Crowdsourced geographic information use 92239 in government A report prepared for the World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery i About GFDRR The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) helps high-risk, low-income developing countries better understand and reduce their vulnerabilities to natural hazards, and adapt to climate change. Working with over 300 national, community level, and international partners GFDRR provides grant financing, on-the-ground technical assistance helping mainstream disaster mitigation policies into country-level strategies, and thought leadership on disaster and climate resilience issues through a range of knowledge sharing activities. GFDRR is managed by the World Bank and funded by 21 donor partners. www.gfdrr.org Participatory GIS training, Bhaktapur (see case study 5) Photo: Kathmandu Living LabS www.kathmandulivinglabs.org / CC By-SA 3.0 A land management specialist, deployed to the Warrap state, South Sudan (see case study 7) Photo: UNDP South Sudan/Brian Soko / CC By-NC-SA Boston StreetBump application in use (see case study 17) Photo: Surrey County Council / CC BY-ND 2.0 Crowdsourced geographic information use in government This work is being supported as part of the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) project, the Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI). Engaging the public in the process of collecting data on location and characteristics of basic infrastructure and critical facilities has become a key pillar of the OpenDRI project, which has engaged in activities that incorporate this approach in Colombia, Haiti, Malawi, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. Understanding how governments can better interact with volunteer communities will be critical to the future development of OpenDRI’s work. The research is carried out at the Extreme Citizen Science group, University College London (UCL). Report written by Prof. Mordechai (Muki) Haklay, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, UCL Dr. Vyron Antoniou, Hellenic Army Geographic Directorate Sofia Basiouka, School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University of Athens Robert Soden, World Bank, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery (GFDRR) Dr. Peter Mooney, Department of Computer Science, National University of Ireland, Maynooth Reference Haklay, M., Antoniou, V., Basiouka, S., Soden, R., and Mooney, P. 2014, Crowdsourced geographic information use in government, Report to GFDRR (World Bank). London © 2014 International Bank for Reconstruction and Rights and Permissions Development / The World Bank This work is available under the Creative Commons 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0) http:// Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0. Under the Creative Some rights reserved Commons Attribution license, you are free to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt this work, including for This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with commercial purposes, under the following conditions: external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included Attribution—Please cite the work as follows: Haklay, M., in the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant Antoniou, V., Basiouka, S., Soden, R., and Mooney, P. 2014, that the use of the content contained in the work will not Crowdsourced geographic information use in government, infringe on the rights of third parties. The risk of claims Report to GFDRR (World Bank). London. License: Creative resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in Translations—If you create a translation of this work, please this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World add the following disclaimer along with the attribution: This Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments translation was not created by The World Bank and should they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the not be considered an official World Bank translation. The accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, World Bank shall not be liable for any content or error in colors, denominations, and other information shown on this translation. any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of All queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street boundaries. NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. limitation upon or waiver of the privileges and immunities Acknowledgement: this report was supported by the of The World Bank, all of which are specifically reserved. contributors of the case studies, which are listed at the end of the report. We would like to thank Madeleine Hatfield of Yellowback for editing and Mary Pargeter for the final design of the report. Dr. Jamal Jokar contributed to the final stages of the report preparation. We would also want to thank Kate Chapman, Nicolas Chavent, Nama Budhathoki, Mikel Maron, Alex Barth, Kiru Pillay, Elizabeth McCartney, Cristina Capineri, Glen Hart, Russell Deffner, Steven Johnson, Jim McAndrew and Martin van Exel for their contribution to the case studies. Contents 7 Executive summary 8 Introduction 11 Learning from past implementation of geographic information in government 13 Research methodology 15 Case studies: structure AND overview 21 Analysis 1. Incentives/drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 2. Scope and aims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 3. Participants, stakeholders and relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 4. Modes of engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 5. Technical aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 6. Success factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 7. Problems encountered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 29 Adopting crowdsourced geographic information in government 32 Summary and way forward 34 Case studies Quick reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 1. Participatory mapping and decision support tools for disaster risk reduction, the Philippines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 2. Community Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 3. Flood preparedness through OpenStreetMap, Jakarta, Indonesia. . . . . . . . . 40 4. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team mapping in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 5. Mapping schools and health facilities in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 6. Informal settlement mapping, Map Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 7. Mapping of South Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 8. iCitizen, mapping service delivery, South Africa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 9. Skandobs, Scandinavian predator tracking system, Norway and Sweden. . . . 47 10. Corine Land Cover 2006 in OpenStreetMap, France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 11. FixMyStreet for municipality maintenance information, UK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 12. FINTAN vernacular placenames project, Ordnance Survey and Maritime and Coastguard Agency, UK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 13. Towns Conquer, gamification and Instituto Geográfico Nacional toponyms database, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 14. National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 15. Haiti disaster response. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 16. Mapping for Natural Resources Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 17. Boston StreetBump, US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 18. Open data initiative, New York City, US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 19. Imagery to the Crowd, State Department Humanitarian Information Unit, US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 20. OpenStreetMap community of practice, US Census Bureau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 21. Crowdsourcing The National Map, National Map Corps, US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 22. US Geological Survey “Did you feel it?”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 23. Places of Interest project, National Park Service, US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 24. California Roadkill Observation System (CROS), US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 25. Shelter Associates, slum mapping in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 26. Crowdsourcing satellite imagery in Somalia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 27. Agricultural data collection and sharing by Community Knowledge Workers, Uganda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 28. Twitter use in Italian municipalities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 29. Portland TriMet, transportation planner, Oregon, US. