Editorial: The rise of collaborative mapping: Trends and future directions

The nature of map production and the dissemination of spatially referenced information have changed radically over the last decade. This change has been marked by an explosion of user generated spatial content via Web 2.0, access to a rising tide of big data streams from remotely-sensed and public data archives, and the use of mobile phones and other sensors as mapping devices. All of these developments have facilitated a much wider use of geodata, transforming ordinary citizens into neogeographers. This increase in user-generated content has resulted in a blurring of the boundaries between the traditional map producer, i.e., national mapping agencies and local authorities, and citizens as consumers of this information. Citizens now take an active role in mapping different types of features on the Earth's surface as volunteers, either by providing observations on the ground or tracing data from other sources, such as aerial photographs or satellite imagery. OpenStreetMap (OSM) and Ushahidi are two well-known examples of a growing collection of collaborative mapping communities that are building rich spatial datasets, which are openly accessible

Towards initiating OpenLandMap founded on citizens’ science: The current status of land use features of OpenStreetMap in Europe

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.Land use inventories are important information sources for scholarly research, policy-makers, practitioners, and developers. A considerable amount of effort and monetary resources have been used to generate global/regional/local land use datasets. While remote sensing images and techniques as well as field surveying have been the main sources of determining land use features, in-field measurements of ground truth data collection for attributing those features has been always a challenging step in terms of time, money, as well as information reliability. In recent years, Web 2.0 technologies and GPS-enabled devices have advanced citizen science (CS) projects and made them user-friendly for volunteered citizens to collect and share their knowledge about geographical objects to these projects. Surprisingly, one of the leading CS projects i.e., OpenStreetMap (OSM) collects and provides land use features. The collaboratively collected land use features from multiple citizens could greatly support the challenging component of land use mapping which is in-field data collection. Hence, the main objective of this study is to calculate the completeness of land use features to OSM across Europe. The empirical findings reveal that the completeness index varies widely ranging from almost 2% for Iceland to 96% for Bosnia and Herzegovina. More precisely, more than 50% of land use features of eight European countries are mapped. This shows that CS can play a role in land use mapping as an alternative data source, which can partially contribute to the existing inventories for updating purposes

The Commercialisation of Public Data - How Does Participatory Data-mining Look on a Global Scale?

The commercialisation of local spatial knowledge is an emerging problem across communities all around the world. Users creating spatial and  attributive data through the use of commercial tools such as Google Map Maker, are extending corporate databases, but aren’t able to use the very same data freely when they need to. Open-source and participatory  mapping projects such as OpenStreetMap are designed to support  community empowerment and to ensure that high quality data are  available to everyone regardless of their origin, social status and position within the power structure. The article points out the danger of  commercialisation of public data using the example of community  development projects. It also shows the advantages of participatory data-mining, using as an example the OpenStreetMap project in the Kibera slum, Nairobi Kenya and shows the possibilities of such an initiative in  Koffiekraal, NW province of South Africa.Keywords:Participatory GIS, PGIS, OpenStreetMap, Google Map Maker, local spatial knowledge (LSK), Koffiekraal, Kiber

Usability of VGI for validation of land cover maps

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) represents a growing source of potentially valuable data for many applications, including land cover map validation. It is still an emerging field and many different approaches can be used to take value from VGI, but also many pros and cons are related to its use. Therefore, since it is timely to get an overview of the subject, the aim of this article is to review the use of VGI as reference data for land cover map validation. The main platforms and types of VGI that are used and that are potentially useful are analysed. Since quality is a fundamental issue in map validation, the quality procedures used by the platforms that collect VGI to increase and control data quality are reviewed and a framework for addressing VGI quality assessment is proposed. A review of cases where VGI was used as an additional data source to assist in map validation is made, as well as cases where only VGI was used, indicating the procedures used to assess VGI quality and fitness for use. A discussion and some conclusions are drawn on best practices, future potential and the challenges of the use of VGI for land cover map validation

