. Burglaries, robberies, arson, thefts, stolen vehicles and damage to property crimes are depicted by pushpins which are color coded to represent the particular type of crime.

The crime map does have a few drawbacks like police department business procedures dictating the timely display of recent crime data. Recording requirements may delay the availability of certain incidents on this map. Multiple incidents at a single location may not be apparent. Not all crime/call types are shown

For more information on this topic, please visit this site.

CrimeMapping.com is a nationwide crime mapping service being hosted by The Omega Group, a company that works to provide GIS solutions for problems in law enforcement, public safety, and education agencies.  The site is dedicated to helping to reduce crime through a well informed public. There’s also a Crime Alerts feature that allows you to subscribe to automated crime reports about activity in your neighborhood. This is a video with an introduction to crimemapping.com and how it can be used by the public.

For more information on this topic, please visit this site.

Laws that restrict where registered sex offenders may live have become increasingly popular during the past decade.  As of 2007, some 27 states and hundreds of municipalities had enacted laws that bar sex offenders from residing near schools, parks, playgrounds and day care centers. The specified distance from a school or other venue is typically 1,000 feet but varies from 500 to 2,500 feet, depending on the jurisdiction.  Studies show that restrictions can create exclusion zones that make it difficult, if not impossible, for sex offenders to find housing.  Sex offenders then may become homeless, go underground or report false addresses, making them difficult to track.

GIS analysis can help officials gauge the impacts of sex offender residency laws.  By analyzing mapping data from GIS, they can isolate the exclusion zones and the areas available for housing in their communities.  They can also determine whether registered sex offenders are living in compliant housing. Researchers mapped data from three areas using GIS to locate registered offenders and identify restricted sites and their exclusion zones.  Various studies were conducted in Ohio, San Diego, California, and several municipalities in New Jersey.  Although the localities differed in geography and population, all evidenced limited access to suitable housing.

GIS mapping can inform legislators about sexual offender residency requirements — especially in jurisdictions that are contemplating enactment of residency laws. Local officials can use the mapping analysis to determine whether affordable housing is available within approved areas and to evaluate the proximity of that housing to treatment facilities.  Such prior analysis can demonstrate whether a proposed law is feasible to enforce.  Jurisdictions with a residency law already in place can use the data to assess whether the exclusion zones result in a lack of housing options for offenders.

For more information on this topic, please visit this site.

The Urban Institute (UI) in 2002 launched the Reentry Mapping Network (RMN), a partnership of cities engaged in creating community change through the mapping and analysis of prison reentry and other community indicator data at a highly localized level. RMN partners use mapping to pinpoint neighborhoods that experience high concentrations of returning prisoners and to examine the extent to which such communities are equipped to address the challenges that prisoner reentry creates.

Mapping can help identify neighborhoods that experience high geographic concentrations of prisoners returning home.  Mapping released prisoners in conjunction with services available to them can illustrate areas in which there are adequate services in close proximity to where the majority of
prisoners return. These services include employment, housing, and drug treatment and accessibility to these services can make a difference in preventing a freed prisoner’s reentry into jail.

For more information on this topic, please visit this site.

Car thefts in Kennewick, Washington

Link to article:

http://www.keprtv.com/news/local/43073797.html

An article on the keprtv.com website talks about how a news reporter took the initiative and looked at months of data to be able to find out the areas with the greatest abundance of car thefts in Kennewick, WA. When this information was discussed with the police sergeant, it seemed as though he was in denial about the information available to the public. If there are this many car thefts, shouldn’t the police be doing something about it? The most valuable resources for understanding incidents of crime are the residents who have lived in these crime-ridden areas for a significant amount of time–they are at ground zero and know more than any outsider ever would.

The take away message is this: in order for the incidents of car thefts to decrease in these areas, there needs to be cooperation and understanding between the police, residents, and the other parties involved. Maybe for the police, there are other greater, complex issues that require the majority of their task force in terms of manpower and resources. Nonetheless, the fact that this issue is in the news, it will gain some public attention and awareness.

Link to website: http://www.thelantern.com/crimemap/

As part of the college’s newspaper, The Lantern, Ohio State University has campus crime maps that are published weekly. These maps contain information about crime incidents that have occurred within a one week time frame. I like the fact that the explanations are detailed because the more information that is known about the location and nature of crimes, the more knowledge we have in identifying trends. It is also useful that the data is broken up week by week to see if there are any crime patterns during certain times or days of the week. Plus, with mapping crime weekly, there is not an overwhelming amount of information for public viewers. Overall, I am pleased with the way Ohio State University utilizes their crime mapping software and the data is definitely user-friendly!

