Media Mapping: Using Georeferenced Images and Audio to provide supporting information for the Analysis of Environmental Sensor Datasets

Field based environmental monitoring projects often fail to gather supporting temporal information on the surroundings, yet these external factors may play a significant part in understanding variations in the collected datasets. For example when sampling air quality the values may change as a result of a bus passing the sampling point, yet this temporal local information is difficult to capture at a con-sistently high resolution over extended time periods. Here we develop an applica-tion which runs on a mobile phone able to capture visual and audio data with cor-responding time and location details. We also develop a desktop analysis tool which synchronises the display of this dataset with those captured from environ-mental sensors. The result is a tool able to assist researchers in understanding local changes in environmental datasets as a result of changes in the nearby surrounding environment

Turning Active Transport Research into Policy: A View from the Chief Science Advisor

There is an increasing body of quality research being done in New Zealand and internationally on the role of transport in active living. In New Zealand, the transport sector is seeking to align policy with evidence. So how can research best inform policy? How can the ivory tower best talk to Wellington? This research will seek to identify how research can best inform policy. In addition to drawing on experience within the Ministry of Transport it will also reflect on two ongoing examples of research in Christchurch to examine how this can/cannot work. One is working with the local council to assess the impact of one of Christchurch’s new cycleways on cycle use. The second is assessing how the transport environment around a school is impacting travel to school, working with a range of local parties including the council, school and New Zealand Transport Agency

iBEL: students’ perceptions of learning design

This paper examines iBEL, the International Baccalaureate e-Learning Laboratory, focusing in particular on the role of the student voice in evaluating and developing the use of Open Source Technologies in the post-16 curriculum

Living well in your local neighbourhood: the value of bumping and gathering places

Cities need places that contribute to quality of life, places that support social interaction. Wellbeing, specifically, community wellbeing, is influenced by where people live, the quality of place is important and who they connect with socially. Social interaction and connection can come from the routine involvement with others, the behavioural acts of seeing and being with others. This research consisted of 38 interviews of residents of Christchurch, New Zealand, in the years following the 2010-12 earthquakes. Residents were asked about the place they lived and their interactions within their community. The aim was to examine the role of neighbourhood in contributing to local social connections and networks that contribute to living well. Specifically, it focused on the role and importance of social infrastructure in facilitating less formal social interactions in local neighbourhoods. It found that neighbourhood gathering places and bumping spaces can provide benefit for living well. Social infrastructure, like libraries, parks, primary schools, and pubs are some of the places of neighbourhood that contributed to how well people can encounter others for social interaction. In addition, unplanned interactions were facilitated by the existence of bumping places, such as street furniture. The wellbeing value of such spaces needs to be acknowledged and factored into planning decisions, and local rules and regulations need to allow the development of such spaces

Transport changes and COVID‐19: From present impacts to future possibilities

Changes in people's movement and travel behaviour have been apparent in many places during the COVID-19 pandemic, with differences seen at a range of spatial scales. These changes, occurring as a result of the COVID-19 ‘natural experiment’, have afforded us an opportunity to reimagine how we might move in our day-to-day travels, offering a hopeful glimpse of possibilities for future policy and planning around transport. The nature and scale of changes in movement and transport resulting from the pandemic have shown we can shift travel behaviour with strong policy responses, which is especially important in the concurrent climate change crisis

A multi-level perspective on a spatial data ecosystem: needs and challenges among urban planning stakeholders in New Zealand

Spatial data ecosystems are often complex, and stakeholders express difficulties in finding, accessing, using and sharing spatial information. Doing so can be essential for making good evidence-based decisions on urban development. New Zealand's urban planning spatial data ecosystem is no exception. This paper identifies and maps key stakeholders, their data needs and respective barriers to an improved use of spatial information. We apply a multi-level perspective approach to analysing challenges of a transition towards an improved spatial data ecosystem for urban decision-making. Based on expert interviews and the international literature, we provide recommendations to improve the spatial data ecosystem and reduce barriers to making spatial data more available to support urban decisions. Our stakeholder-based analysis highlights the importance of intensive stakeholder engagement across the multiple levels of the spatial data ecosystem, fostering increased awareness and understanding of the value of fit-for-purpose spatial information for better planning outcomes. We argue for a coordinated, stakeholder-based mechanism addressing in particular cultural and governance local practices