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 70 REFERENCES AND SOURCES Todd Hoffman / CC BY 2.0 OpenStreetMap data collection in Haiti (see case study 15) 5 Participatory GIS training, Bhaktapur (see case study 5) Kathmandu Living LabS www.kathmandulivinglabs.org / CC By-SA 3.0 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report is based on a six-month study of the use of volunteered geographic information (VGI) by government. It focuses on government use of information relating to a location, which was produced through what is known as “crowdsourcing”, the process of obtaining information from many contributors amongst the general public, regardless of their background and skill level. The aim of this report is to provide a guide for the successful implementation of VGI in government. The findings are that: Specifically, the most significant issues that need to be considered from the start of any VGI project are: • There are some established cases of close collaboration between government and the • How the data collected will contribute to public, which range from land management and government process and the organizational issues biodiversity monitoring to disaster response. that this entails. These examples demonstrate that successful interaction is possible under certain conditions. • The ways traditional GIS practices and concerns over organizational change might limit the • Many of the lessons from the early implementation adoption of VGI by government. of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in government hold for VGI projects and can be used • Methods to overcome inherent coverage, temporal to ensure their successful implementation. and participation biases, which influence data quality. • Where governmental data is lacking, the need for suitable data sets can lead to the initiation of VGI • Funding continuation and sustainability beyond projects. often short-term initial projects. • Technical issues are not insurmountable so these • Maintaining user participation. are not the limiting factor in VGI adoption by • Licensing and other Intellectual Property Rights government. (IPRs). • Organizational practices, regulations and legal • Identifying clear responsibilities and lines of issues such as license conditions are much more communication for stakeholders. likely to restrict VGI projects. • Creating clear reporting channels for participants. • The acceptance and use of VGI will be influenced by individual, organizational, business model, technical and conceptual factors. 7 Introduction The acceptance of volunteered geographic information (VGI) as a valued and useful source of information for governments is growing at all levels. Put simply, VGI is “crowdsourced” geographic information provided by a wide range of participants with varying levels of education, knowledge and skills (see Michael Goodchild’s writing for the original definition of the term). While a growing body of research demonstrates the reliability and accuracy of VGI when compared to official or government produced data sets, the progression towards their adoption and wider use is slow. There are a range of mechanisms and methods available for ensuring that crowdsourced information is fit for purpose so concerns about data quality are not the major reason for the lack of adoption. Instead, organizational practices, regulations and legal issues limit the rate of change. Open dialogue on people’s priorities for their communities in Kigali, Rwanda Source: UNDP / CC BY-SA 3.0 8 As the World Bank’s Open Data for Resilience The aim of this report is to review governmental Initiative (OpenDRI - see below) has recognized, to projects that incorporate voluntary and crowdsourced build resilient societies, policy makers and the public data collection and to provide information that can must have access to the right data and information to be used to support the wider adoption of VGI (the reach good decisions. Sharing data and creating open terms crowdsourced information and VGI are used systems promotes transparency, accountability and interchangeably). To this end, the report compiles ensures that a wide range of actors can participate and distributes lessons learned and successful in the challenge of building resilience. Within this models from existing efforts by governments at context, VGI has a role to play and, arguably, it will be different sectors and scales. The research presented impossible to achieve the desired results without the in this report was motivated by the following active involvement of local communities in this kind interrelated issues: of data collection and maintenance. • Sources of VGI data such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) are increasingly important across a range of thematic areas and user communities. • The quality, consistency and completeness of VGI OpenDRI data have been assessed by a range of studies and overall have been found to be suited to many tasks, Hosted by the World Bank’s and therefore concerns about these issues should Global Facility for Disaster not prevent the exploitation of VGI as a valuable Reduction and Recovery, the source. Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) works to bring the • Interacting with VGI communities is a different philosophies and practices of and potentially more complex relationship than the open data movement to bear governments have had with traditional sellers on the challenges of building and resellers of geographical information systems resilience to natural hazards (GIS) data. and impacts of climate change. • There are a number of ways in which governments Partnering with governments, have begun engaging with VGI communities and international organizations there is much to learn from early experiences. and civil society groups, this initiative develops open systems VGI projects rely on different kinds of information for creating, sharing, and using flows, which are summarized below: disaster risk and climate change information to ensure that a wide • Public"Government. VGI provided by the public range of actors can participate to government authorities also has a long history in the challenge of building pre-dating the web, e.g. calling to report a problem resilience. Since it was launched at a location. This report includes several examples in 2011, OpenDRI has worked to of such cooperation to illuminate specific aspects implement these ideas in over 25 of VGI practice. countries around the world. 9 • Government"Public"Government and but is very rarely implemented to initiate VGI Public"Government"Public. Examples of projects. The main focus of this report is not on two-way cooperation between government and the application of “open data”, which is made the public or civic society organizations form available by governmental bodies without charge the core of this report. Again, collaboration with or restrictions to the public, as there are examples commercial entities has a long history. This aplenty in commercial and civic society. This is report refers particularly to the use of publicly also covered in the OpenDRI Field Guide. contributed information by a government authority to make decisions and actions (e.g. This report explores different aspects of government NGOs (non-governmental organizations) using use of VGI, including the maintenance of public OSM data for disaster preparedness) and the space (streets, public buildings and parks), education, release of government information to the public health, tourism and civil safety. It includes a set of for improvement and its subsequent use by case studies with a common structure, which are government. presented at the end of the report. The following sections provide background on the use of In addition, there is one flow of information that is geographical information by government, which has not covered in this report but is important in the a long history and should be taken into account. It context of information flows in general in order to then turns to the methodology of the research and understand the full picture: explains how it developed. A detailed explanation for the case study structure and overview of the case • Government"Public. The flow of information studies is provided next. This is followed by analysis from government to the public is important, of the findings and recommendations for improving the use of VGI in government. Boston StreetBump application in use (see case study 17) Surrey County Council/ CC BY-ND 2.0 10 Learning from past implementation of geographic information in government The history of digital geographical information is intertwined with government activities. The system commonly recognized as the first GIS was created by the Canadian government in the 1960s to map land use and agricultural productivity and suitability. Moreover, the use of geographical information by government bodies at all levels – from the local to the regional, national and intergovernmental – continues to be one of the most significant applications of GIS. By the 1980s, with the introduction of 2010, Geographic Information Systems and Science, customisable and off-the-shelf software packages, providing the latest summaries from nearly four GIS implementation became more common in decades of practice. organizations. This led to research into the processes While VGI projects may seem fundamentally that assist organizations in implementing GIS and different from these projects, with their higher level how to ensure that the use of digital geographical of public engagement and informal participation information is done in an effective way. Of particular scheme, there are a lot of parallels. This is importance and relevance to this report are the because the governmental systems to which VGI work of Stan Aronoff and his 1989 book, Geographic is integrated are often “enterprise systems” set Information Systems: a Management Perspective, along the same lines. Moreover, many of the early and William Huxhold’s, An Introduction to Urban lessons from when GIS was first introduced to GIS. Both paid attention to the management of governmental organizations are similar to the GIS projects, the importance of understanding the findings discussed below. For example, as with early way organizations work and the effort required for GIS implementation, VGI use relies on specific successful GIS implementation. individuals who act as “champions” inside the The issue of data capture is particularly relevant to organization and spearhead the effort necessary to contemporary VGI projects. In the early days, a major secure acceptance for this source of information. part of any given GIS project was the conversion Another example is the opportunity that major of paper maps to digital formats. The challenges events, such as disaster response, create in terms of integrating