According to an article posted on recordonline.com, Middletown Police Department has unveiled their own crime mapping page as part of the Middletown Police Department website. There is not much crime data on there yet, but as with all sites, there is great potential for community involvement. What I notice on the police department site was information on how to give anonymous tips for incidents occurring in the area. I think that with this tool, it is helping to facilite the police department’s ability to reach every possible audience in their efforts to combat crime.
The Middletown Police Department site provides information on how to tip the police department not only by web, but by texting and/or calling. Most importantly, your identity is not revealed. This could be the major determining factor in using these methods to report crimes, especially if you want to be discrete.

Link to Middletown Police Department website: http://middletownpolice.com/

Link to news article: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090406/NEWS/904060321

I think it is unfortunate that there was an error that significant on a site that brings in 4 to 7 million page views a month! With that number of views, it is no surprise that there has been a huge public uproar about the misrepresentation of crime data in Los Angeles. Nonetheless, I understand that crime maps are only as accurate as the current technology allows it to be. As long as there is human error in reporting data, there will always be errors in computerized maps because we are the ones who are responsible for entering crime data into the databases and we are the ones who create the crime mapping software.

There will always be glitches, and situations like this are not uncommon. It is inconvenient that this glitch was not caught sooner and has caused such a mess.

The purpose of these crime maps are to present accurate information to the public about crime in their neighborhoods. With this information one can get a better idea on how to combat the social, political, and health problems associated with crime in a particular region. If the data is inaccurate, there will be an unnecessary allocation of funds and resources which can not be afforded anywhere, due to the overall scarcity of funds in this economy.

Link to online news article: http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-geocoding-errors5-2009apr05,0,4559013.story?page=1&track=rss

Geographers, planners, technology vendors, and people from many other backgrounds met in Las Vegas during the Association of American Geographers’ conference on March 22-27, 2009. This is one of the major conferences for those who are interested about the properties of the Earth—below, on, or above the surface—and its relation with humans and other living beings.

There were hundreds of sessions in the conference. I attended almost all sessions on ‘volunteered geographic information (VGI)’ and many sessions related to community mapping. It looked to me that the mapping services from major Internet companies have sensitized the academic geospatial community. People—most of whom without any formal degree in geography or related disciplines—are using handheld devices such as GPS, cell phone, PDA to capture and share geospatial information on the web. Those who are taking part in these geospatial activities are already in the order of millions. Strikingly, many academicians and GISers have been clueless of this movement.

VGI sessions were very useful both to know non-experts’ mapping activities as well as academic preparations to respond to these activities. It was good to know that a consortium of three universities are bringing a VGI research program: University of California, Santa Barbara (content and quality), University of Washington, Seattle (social production), and University of Texas A&M (applications). Prof. Michael Goodchild’s (the man who coined the term’ VGI’) plenary lecture on VGI was an informative event. The VGI sessions remind us of time in early 90’s when GIS was entering from desktop into the Internet GIS. I see that GIS is now entering into yet another phase: from expert-driven, supply-oriented GIS to user-driven, use-oriented GIS, albeit there are several issues we need to resolve first. This transition, however, has a potential to bring deeper social implications than the previous transitions.

There were several sessions on community mapping. Many of the presentations in these sessions were focused more on mapping per se from the geospatial perspective. After listening these talks, I realized that we could have reported our activities in Youth Community Informatics (YCI) project. In YCI, we do not focus on mapping per se; rather we try to ensure that there is an explicit connection between mapping, lives of the people, and their communities. Further, we consider maps and mapping only a slice of the cube; we equally emphasize on audio, video, picture, and narrative as other slices. Most importantly, we encapsulate these within a broader learning framework of inquiry cycle as shown in the below diagram. Geometric primitives of points, lines, and polygons provide us frameworks to understand the world affairs. In YCI, we are beginning to experience that these geometric frameworks become more useful when they are filled with information about history, culture, and many other forms of human activities. Similarly, the value of audio, video, picture, narrative, and other sources of information multiplies as soon as they are referenced to location. In YCI, we have a clear emphasis on this  supplementary relationship between geospatial and non-geospatial information. We believe that integration of these diverse sources and forms of information provides us a more holistic knowledge necessary to understand and respond to geospatial situations, which are often complex in nature.

The site EveryBlock Chicago contains extensive public records on foreclosures, property transfers, street closures, and most importantly, crimes. This site is user-friendly and is easy to navigate. What I like most about the site is that it contains crime statistics by day and categorizes them by type of crime, neighborhood, zip code, and by place (sidewalk, street, building), etc.