Crowdsourcing: A Geographic Approach to Public Engagement, The Programmable City Working Paper 6

In this paper we examine three geographic crowdsourcing models, namely: volunteered geographic information (VGI), citizen science (CS) and participatory mapping (PM) (Goodchild, 2007; Audubon Society, 1900; and Peluso, 1995). We argue that these geographic knowledge producing practices can be adopted by governments to keep databases up to date (Budhathoki et al., 2008), to gain insight about natural resources (Conrad and Hilchey, 2011), to better understand the socio-economy of the people it governs (Johnston and Sieber, 2013) and as a form of data-based public engagement. The paper will be useful to governments and public agencies considering using geographic crowdsourcing in the future. We begin by defining VGI, CS, PM and crowdsourcing. Two typologies are then offered as methods to conceptualize these practices and the Kitchin (2014) data assemblage framework is proposed as a method by which state actors can critically examine their data infrastructures. A selection of exemplary VGI, CS and PM from Canada and the Republic of Ireland are discussed and the paper concludes with some high level recommendations for administrations considering a geographic approach to crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing: A Geographic Approach to Public Engagement, The Programmable City Working Paper 6

In this paper we examine three geographic crowdsourcing models, namely: volunteered geographic information (VGI), citizen science (CS) and participatory mapping (PM) (Goodchild, 2007; Audubon Society, 1900; and Peluso, 1995). We argue that these geographic knowledge producing practices can be adopted by governments to keep databases up to date (Budhathoki et al., 2008), to gain insight about natural resources (Conrad and Hilchey, 2011), to better understand the socio-economy of the people it governs (Johnston and Sieber, 2013) and as a form of data-based public engagement. The paper will be useful to governments and public agencies considering using geographic crowdsourcing in the future. We begin by defining VGI, CS, PM and crowdsourcing. Two typologies are then offered as methods to conceptualize these practices and the Kitchin (2014) data assemblage framework is proposed as a method by which state actors can critically examine their data infrastructures. A selection of exemplary VGI, CS and PM from Canada and the Republic of Ireland are discussed and the paper concludes with some high level recommendations for administrations considering a geographic approach to crowdsourcing

Landscape, environment and settlement in Karamoja, Eastern Uganda. c. 2000 BP to present. Preliminary report on first season of fieldwork

These reports detail unpublished original archaeological survey and excavation in Karamoja Eastern Uganda led by the author during 2009 and 2010

The role of volunteered geographic information in land administration systems in developing countries

PhD ThesisDeveloping countries, especially in Africa are faced with a lack of formally registered land. Available limited records are outdated, inaccurate and unreliable, which makes it a challenge to properly administer and manage land and its resources. Moreover, limited maintenance budgets prevalent in these countries make it difficult for organizations to conduct regular systematic updates of geographic information. Despite these challenges, geographic information still forms a major component for effective land administration. For a land administration system (LAS) to remain useful, it must reflect realities on the ground, and this can only be achieved if land information is reported regularly. However, if changes in land are not captured in properly administered land registers, LAS lose societal relevance and are eventually replaced by informal systems. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) can address these LAS challenges by providing timely, affordable, up-to-date, flexible, and fit for purpose (FFP) land information to support the limited current systems. Nonetheless, the involvement of volunteers, who in most cases are untrained or non-experts in handling geographic information, implies that VGI can be of varying quality. Thus, VGI is characterised by unstructured, heterogeneous, unreliable data which makes data integration for value-added purposes difficult to effect. These quality challenges can make land authorities reluctant to incorporate the contributed datasets into their official databases. This research has developed an innovative approach for establishing the quality and credibility of VGI such that it can be considered in LAS on an FFP basis. However, verifying volunteer efforts can be difficult without reference to ground truth, which is prevalent in many developing countries. Therefore, a novel Trust and Reputation Modelling (TRM) methodology is proposed as a suitable technique to effect such VGI validation. TRM relies on a view that the public can police themselves in establishing ‘proxy’ measures of VGI quality and credibility of volunteers, thus facilitating VGI to be used on an FFP basis in LAS. The output of this research is a conceptual participatory framework for an FFP land administration based on VGI. The framework outlines major aspects (social, legal, technical, and institutional) necessary for establishing a participatory FFP LAS in developing countries.University of Botswan