varied data sources into a coherent of rethinking current procedures and practices. database reflect many of the issues emerging from Evaluations of organizational responses provide crowdsourced information. Since this early work, opportunities to reflect on the way current systems the implementation of GIS projects have received are utilized and develop new procedures for data on-going attention, with Roger Tomlinson’s 2007, capture and use. They also open up the policy Thinking about GIS: Geographic information system opportunity to recognize the use of VGI, just as for planning for managers, and significant portions GIS. of a leading GIS textbook such as Longley et al.’s 11 Brabham (2013) Best practices for crowdsourcing in government One Clearly define the problem and solution parameters As a consequence, working with people who are experienced in implementing GIS in government, and encouraging them to adopt VGI as a usable Two Determine the level of commitment to the outcomes, commit to source of information, makes it possible to use communicate to the online past lessons from other projects and adapt them to community exactly how much impact VGI. In other words, while accepting the specific user-submitted ideas and labor will characteristics of VGI, it should not be seen as an have on the organization unprecedented data source. To the best of our knowledge, though, this is the Three Know the online community and their motivations. It is important to first study and report of its kind to deal directly with know whether a given crowdsourcing VGI use in government. Brabham (2013) produced a application will appeal to participants report called “Using Crowdsourcing in Government”, which outlines a more general overview of the Four Invest in usable, stimulating, well- potential for crowdsourcing in government (see box). designed tools Brabham also attempts to classify crowdsourcing and understand when and how to deploy crowdsourcing in government. His analysis includes a small Five Craft policies that consider the legal needs of the organization and the number of case studies and the report concludes online community with ten best practices and considerations for crowdsourcing. This summary is a helpful starting point on which this report builds. Six Launch a promotional plan and a plan to grow and sustain the community Craig Chew-Moulding / CC BY-SA 2.0 Seven Be honest, transparent and responsive Eight Be involved, but share control Nine Acknowledge users and follow through on obligations Ten Assess the project from many angles Ordnance Survey map of the coast (see case study 12) 12 Research methodology The overall structure of the research process was as follows. First, seven cases known to the research team were developed collaboratively to establish the relevant information required for each case study and develop a questionnaire with appropriate fields to capture this. Once the pilot case studies had been developed in January 2014, they were transferred to a website. The case studies, together with introductory material and details about the report, provided the context for the questionnaire, which was integrated on the site. The website and questionnaire were tested with five the questionnaire, the research team continued to experts active in the area of VGI and government, search for, identify and compile further case studies, and their feedback was used to improve it before bringing the total to 29. The details of the case promoting the website in email lists and other social studies are summarized below and then provided media outlets between late February and early May in full in a later section (five are shorter due to the 2014. The website offered an incentive scheme, limited information available). in which contributors chose between donating to OSM, another organization or receiving Amazon Following the data collection exercise, the case vouchers. This aimed to encourage a variety of studies were reviewed, analyzed, further documented contributors to provide the research team with and classified according to themes. This provided the concrete case studies. The website received 3500 outline of the Analysis section. The final report was page views over the period, from about 1100 visitors. then opened for comments from the Global Facility However, only five responses were provided through for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the open questionnaire. Therefore, in parallel to the wider community before it was concluded. 13 OpenStreetMap mapping in London Alexander Kachkaev / CC BY-SA 2.0 14 Case studies: structure AND overview Each case study is intended to provide an example of the use of VGI by government or by the public, and summarizes the context, positive and negative outcomes and main lessons. The case studies are presented in full in a later section and are all deliberately short, with the same structure. First, a summary table provides general information about the case study in the format below: Interaction type The flow of the data (either crowdsourced or authoritative), in one of the categories introduced earlier: Public" Government, Government" Public" Government or Public" Government" Public. Trigger event A specific event that might have triggered the data sharing (e.g. change in data license, natural disaster, etc.), where relevant. Domain The area in which the data sets have been used. This may include both an abstract characterisation of the general area (e.g. generic mapping) as well as information about the specific field (e.g. update of national topographic database). Organization The organization(s) that initiated the data sharing process and those that have been actively involved in the whole project. Actors Interested parties/stakeholders that have contributed to, or benefited from, the data sharing process in any way. Data sets The data sets that have been shared and used by the public or the authorities (including new data sets generated). Process The process followed to implement the data sharing, data integration and cooperation. Feedback The immediate result returned to the initiator of, and/or participants in, the data sharing process, if any. Goal The original goal of the project and reason for exploring crowdsourced geographic information. Side effects Any other issues or outcomes. Contact point The person who has either provided details about, or been significantly involved in, the case study, when available. 15 Next, each case study includes the context, a collected spatial and attribute data, and traced them description of the project and a discussion of the in the OSM platform so that thematic maps can be positive and negative aspects of the collaboration. created to show potential damage in case of physical They each close with bullet points indicating the disasters. most important lessons to be learnt. Below are short descriptions of the case studies that provide the basis 3. Flood preparedness through for this report: OpenStreetMap, Jakarta, Indonesia A sub-category of Community Mapping for 1. Participatory mapping and decision Exposure, in this project the heads of villages in the support tools for disaster risk reduction, the area of interest were asked to identify their critical Philippines infrastructure by using paper maps and university This project provided training and technical students entered the information into OSM. The data assistance to local government units to create can produce maps for disaster risk planning. basemap information and then perform impact analysis using InaSAFE impact modeling software. 4. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team This allows analysis of the effect of a disaster on an mapping in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia area, using scientific models as well as population/ infrastructure data. A greater vision for creating a “Smart City” in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, motivated local stakeholders and volunteers to participate in a project to create 2. Community Mapping for Exposure in an updated topographic map. The World Bank/ICT Indonesia and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) The goal of this project is to reduce vulnerability to worked with local officials (universities, city officials natural disasters. Young people have successfully and government) to establish an OSM community in the city to support this project. TriMet: MAX and bus on Portland Mall (see case study 29) TriMet / CC By-NC-SA 2.0 16 5. Mapping schools and health facilities in 9. Skandobs, Scandinavian predator tracking Kathmandu Valley, Nepal system, Norway and Sweden This is a proactive crowdsourced mapping project This is a cross-country project developed to collect to minimize the consequences of a possible observations for lynx, wolverine, brown bear and wolf future natural disaster in an area at high risk of a populations, driven by new legislation requirements. high-magnitude earthquake. Learning from the Reliable observations help to inform management difficulties in Haiti, Kathmandu officials have objectives including long-term conservation and worked with NGOs to map the basic education and population-level management. Monitoring is health infrastructure. These data sets will facilitate complicated and expensive for many reasons, the delivery of humanitarian efforts if needed. including the geographical size of the area under observation but involving the public has been very successful. 