I know Chicago is a large city, but it was shocking that between February 16, 2009 and March 18, 2009 there were 31,350 reported crimes. There is a bar graph showing the changes in numbers of crimes per day over this one month period. I wasn’t exactly sure what was causing the fluctuations, and I can’t ever be sure that every crime is reported.

This site is by far the most thorough I have seen in terms of the amount of data available. I also like the statistics that supplement the map. Now that there is all this information available…what can we do with it?

• The highest percentages of crimes reported over the one month period were battery charges
  • Evaluate the types of resources the city has to combat this issue: Are there shelters for abused individuals? Psychiatric options? Are the batteries occurring mostly out in the streets or within the home? Is there a great enough police presence? But most importantly, what can we do to prevent these crimes from happening?

• Another high percentage of crimes reported was possession of marijuana, under 30 grams
  • We all know the effects of marijuana, and they are considerably less detrimental than other drugs out there. Maybe the police should focus their efforts elsewhere.

I definitely think the most difficult task is to figure out strategies to combat these issues, what crimes are considered the highest priority, and how they can be provided.. The amount of crime in this city seems rather high.

http://chicago.everyblock.com/crime/

As Leviten-Reid paraphrases Jane Jacobs, the neighbourhood development required to move towards a sustainabile goal “is a do-it-yourself process…[but that] does not mean ‘do-it-alone’” (2006, p.3). The process of identifying potential spaces for urban agricultural production is one aspect of a broader community visioning that is always occurring, to varying degrees, throughout the city. Imagining the “agricultural urbanism” as an important part of the ‘ideal’ Toronto, e-dentifying Space participating individuals are taking the first steps towards a planning framework for the comprehensive vision of what they want (Ames 1997). They are attempting to find the synergic satisfiers needed by humans but to varying degrees, depending on such things as culture and what is available at that time (Newman and Jennings 2008, p. 16). Sustainability flows naturally from this: by stockpiling assets neighbourhoods and the city itself are preparing for their redevelopment over time, providing options for generating income, weathering harder times and innovating responses to changing circumstances (Leviten-Reid 2006, p. 4).

Followed with an effective community-based monitoring of progress, community visions are most successful when they are “locally appropriate and adaptive, led by strong coordination and based on collaborative partnerships… work[ing] toward sustainability” (Pollock and Whitelaw 2005 p. 225). By building on the sense of place that comes with being able to project into the future to define the values that will guide actions, residents are able to become involved in identifying and activating sustainability assets close to their homes. With a defined set of personal goals, this individual asset identification can develop into well-managed collaborative ‘teams’ whereby citizens feel actively involved in positive future-looking work in the community (Shandas and Messer 2008, p. 416). As community members are mobilized to identify local priorities, they build capacity and strengthen local leadership, creating positive feedback cycles that are able to generate a more lasting approach to community assets that achieve the influence needed for government decision-making (Parker 2007, p. 478; Pollock and Whitelaw 2005, p. 216).

For the purpose here, displaying a community’s vision (i.e. for Toronto’s agricultural urbanism) in a map-based format easily showcases its spatial dimensions while the visual inventory is a powerful tool for both educating and creating “critical decision support tools for land use planning” (Pollock and Whitelaw 2005, p. 219). This mapping and dialogue process is intended to be but a small step in the complex quest for a sustainable future, but “[e]ncouraging local communities to dream is the beginning of building a better world” (Ames 1997). Once exclusively a process of a top-down surveying of neighbourhoods door-to-door or canvassing schools, community groups, businesses and churches in order to build an inventory of what assets actually exist within a community (Jasek-Rysdahl 2001, p. 319), the focus has shifted in many ways to a more democratic and online approach of collaboration (recognizing, of course, that a civic government could have similarly implemented a tool such as this one). While the collaboration of people in producing the map may be temporary, Parker notes that “their collaboration is now visually reinforced by their shared co-presence on the map” (2007, p. 480), one that hopefully moves offline and into the real world of policy change, grassroots activism and leadership as the results of the online map are activated.

(photo from Social Planning & Research Council of Hamilton)

Where does the identification of land potentially suitable for agricultural production in the City of Toronto actually lead? Is this mapping tool in use one that merely provides a diversion, or can it lead to something more substantial? While community and participatory mapping projects “implicitly seeks to change the world” (Perkins 2007, p. 136), I cannot expect much more than a critical dialogue to occur surrounding how we, individually, as well as private companies and public entities like the City itself make use of the land immediately around us. However, especially at a time when land in the Greater Golden Horseshoe is at a premium, the potential for this application and complementary tools to extend further into the realm of policy making exists. The City of Toronto itself cannot, with a limited budget and enforceable mandate, identify all areas in which the broad sustainability concepts it seeks to achieve (i.e. through Section 3.4, The Natural Environment, of it’s Official Plan) may be fully realized.