Mapping Rural Road Networks from Global Positioning System (GPS) Trajectories of Motorcycle Taxis in Sigomre Area, Siaya County, Kenya

Effective transport infrastructure is an essential component of economic integration, accessibility to vital social services and a means of mitigation in times of emergency. Rural areas in Africa are largely characterized by poor transport infrastructure. This poor state of rural road networks contributes to the vulnerability of communities in developing countries by hampering access to vital social services and opportunities. In addition, maps of road networks are incomplete, and not up-to-date. Lack of accurate maps of village-level road networks hinders determination of access to social services and timely response to emergencies in remote locations. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, communities in rural areas and some in urban areas have devised an alternative mode of public transport system that is reliant on motorcycle taxis. This new mode of transport has improved local mobility and has created a vibrant economy that depends on the motorcycle taxi business. The taxi system also offers an opportunity for understanding local-level mobility and the characterization of the underlying transport infrastructure. By capturing the spatial and temporal characteristics of the taxis, we could design detailed maps of rural infrastructure and reveal the human mobility patterns that are associated with the motorcycle taxi system. In this study, we tracked motorcycle taxis in a rural area in Kenya by tagging volunteer riders with Global Positioning System (GPS) data loggers. A semi-automatic method was applied on the resulting trajectories to map rural-level road networks. The results showed that GPS trajectories from motorcycle taxis could potentially improve the maps of rural roads and augment other mapping initiatives like OpenStreetMap(VLID)286170

Dialectics of Rural Change: A Political Economy of Livelihoods and Land Use and Land Cover Change in Rural Western Kenya

This study examines the political economy of livelihoods and land use and land cover change in rural western Kenya during a period of economic change. The research findings are presented in three stand-alone papers. The first paper examines the initiatives and policies implemented by the state in the past three decades of neoliberal economic change and the implications for rural development. Policy documents and data obtained from interviews and surveys were used to examine how a shift in policies impacted three sectors of rural development: agriculture, infrastructure and commerce- in Vihiga County. The results indicate two political-economic moments that redefined the role of the state in development. The first moment which is associated with the reluctant adoption of neoliberal economic policies, registered poor macro-economic performance but maintained sustained support for rural households. The second moment which was marked with enhanced implementation of neoliberal policies saw impressive macro-economic performance, but with declining state support for rural households. The role of the state changed from being at the forefront of the development to providing an enabling environment for private enterprises to initiate and implement rural development programs.;The second paper focuses on the livelihood activities of rural households in Vihiga County, in the wake of neoliberal economic change. Using a mixed method approach, the study examines the current livelihood diversification options available for households and the changes to these options since Kenya\u27s development agenda shifted from being state led to being market-driven. The findings show that the adoption of neoliberal economic policies contributed to the shrinking of livelihood diversification options for many households that are already grappling with sociocultural strains in the face of declining farm sizes. Many households have become poorer, cannot afford to educate their children and are chronically food-insecure. The few households that engage in cash crop production are vulnerable to both economic perturbations due to their heavy dependence on the market and to environmental perturbations such as erratic rainfall patterns.;The third paper examines the spatial dimensions of rural change over a 25 year period of neoliberal economic change, from the vantage point of land use and land cover change. The analysis combines social and spatial methods and draws from Neil Smith\u27s and David Harvey\u27s political economic theory to examine the production of nature and space on the rural landscape. Change detection done using Landsat imagery indicates some changes that include simultaneous loss and regeneration of forest cover, and expansion of road infrastructure. Other observable changes include some horizontal and vertical expansion of peri-urban centers. These landscape changes reflect on-going processes of enhanced capital penetration and commodification of nature which are associated with neoliberal economic policies