6. Informal settlement mapping, Map Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya Map Kibera was carried out in the most crowded 10. Corine Land Cover 2006 in slum in Nairobi, Kenya, in an effort to improve its OpenStreetMap, France reputation and offer an accurate picture of the area, The change in the data release policy of CLC2006 which is quite dynamic due to the movement of the enabled the French OSM community to integrate it population. Local people collected and edited GPS into OSM and engage the public to add updates. The tracks. Innovative techniques such as SMS, video methodology and best practices were adopted by a and voice reporting were also launched and a small large number of national OSM communities. The amount of compensation offered to participants. updated OSM data can be used by the public and governmental agencies. 7. Mapping of South Sudan This was launched because of the need for a 11. FixMyStreet for municipality maintenance temporal and up-to-date map when the new nation information, UK was created. Google Map Maker, the Sudanese Led by a third sector organization (mySociety) this diaspora and various organizations carried out project is based on a web platform that engages workshops to train people to work separately on the the public to provide data about problems in the digitization of aerial imagery. A significant amount local area. The data collected is propagated to the of work was completed in a short time by adopting local authority responsible for maintenance, which local knowledge and providing technical tools. Those can then feedback any action taken to remedy the who experienced the training sessions were inspired problem. to recruit new volunteers. 12. FINTAN vernacular placenames project, 8. iCitizen, mapping service delivery, Ordnance Survey and Maritime and South Africa Coastguard Agency, UK This project is at the design phase and aims to This project leverages “professional” crowdsourcing involve the public at a local level to collect data to facilitate the response to distress calls by centrally points via mobile phones and adopt different ways of recording and managing vernacular placenames. In geotagging photos in real time or via SMS and email. order to achieve this HM Coastguard personnel and The purpose is to report infrastructure problems. other professionals submit their local knowledge on placenames to a central platform. 17 13. Towns Conquer, gamification and 17. Boston StreetBump, US Instituto Geográfico Nacional toponyms This is part of an initiative by the Boston Mayor’s database, Spain Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) to pilot Developed when a university research team were experiments that offer the potential to radically awarded a small funding prize, an Android-based improve the quality of city services. The idea was to game was created and linked to a web-based map capture new technology – from smartphones to GPS service at Spain’s national mapping agency (NMA). – and a resurgent spirit of civic engagement. In this Volunteers were able to submit their suggestions for example, the public use their smartphones to help corrections and updates within a competition format. detect bumps or potholes on Boston’s streets. 14. National Biodiversity Data Centre, 18. Open data initiative, New York City, US Ireland Part of a broader open data initiative, the City of New York has released building footprint and This project was initiated to leverage the potential address location data. MapBox, a private company, of outreach groups and the general public for data in partnership with the US OSM community, has survey and observation. This widens the base begun importing these data sets into OSM. The city from which observational biodiversity data may be administration receives email updates when changes obtained in Ireland. Another aim was to initiate a are made. This helps them to prioritize surveying stronger engagement of non-professional scientists efforts and keep government data up to date. and heighten the understanding of biodiversity related matters amongst the general population. 19. Imagery to the Crowd, State Department 15. Haiti disaster response Humanitarian Information Unit, US A program whereby high-resolution satellite One of the most well-known crowdsourcing imagery is made available to the OSM community applications, this was developed after the earthquake to facilitate the digitization of ground features. The hit Haiti in 2010. Within 48 hours, the capital resulting data has been used to support a number of had been mapped by volunteers who contributed humanitarian operations. from every part of the world to create a temporal topographic map to fill the gap left by the official mapping agency. The maps were used by various 20. OpenStreetMap Community of Practice, organizations to allocate supplies and medicine. US Census Bureau Several US Census Bureau employees have worked to 16. Mapping for Natural Resources Canada build an active volunteer group of OSM contributors within the Bureau. This group is now advocating The Mapping Information Branch of Natural for the incorporation of VGI practices into Census Resources Canada (NRCan) is releasing its data operations. sets into OSM format in an effort to engage the local OSM community. The aim is to update the national database to supplement the agency’s limited 21. Crowdsourcing The National Map, resources and correct outdated topographic maps. National Map Corps, US The National Map Corps has given volunteers the chance to collect and edit data about ten different human-made structures in 50 states in an effort to provide accurate and authoritative spatial data. The methodology includes various steps such as 18 adding new features, removing obsolete points and a hybrid model with expert and local volunteer correcting existing data. A pilot test in Colorado contributors and has used GIS since the late 1990s, showed that the VGI was satisfactory in its accuracy. recently introducing Google Earth as an easy-to-use tool for informal settlement mapping. 22. US Geological Survey “Did you feel it?” A website that automatically maps reports from 26. Crowdsourcing satellite imagery in the public about their perception of recent seismic Somalia activity in their areas. It also collects quantitative This project was launched in an effort to map all data from citizen reports. The project was driven shelters located in the Afgooye corridor, Somalia, by a lack of instrumental ground-motion data in to identify the number and location of refugees. regions of low seismicity and the vast amount of Satellite imagery was used to map the information in new data being collected offers a valuable resource order to facilitate decision making policies. and has the potential to address some long-standing controversies in earthquake science. 27. Agricultural data collection and sharing by Community Knowledge Workers, Uganda 23. Places of Interest project, National Park A Community Knowledge Workers network in Service, US Uganda facilitates grassroots data collection and The US National Park service is seeking to sharing by farmers for other farmers and policy incorporate VGI principles into their strategy for makers. The network has overcome the lack of keeping park maps up to date and accurate. Using electric power and mobile network infrastructures to tools developed by the OSM community, park visitors provide data and services such as weather forecasts, and staff can now contribute to mapping trails, crop market prices, livestock disease outbreaks and tourist sites and other park infrastructure. focused policy implementation for improved farming practices. 24. California Roadkill Observation System (CROS), US 28. Twitter use in Italian municipalities This project was developed by a university- A research project into the profile, activity and use of based research organization to understand the Twitter accounts of Italian municipalities, the study relationship between ecology, wildlife behavior focused on the types of messages sent, revealing that and transportation. It includes the use of GIS and culture and tourism are the most common topics. statistical modeling to predict roadkill hotspots, Twitter also provides opportunities for members of measure contributing factors, quantify impacts and the public to communicate with municipalities. estimate benefits of different remedial actions. CROS can be used to record observations from reporters out 29. Portland TriMet, transportation planner, in the field who come across identifiable road-killed Oregon, US wildlife. The goal is to provide a safer environment for wildlife in relation to California’s motorways. TriMet, the public agency that provides bus, light rail and commuter rail transit services in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area turned to the use of OSM 25. Shelter Associates, slum mapping in India data to improve its services by including multimodal Shelter Associates is an NGO focused on housing transportation plans. The TriMet officials committed projects, sanitation, health and education initiatives to support the OSM community and realized that in India. It uses slum mapping to promote good releasing governmental data to the public led to governance and decision making policies. It is improved public services. 