This understandable lack of organizational capacity calls for the need for an engaged public whose ideas (quite often more direct and immediately realized) in the decision-making process to be built upon (Arefi 2004, p. 493; Leviten-Reid 2006, pp. 9-10). Democratising mapping offers the possibility for articulating and realizing social, economic, political or aesthetic claims (Perkins 2007, p. 127)—and, in the case of e-dentifying Space, a combination of all of these ideals. More profoundly, these maps “intimate the potential for radical social change, or at least the judicious reallocation of resources” (Parker 2007, 470). This bottom up approach to sustainability evokes Dale when she writes governments (especially at the federal and provincial levels, but also applicable to local governments) must show “a loosening of the resistance to entertain what is currently defined as alternative thinking” (2001, p. 116), one that is able to better understand and operationalize sustainability at the local level, where it is most effective and useful. Community assets inherently are linked foremost and directly to the communities that they serve, and provide a much more personal and local level from which broader asset management practices can be developed. This tool represents a first step in the operational framework that help can help to conceptualize asset-based policies (Arefi 2004, p. 493) that will ideally lead to implementation.

While the promise of web 2.0 tools in community-asset identification exists, its critics quite rightly argue that it is fraught with constraints, such as inconsistent data, lack of participation and lack of standardized methods or objectives (Pollock and Whitelaw, 2005, p. 213). In addition, many of the maps currently in us as ‘emancipatory’ are situated around a participatory GIS (geographic information systems) whereby the supposed participatory and collaborative efforts are merely input into maps controlled and produced by specialists who have their own agendas, however benevolent they may be (Elwood and Leitner 1998; Perkins 2007, p. 127). To guard against this, the technology of the web 2.0 tools and mapping software used must be intuitive and simple to navigate, requiring little prior knowledge. Google Maps, as the platform, is increasingly the default mapping tool used across the internet due to its customizability and simplicity of setup, even for those without much technological expertise. As such, the platform used by e-dentifying Space intends to be as recognizable and user-friendly to as many potential users as possible.

Parallel to the privilege of technologic access is the privilege of the production and identification of assets themselves, a value-laden proposition. In Parker’s (2007) description of the production of the Portland, Oregon, Greenmap project, she argues that the unwillingness of what had become a relatively homogenous group of volunteers to evaluate the map meant that information and data was hitting a dead end; the social change expected and desired was not going anywhere. This is a common criticism of community asset-based mapping projects; simply allowing a community use of a technologic process and the resulting information acquired does not sufficiently “empower” them (Elwood and Leitner, 1998); steps must be in place to be able to access and actualize this social capital (and in the case of e-dentifying Space, land capital) through organized programs, policy changes and widespread acceptance of the agricultural urbanism that this project seeks to initiate and facilitate.

Have you spent countless hours looking for an affordable deal on a quick getaway?  With many people now looking to save money rather than spend money on a vacation, many airlines, hotels, and resorts are slashing prices in order to encourage people to continue to travel and explore during these times of economic uncertainty.  The interactive map, Flee Market, is an online tool where fellow travelers can advertise and map various discount, deals, and locations for the family still looking to go on a vacation this summer.  

To read more about this site, click here.  Or to view the map or find your own vacation deal, click here…

Kenneth E. Liwag, Rutgers University Planning Intern, VERTICES, LLC.

Map View of the Area with Crime Incidents

Crime Mapping website for Lafayette Parish Law Enforcement Agencies: http://gis.lafayettela.gov/crimeviewcommunity/

This crime map has an extensive search option which gives the option to look for a specific event at a specific time or you can see what crimes are going on around a landmark of interest. Upon reaching the mapping site, a Help page first comes up in order to explain how to navigate the site to get the information you want. Then you select what type of crime to focus on.  You have the option of selecting any or all crimes from the database. After selecting a particular area to look at, you have a choice between a specific address, landmark, or boundary. You can retrieve the most recent data (within the previous day) or you can look as far back as 3 months.

When you finally reach the map, the information that is given for each point is the nature of the call (the data is based on the calls recieved by the police deparment), the description of the event (i.e. motor vehicle theft), and the  location of this incident.

The biggest flaw of this site is that it is glitchy and not all of the links work. Plus, the site is very slow and I was getting impatient trying to navigate through it. When I tried to zoom in and out of areas, the process took way too long. Regardless of its flaws,  this map definately provides the public with useful information on where crime is occurring in their neighborhoods.

