A PhD Thesis which might be interesting for some of you.
On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:41:05 GMT
In Unterbahn » Grassroots Mapping: tools for participatory and activist cartography
At
http://unterbahn.com/thesis/Geospatial tools and information play an important
role in urban planning and policymaking, and maps
have diverse uses in legal, environmental,
political, land rights, and social arenas.
Widespread participation in mapmaking and access
to its benefits is limited by obscure and
expensive tools and techniques. This has resulted
in poor or nonexistent maps for much of the
world’s population, especially in areas of urban
poverty. In particular, public access to recent
and high-resolution satellite imagery is largely
controlled by government and large industry. This
thesis proposes balloon and kite aerial
photography as a low-cost and easy to learn means
to collect aerial imagery for mapping, and
introduces a novel open-source online tool for
orthorectifying and compositing images into maps.
A series of case studies where such tools and
techniques were used by communities and activists
in Lima, Peru and during the 2010 BP oil spill
highlight the empowering role broader
participation in cartography can play in advocacy,
and the potential for increased cartographic
literacy to level the playing field in territorial
self-determination for small communities. Compared
to other efforts to democratize mapmaking, which
focus primarily on the presentation and
interpretation of existing map data, this project
emphasizes participation in the creation of new
data at its source — direct imaging of the earth’s
surface. Accompanying educational materials and
workshops with adults and youth, as well as an
active online community of participants, have
ensured wide adoption of Grassroots Mapping
--
Karl Dubost
Montréal, QC, Canada
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/
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