19 Participants of the Map Kibera project (see case study 6) Map Kibera / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 20 ANALYSIS The overall analysis of the collected case studies delineates seven main components of VGI projects for government use. 1. Incentives/drivers to start a project, mostly from the government perspective 2. Scope and aims 3. Participants, stakeholders and relationships, identifying the roles that different participants play 4. Modes of engagement 5. Technical aspects 6. Success factors 7. Problems encountered 21 1 Incentives/drivers There are many different factors that encourage organizations to search for an alternative to institutional data solutions and start VGI projects. Lack of institutional data in time sensitive and Towns Conquer, which explores gamification situations techniques and strategies to enhance VGI. A slightly different approach is taken by FINTAN in the UK, This is one of the most common drivers and its which uses “professional” VGI to collect and preserve importance was shown particularly by the aftermath expert local knowledge. of the Haiti earthquake, where there was an urgent need to provide mapping to facilitate humanitarian and first aid efforts. The Kathmandu case study Environmental monitoring through is a proactive example of local and international citizen science stakeholders teaming up to provide basic mapping of Public participation in scientific data collection schools and health facilities in case of earthquake. is frequently related to monitoring the state of the environment rather than the creation of new Policy change around governmental data products/research trajectories (as in research and development, above). Examples include the USGS’s For example, the adoption of an open data policy in “Did you feel it?” public participation in seismic New York City; the use of the released CLC2006 data monitoring; Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data by the French OSM community; and the US State Centre submission of biodiversity records by the Department Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) general public; and Skandobs wildlife observations sharing high-resolution imagery with humanitarian crowdsourcing. organizations and volunteer communities. Low resources and need for infrastructure support Interestingly, this situation can be a driver for both well-established NMAs, such as the one in Canada where updates are needed to mapping covering 10 million km2, and newly established ones, such as in South Sudan where basic topographic features are needed to build the first data infrastructure of the new state. Similarly, the implementation of ambitious efforts like the “Smart City” project in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, need support from VGI. Research and development efforts This includes exploring new products or new directions of research. Examples are CROS, a university-led initiative about wildlife roadkills, California Roadkill Observation System (see case study 24) 22 2 Scope and aims Basic mapping coverage understand the phenomenon and the best remedial actions, and Skandobs, where wildlife observations In many cases the aim is as basic as the creation of inform actions and policies in accordance with a cartographic background for an area of interest or new legislation. Ireland’s NBDC and USGS’s “Did entire country. In many developing countries there is you feel it?” are more report oriented and use the no spatial data infrastructure to support efforts such observations to stimulate public engagement and as humanitarian support, disaster prevention and analysis respectively. general planning. Examples include South Sudan, where the new nation was in urgent need of basic Kiru Pillay, University of the Witwatersrand cartographic coverage, and Map Kibera, where the aim is to create a topographic backdrop of Nairobi’s biggest informal urban settlement. Update authoritative spatial data sets A step further is the aim to support established spatial infrastructures. Keeping data sets up to date (mainly through change detection projects) is a crucial task, especially for NMAs as this guarantees the quality of their services. Examples include NRCan, Towns Conquer, New York City’s open data initiative, Ulaanbaatar’s “Smart City” and the US Census Bureau. iCitizen interface (case study 8) Upgrade public sector services Related to the above is the effort to collect new and unrecorded spatial data sets to upgrade the quality of Natural disaster preparedness (proactive) the services provided by a public sector organization. and crisis management (reactive) Examples include the FINTAN project in the UK, As well as being a driver, one of the most important which will improve HM Coastguard services in aims of existing projects is to build spatial data sets terms of time response to distress calls, Portland for humanitarian purposes. This covers both the TriMet, iCitizen in South Africa, Boston StreetBump action of crisis management after a natural disaster and FixMyStreet. as in Haiti and the proactive actions of creating the necessary infrastructure in an effort to minimize Policy development or reporting the consequences of a future disaster, as in the cases of Kathmandu, Indonesia and the Imagery to the Local knowledge and the timely nature of Crowd project. participants’ observations are two of the most important VGI characteristics that stakeholders are trying to tap into. Examples that combine observation gathering and policy planning are CROS, where observations about roadkills help stakeholders 23 3 Participants, stakeholders and relationships Public sector and NGOs/international Universities and research institutions organizations As VGI is a relatively new and dynamic phenomenon, This type of cooperation is relevant to various there is much active research undertaken by contexts, including crisis management, where the universities and research institutions on its evolution active participation of all stakeholders is needed to (e.g. Towns Conquer) and on possible real-life address often difficult and complicated tasks. Those applications (e.g. Skandobs, USGS’s “Did you feel involved in such partnerships include the United it?”, Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre and Nations, World Bank, HOT, NMAs, state mapping CROS, California). departments and local universities. The following examples indicate the breadth of such cooperative Private and public sector initiatives efforts: Haiti disaster response, Imagery to the Crowd, Ulaanbaatar’s “Smart City”, Kathmandu and The private, rather than public, sector can also lead Map Kibera (the latter involving thirteen national on projects for VGI use in government. One such and international bodies). example is FixMyStreet, run by social enterprise mySociety; another is the involvement of the UK’s Ordnance Survey (which functions with market Public sector, private sector and NGO criteria, despite being an NMA) in the development cooperation of an application that supports “professional” An even more inclusive type of cooperation is the crowdsourcing for vernacular placenames for use by additional participation of the private sector. For HM Coastguard. example, MapBox joined forces with the OSM community and the New York City government to support data migration and software provision, in turn gaining valuable insight into the data released. In another case, a number of international organizations had the active support of Google in terms of software and user motivation to help the local government begin the mapping of South Sudan. Skandobs observation of a lynx (see case study 9) 24 4 Modes of engagement Reaching out for public support participants to replace earning potential, as Map One of most common types of engagement is for Kibera did in Kenya. the stakeholders to directly reach out for public support and in parallel engage with pre-existing Research and citizen science initiatives local communities of volunteers (e.g. Kathmandu) or Although giving the public the opportunity to create such communities (e.g. Ulaanbaatar) as part participate in monitoring and research projects has of the effort to produce geospatial data sets. Another a very long and successful history, technological example is the engagement of the diaspora of South advances, especially in the mobile domain, offer a Sudan to provide a solid topographic map of the new different level of dynamic engagement. The case state. The Haiti disaster response is an interesting studies of Towns Conquer, CROS, USGS, Skandobs example because there was strong hesitation on and Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre all behalf of the local NMA regarding the support that demonstrate this type of engagement. non-experts could provide. However, due to the initiatives of other participants (i.e. OSM, UN) the results of the public engagement proved to be a valuable tool for delivering relief on the ground. Releasing existing resources This can include the release of data sets (including Jennifer Jewett/USFWS / CC BY 2.0 visual databases) or license changes enabling greater use for public users, including the OSM community, and private entrepreneurs. The most characteristic cases of this type of engagement are the Imagery to the Crowd project, New York City open data initiative and use of Corine Land Cover 2006 in France. Both the general public and active volunteers seem to be in Christmas Bird Count is an example for citizen science projects quest of data sets that will facilitate their efforts and thus welcome such initiatives. Role of champions within a specific community of practice Direct investment This type of engagement stems from individuals’ Directly employing contributors can help prior knowledge about the nature and use of VGI and, government agencies to ensure that the data collected often, from their cooperation with local communities meets their immediate needs, while still benefiting such as OSM volunteers. Their personal effort pushes from participation in the broader ecosystem. their organizations to engage more actively in VGI In both the Portland TriMet and Community and develop methodologies and best practices that Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia case studies, would be beneficial for all stakeholders, including government resources were used to hire in-house governmental organizations, the OSM community and mappers to contribute to OSM. Community-based the public. This particular mode of engagement can be projects in areas of very low income can also benefit observed in the case studies of the US Census Bureau from providing financial compensation to public and Natural Resources Canada. 