Residents of Cowichan County, Canada got together to last month to map what they perceived to be important assets of their community.  Such things as historic landmarks, cycling trails, and even environmental sites that are being neglected were mapped.  The event allowed the citizens of Cowichan County to learn more about their environment and where they live, where their food comes from, and where their children and their children’s children may grow up.  The event turned into more of a social gathering rather than a social experiment which helped increase the number of residents that came to the event.  

For more information about the Cowichan County effort, click here…

Blokplan Dusun Jetisan

Melihat statistik blog beberapa bulan terakhir dibagian “paling aktif” dan “pencarian tertinggi” jatuh pada sampah, plastik, peta, program KKN, dll. Sepertinya sedang ada yang mencari referensi program KKN untuk periode kedepan. Sehubungan dengan itu, tulisan ini kuambil dari laporan kegiatan program KKN-ku. Mudah-mudahan apa yang ku informasikan disini bermanfaat.

Sekedar informasi, program utama unit bidang fisik KKN yang kujalani adalah Pengelolaan Sampah Terpadu di Hargobinangun, Pakem (2008). Beberapa kegiatan bidang yang terkait dengan peningkatan kesehatan sudah kuposting sebelumnya (tag : KKN Hargobinangun). KKN kami dibagi dalam 3 sub-unit (3 dusun), sehingga aku dan seorang temanku membagi wilayah kerja sesuai dengan sub-unit masing-masing. Program utama yang kami rencanakan adalah Pemetaan Blokplan untuk Lokasi Penempatan Tempat Sampah. Program ini bertujuan untuk memetakan posisi dan kepemilikan tiap rumah di 3 dusun (Dusun Jetisan, Dusun Sawungan, dan Dusun Purworejo) sekaligus sebagai acuan penempatan tempat sampah sebagai sarana pendukung program pengelolaan sampah terpadu. Lebih jauh lagi, peta yang dihasilkan dapat digunakan sebagai acuan bagi instansi terkait dalam menentukan kebijakan pengelolaan sampah di desa ini, khususnya 3 dusun tadi. Aku bertanggung jawab untuk menyelesaikan peta blokplan Dusun Jetisan.

Pelaksanaan pemetaan blockplan Dusun Jetisan menggunakan metode community mapping, yaitu mahasiswa sebagai kartografer meminta masyarakat sekitar untuk memetakan daerahnya sendiri dengan panduan yang ada. Kartografer hanya mengubah data/peta yang didapat dari masyarakat, kemudian didigitasi menjadi data digital dan mengoreksi posisi tiap rumah maupun jalan dengan menggunakan acuan dari citra satelit. Dengan metode ini diharapkan masyarakat nantinya dapat melakukan pemetaan wilayahnya sendiri.

Penentuan titik-titik lokasi tempat sampah dilakukan dengan beberapa alternatif batasan, dapat berupa tiap RT ataupun tiap dasawisma. Tiap batasan ini mempunyai konsekuensi pengolahan sampah sendiri-sendiri. Penentuan lokasi tempat sampah dipilih menggunakan batasan RT dengan alasan batasannya lebih luas, sehingga penentuan lokasi tempat sampah bisa lebih obyektif dengan memilih daerah-daerah yang memiliki densitas tinggi sehingga diharapkan lokasi tempat sampah lebih mudah diakses dan terjangkau dengan pemukiman padat. Berhubung program pengelolaan sampah terpadu tidak sampai pada pengadaan tempat sampah, sehingga peta nantinya akan berfungsi sebagai acuan penentuan lokasi titik tempat sampah.

National Geographic is taking nominations for a geotourism mapping initiative where travelers can nominate places for a interactive maps that are due to debut in September.  The idea of interactive geotourism allows the community and off the beaten travelers themselves identify and geotag often overlooked tourist spots.  The main focus is to identify places that emphasize the character, environment, heritage, culture, and aesthetics of a place.  Places of local importance that may be of importance to a traveler who is looking to get in tune with the local culture is what National Geographic hopes to put on stage.

For more information about the project, click here…

Kenneth E. Liwag; Rutgers University Planning Intern; VERTICES, LLC.

Crime mapping is sweeping the nation with so many communities looking towards mapping crimes to keep the public informed and the city safe.  Since the inception of CrimeView Community, as many as 40 states and hundreds of communities have taken the initiative to map the crime that occurs in their towns.  The ability to give residents information about the safety of their town allows them to make more conscious and safer decisions and also permits the police force to recognize crime-prone areas and to handle these areas accordingly.

To read more about the spread of crime mapping, click here…

Kenneth E. Liwag; Rutgers University Planning Intern; VERTICES, LLC.