25 5 Technical aspects Of specific relevance here is the need to formalize and standardize VGI before it can be used in government systems. This influences the following aspects: Combination of conventional and open source data Many crowdsourcing projects use a wide range of software applications, both closed and open source. The Corine Land Cover in France and Natural Resources Canada case studies prove that combining various tools in different applications can widen the technical horizons of an application and create new Donald Noble / CC BY 2.0 opportunities. However, access to the knowledge and experience of using these software tools is not available to everyone and requires high technical abilities. OpenStreetMap buildings Data sets Another issue with VGI data sets is the need for project where this is the main issue. However, there synchronisation and coordination. During update are many methods for quality assurance in VGI and operations, data sets often diverge but the users and these can be used to ensure the accuracy and quality recipients of a project should know which version is of the information. the correct one and how to maintain a definitive copy. In some cases, and especially where open source software is used, the format of data is not convenient Authority for further use in proprietary software packages, The authority given to VGI data is one of the most making it difficult to reintegrate the data. Therefore, challenging issues for its use in government. In the interoperability of data formats is a significant a departure from an era in which information is issue. considered authoritative simply because it originates from a government organization, recognition of the inherent heterogeneity in geographical information Accuracy and quality and the need to keep it up to date permeate many The accuracy of the information continues to play a of the case studies. However, because government key role in VGI projects. Community Mapping for bodies have both the authority and the responsibility Exposure in Indonesia indicated that accuracy varies to provide accurate and comprehensive information, among the different data sets, which is an issue this requires more control over the data and its of concern. Elsewhere, the Colorado pilot project quality. Many of the case studies, such as USGS or for the National Map Corps showed that accuracy NRCan, show that governmental organizations need significantly improved when volunteer participation to put appropriate procedures in place to ensure that, increased. A related concern includes the accuracy regardless of the source, the information released is of data collected by mobile phones, as in the iCitizen accepted as trustworthy and valuable. 26 6 Success factors Elements that contribute to the success of VGI projects should be considered from the outset and are often linked to the original drivers. Identification of appropriate cooperation Workshops between the public and government A series of workshops carried out in the preliminary Approval and acceptance by the government is stages of projects encourages the training of central to VGI success in this context, regardless volunteers and defines the pattern for participant of the stage of the project. Approval means not coordination. It is noticeable that among the most only the adoption of crowdsourcing techniques successful stories (e.g. Community Mapping for but also the cooperation between the public and Exposure in Indonesia, Map Kibera in Kenya and government in a continuous effort to produce the South Sudan mapping) the workshops indicated the desired result. Governmental experimentation plays value of partnering with scientific organizations such a crucial role in identifying how to incorporate as local universities to train volunteers and conduct crowdsourcing techniques into official activities quality assessment to ensure government acceptance and projects. VGI support is divided into two main of the data. categories, that offered during the evolution of the project (e.g. NRCan-OSM on-going collaboration) Recruitment of volunteers and that offered in its aftermath (e.g. South Sudan government evaluation of the project by Google Map Although the common view is that the public can Maker and the Sudanese diaspora). In contrast, it participate in all crowdsourcing applications without is notable that the outcomes of the Haiti disaster restriction, the reality is quite different. Most projects response were not subsequently used by the local are oriented to specific tasks and recruit the public official mapping agency, though they were used by according to their age, background or technical skills. other humanitarian actors operating in the country One example is Community Mapping for Exposure at the time. This represents a missed opportunity to in Indonesia, where young undergraduate students establish a richer connection between the Haitian were recruited and scholarships offered in exchange government and the OSM community, and is linked for participation. As crowdsourcing reaches new to issues of IPR, covered below. locations, compensations and awards to participants may also become more important, as in the case of Map Kibera. Partnership of scientific organizations Strong collaboration between different organizations, Innovative techniques which are experts in different parts of a project, is key to success. Although in a few cases this has In an effort to keep the interest of the public and led to a lack of coordination and duplication of data adopt new technologies and platforms, different (e.g. the Haiti disaster response), in others duties organizations have promoted new crowdsourcing are separated into technical, economic and human techniques, such as gamification (e.g. Towns resources (e.g. the National Map Corps project). Conquer) and reporting with the aid of photographs, Research organizations and universities can play a video and SMS (e.g. Map Kibera) or use of social positive role in this as centers of innovative ideas and media (e.g. by Italian municipalities). techniques as well as participants and volunteers. 27 7 problems encountered One-off event versus on-going initiative methodologies for quality assurance of VGI, and these should be explored and integrated according to While many VGI activities are conceived as a single the specific context and aims. event, the longevity of updates and maintenance needs careful consideration. Projects vary significantly in this respect. For example, the Maintaining public interest use of CLC2006 in OSM in France lasted many Public interest and participation need to be months and resulted in an outcome which remained maintained through the life of a VGI project. unexploited; while others lasting only a few days, For example, researchers involved in iCitizen are such as the mapping of South Sudan and the concerned about how to convince the public to use Haitian disaster response, provided a clear solution mobile phones and applications. The experiences to a significant problem relatively quickly. The of other projects indicate that solutions are divided main differentiation concerns the strategy behind between less and more economically developed each VGI project and how it is recognized by local contexts. In the former, attracting volunteers means authorities and the public, whether as a one-off offering a small amount of compensation to replace crowdsourcing event or as an on-going initiative. The time that could otherwise be used to generate response is directly linked to the perspectives that income. In the latter, innovative techniques such have been cultivated, the trust that is given and the as gamification and clear targets can be helpful. aims of the project. Maintaining the data and the relevant software is also an issue of concern. Financial resources should Accuracy and reliability therefore be split across the whole life of a project rather than allocated only to the beginning stages. The quality of the VGI and its application are among the main questions that must be answered at the beginning of, and during, a project. A challenge in projects launched or supported by governmental bodies is that they are responsible for providing authoritative data, while also integrating input Kathmandu Living LabS www.kathmandulivinglabs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0 from the public, making accuracy and reliability key issues. The case studies demonstrate different levels of accuracy and ways of assessing this (e.g. Community Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia, National Map Corps in the US). Accuracy varies depending on the new data’s purpose and the existing data available as a reference. This is also relevant to hardware issues in passive VGI, in which data from sensors that are carried by members of the public is shared with government bodies. For example, in the Boston StreetBump case study, the use of smartphone-based sensor technology produced many “false-positives” due to erroneous Five-day OpenStreetMap training to Nepal Red Cross Society for movement detection. As noted, there are multiple community based disaster risk reduction (Koshi Basin) program 28 Adopting crowdsourced geographic information in government The clear message in this report is that there is no “magic bullet” or perfect methodology for a VGI project. However, it does reveal that there are a series of issues which need to be addressed when considering a crowdsourcing project. Attention to these issues can increase the likelihood of successful adoption by government and acceptance by the public. Separation between data collection and use such high levels of engagement so organizational for policy analysis transition is required. This is particularly important in emergency situations, where entrenched One of the key concerns for the public involved in procedures are necessary to ensure an appropriate VGI is how and where their data and contributions response and capacity to deal with uncertainty and are put to use. Very often it is unclear if their complexity is reduced. If VGI is considered for use information has been used at all. In this report in crisis response it should be evaluated and tried we have emphasized where VGI has been used to in preparation exercises to ensure that it is fit for directly influence policy. It is very important when purpose. adopting crowdsourcing that the connection between data collection and eventual use by the government is made clear. Inherent coverage, temporal and participation biases Traditional GIS practices and concern over The growing body of research into VGI demonstrates organizational change that they can exhibit certain biases in the level of participation, as well as when and where the activities It is important to highlight that VGI should not take place. For example, there is a problem of be seen as an activity that replaces the work of coverage bias towards populated and popular places professionals, but as one that enhances it. In some (such as large urban centers) and crowdsourcing cases, such as Haiti, the use of VGI was seen as rarely includes a representative sample of the general a direct threat to the business model of the NMA population. An example of a case study limited by and the OSM data could not be adopted without such inherent biases is the Skandobs project, where consideration of how this could be protected (see the real areas of interest are geographically remote also Intellectual Property Rights issues). In other and present physically challenging terrain. Special cases, VGI is perceived as a challenge to existing incentives may be needed to encourage public procedures, funding and professional standing, involvement from specific regions and known biases which leads to a negative response. There is also a of this kind should be considered during the design need to integrate VGI processes, including issues and implementation of such projects. of engagement and feedback to contributors, into established systems, practices and procedures. In some cases, current practice does not require 29 Alan Stanton / CC BY-SA 2.0 Contact points When governments engage with established crowdsourcing communities it is very important that there are open and clear lines of communication Reporting with FixMyStreet (see case study 11) between both parties. Some of the skepticism around VGI stems from the fact that it can be difficult to Project continuation and sustainability contact those involved. This is very different from In many of the case studies examined there when governments enter into a contract with a third is no specific plan for longer term adoption of party company or organization. When governments VGI by the governments involved. Adoption of provide a general call for contributions from the crowdsourcing by government is a process, which public, there is often no way of contacting the leader must be subject to resource management and or director of the crowdsourcing community and organizational change. Adopting crowdsourcing indeed such a person may not exist. HOT provides is likely to require additional resources in terms an example as to how this can be resolved, as an of managing the crowdsourcing processes, the established organization dedicated to providing VGI data collected and engaging with the communities services in crisis situations. More generally, there is involved. Interaction with crowdsourcing projects a need to define clear ownership of the process and may be terminated by governments for a number of responsibility over its management. The information reasons: the VGI champion may be redeployed, there should be clear so volunteers can easily identify and may be a change in policy or resources may not be contact the responsible individual, especially in case available to continue the engagement. Governments of emergency. must consider long-term plans and assess the sustainability of their adoption of crowdsourcing. Conflict between channels of reporting In some projects, channels of reporting can be Licensing and other Intellectual Property confusing and conflicting for participants. An Rights (IPR) example is the relationship between FixMyStreet, which is run by an independent body, and the Concerns over data ownership and specific licensing helpline of the local authority. In other cases, there agreements are another obstacle to the adoption of are multiple channels, which can be important in VGI in government. Incompatibility in licensing crisis situations but require management. At the should be considered at the outset of the project. same time, it is clear that different participants will For example, the OSM license requires data to be prefer different channels so enforcing the use of a shared-alike and Google owns all data in Google Map single channel can be counterproductive. Maker. IPR is especially important in geographical data sets because most of the value will not come from a single data set but from linking and matching it with other data sets. This means that problems with derivation (e.g. the source that dictates the coordinates used to locate an object on the map) can emerge and create uncertainty about how the data can be used and under which conditions. 30 Citizen science participant during a Bioblitz Jo Summerfield / CC BY-ND 2.0 31 Summary and way forward This report has reviewed VGI use in government and identified success factors and challenges. While suggestions of crowdsourcing best practices that were identified by Brabham (2013) are relevant here, such as the need to define the problem clearly, ensuring commitment from the organization and knowing the online community, this report identifies several factors specific to VGI projects. To summarize, the factors likely to influence the use of VGI relate to the following: VGI augments rather than replaces organizational activities. Further organizational issues can be • individuals procedural, such as existing legislations and • organizations obligations to service delivery, or structural, such as the responsibilities for data collection and use. • business models Next are issues that relate to business models. • technical problems and Organizations responsible for data collection, maintenance and dissemination have an incentive • conceptual issues to use VGI to reduce costs, although additional costs might be involved in communicating with the public and maintaining their interest. On the other hand, for organizations responsible for selling data to maintain their operations the use of open At the individual level, champions and change leaders data and release of highly valuable geographic within public sector organizations can be critical. In information is a threat to their financial viability. both the UK and France, there are examples of open Private sector organizations are also affected when data enthusiasts at local government level, who have they have committed to deliver public services based led to significant changes in the way organizations on assumptions that emerging data can be used for use VGI. Such champions were always critical in the profit. adoption of geographic information technologies in government and will continue to be so. On the Technical problems should be also noted, which other hand, specific individuals with worldviews that include the ability to merge data sets that have been oppose public participation in data collection and changed by the public into an existing system. This analysis can block or hinder the integration of VGI requires various abilities, from version management into government. to object level metadata. In some cases, differences in formatting and fundamental data structure, as The organizational level is also important. In well as semantic ambiguity, add to the challenges of organizations mostly using information provided using VGI fully. In addition, the plurality of tools and by external sources (e.g. private sector) there is a channels through which information can reach an higher potential for replacing this information with organization are significant challenges. VGI than if information is maintained internally and the use of VGI might be seen as a threat. This Finally, conceptual or “worldview” issues need to is despite evidence demonstrating that successful be recognized and may well be presented as one of 32 the above categories. VGI use requires accepting a of time frames, work practices and problem solving higher level of uncertainty, attention to heterogeneity approaches. and the need to work closely with diverse groups and communicate with the public. This can be At the same time, this report has demonstrated that challenging to people who are used to working collaboration between government organizations in an isolated and top-down manner. In addition, and the public is possible and beneficial to both perceptions of VGI as professionally threatening parties. Technological and societal changes over should be accepted as genuine and reasonable, and the past decades mean that opportunities for need to be addressed. such collaboration are increasing. However, like any cooperation between established institutions To conclude, this report has documented only the and external groups or individuals, VGI projects early stages of VGI use in government. There is require attention and planning. The successful a need for further research to explore the factors cases are no longer “happy accidents” but evidence influencing the success and failure of VGI projects of commitment and investment at individual and for government use. Some of the problems, such organizational levels, which provide a return in the as licensing terms, will require specific effort from form of information that would otherwise be difficult both governmental organizations and crowdsourcing to obtain. Practitioners can use the lessons identified communities. At this point in time, there is much from case studies across the world in order to further misunderstanding between the two groups in terms develop this field. Participatory GIS training (see case study 5) Kathmandu Living LabS www.kathmandulivinglabs.org / CC By-SA 3.0 33 Case studies 34 35 Quick reference No Case study Disaster/ New Maintain Public Specialist risk data sets data sets services knowledge 1 Participatory mapping and decision support tools Yes for disaster risk reduction, the Philippines 2 Community Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia Yes 3 Flood preparedness through OpenStreetMap, Yes Jakarta, Indonesia 4 Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team Mapping in Yes Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 5 Mapping schools and health facilities in Yes Yes Kathmandu Valley, Nepal 6 Informal settlement mapping, Map Kibera, Nairobi, Yes Yes Kenya 7 Mapping of South Sudan Yes 8 iCitizen, mapping service delivery, South Africa Yes 9 Skandobs, Scandinavian predator tracking system, Yes Norway and Sweden 10 Corine Land Cover 2006 in OpenStreetMap, France Yes 11 FixMyStreet for municipality maintenance Yes information, UK 12 FINTAN vernacular placenames project, Ordnance Yes Survey and Maritime and Coastguard Agency, UK 13 Towns Conquer, gamification and Instituto Yes Geográfico Nacional toponyms database, Spain 14 National Biodiversity Data Centre, Ireland Yes 36 No Case study Disaster/ New Maintain Public Specialist risk data sets data sets services knowledge 15 Haiti disaster response Yes Yes 16 Mapping for Natural Resources Canada Yes 17 Boston StreetBump, US Yes 18 Open data initiative, New York City, US Yes 19 Imagery to the Crowd, State Department Yes Humanitarian Information Unit, US 20 OpenStreetMap community of practice, US Census Yes Bureau 21 Crowdsourcing The National Map, National Map Yes Corps, US 22 US Geological Survey “Did you feel it?” Yes 23 Places of Interest project, National Park Service, US Yes 24 California Roadkill Observation System (CROS), US Yes 25 Shelter Associates, slum mapping in India Yes Yes 26 Crowdsourcing satellite imagery in Somalia Yes Yes 27 Agricultural data collection and sharing by Yes Community Knowledge Workers, Uganda 28 Twitter use in Italian municipalities Yes 29 Portland TriMet, transportation planner, Oregon, Yes US 37 1. Participatory mapping and The project provided training and technical assistance to LGUs to create basemap information decision support tools for and then perform impact analysis using InaSAFE. Three LGUs participated in the program from the disaster risk reduction, the province of Pampanga (Candaba, Lubao, Guagua). Philippines A total of 85 people participated in the process from these areas and six OSM volunteers additionally participated and assisted the training team during Interaction type Government" Public" Government the activities. The first portion of the training was Trigger event The Department of Interior and Local about the collection of infrastructure data using Government (DILG) of the Philippines OSM. Later InaSAFE workshops were held to show wanted to better support local government units (LGUs) to prepare how the collected data could be analyzed. risk-sensitive land-use plans, structural audits of public infrastructure and The intent was that the LGUs could continue disaster contingency plans. Detailed data mapping in OSM to improve the analysis in InaSAFE to be used for planning was not available. and create a more detailed basemap for other uses. Domain Generic mapping by local government. Freely available data of the areas are now available in OSM. During the training the OSM Philippines Organization DILG. community assisted with the goal of further Actors World Bank - East Asia Pacific (EAP), strengthening and supporting the OSM community Environment Science for Social Change (ESSC), DILG, LGUs of Pampanga, as a whole. Project NOAH, OSM Philippines Community, GeoRepublic Japan, HOT. Teaching LGUs how to map in OSM and then analyze the data in InaSAFE was of benefit, though Data sets OSM data describing standard features, it was difficult for LGUs to continue mapping after land use and administrative boundaries. their initial workshops. Little mapping occurred Process New training materials were created outside of the scheduled mapping activities during specifically aimed at LGUs in the Philippines. Next training and mapping the training. Only one LGU continued to map any activities were conducted in the selected amount of substance afterwards. New methods LGUs. Further community building for better supporting mapping are being explored, activities to support the growth of the including creating a Training of Trainers (ToT) OSM community in the Philippines were also conducted. Key to this was inviting program to expand the community within the community members to all the trainings Philippines able to provide support in OSM. Creating either to learn or assist in delivering the and discovering local champions within LGUs will training. help to ensure greater support for mapping after Feedback Success in the data collection in OSM training. Using these methodologies in other places varied by participating municipality. For is certainly possible, but it would be important two very little data collection occurred after the initial training and mapping to take into account the context and government phase, but one continued to map structure to ensure support for mapping outside of afterwards. initial training. Goal Collect detailed data to better support LGUs in developing disaster plans. Main lessons Side effects - • It is important to highlight the benefit of mapping Contact point Kate Chapman, HOT, kate.chapman@ outside of the immediate usage, to encourage hotosm.org continued work and data collection after the project period concludes. The goal of this project was to use participatory • Efforts to build broader VGI communities as part mapping and InaSAFE impact modeling software to of focused data collection activities can be valuable support Philippines LGUs in disaster risk reduction and should be encouraged. activities. DILG had a need to better support such activities and determined that participatory mapping • With care, VGI data can be an important and use of InaSAFE was the best way to accomplish complement to official data sources and used for this. scientific modeling purposes. 38 2. Community Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia Interaction type Government" Public" Government which were edited by local people; satellite imagery, depending on availability; and GPS tracks. Data were Trigger event - edited using JOSM and Potlach2 web editor and then Domain A priori disaster response. used in QGIS. Urban areas were mapped by students who took part in a mapping competition. Rural areas Organization Community Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia. were mapped with ACCESS contributors and local people. The second phase lasted from July 2012 to Actors Indonesian Disaster Management March 2013 and focused on collecting exposure Agency (BNBP), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), information essential for impact modeling software. HOT, Civil Society Strengthening In total, 163,912 buildings were mapped during Scheme (ACCESS), GFDRR. the pilot, 29,230 of them in urban areas; and 16 Data sets Satellite imagery, GPS tracks and workshops were held with 124 people participating in attribute data. rural areas and 5 universities in urban areas. Process Collecting spatial and attribute data and To encourage participation, Community Mapping for tracing in OSM platform. Exposure has a pyramid format based on leadership, Feedback Thematic maps showing damage in case with specific guidelines in data manipulation and of various physical disasters. great coordination between different contributors. Goal Reduction of vulnerability to natural The whole process is focused on workshops, disasters. participants were supervised at many stages and Side effects Deemed a successful example of disaster the procedure of data collection and manipulation relief preparedness that could be applied was firmly defined. Motivations for participation in other developing countries. varied, with incentives covering a spectrum from Contact point Kate Chapman, HOT, kate.chapman@ disaster protection to a mapping competition. In hotosm.org terms of technical support, the project was not only supported by HOT and OSM but also by open source software such as QGIS. The main innovation in data An example of an a priori disaster response, the collection was the private datastore, which offered Indonesian mapping project began in early 2011 a unique ID for each object. The final output has and at the time of writing is still active. The main also been a success in enabling local government idea behind the project was to use OSM to collect to visualize where people are most in danger by previously unavailable data about buildings and combining local wisdom with scientific knowledge their structure in both urban and agricultural to produce realistic scenarios for numerous different environments and to use appropriate models to physical disasters. calculate likely damage in case of physical disaster. The main aspect of concern is the quality of the The combination of the impact models and the use results, which showed great variation. According to of realistic data led to the development of an open the final report, the quality was either very bad or source risk modeling software (InaSAFE) showing very good in different areas, although it was found to the affected people, infrastructure and damage if be acceptable generally. The attribute quality, which disaster were to hit a specific area. This offers a has a principal role in the success of the project, practical tool for governments to develop actionable indicated a great number of empty or incorrect contingency plans and fills the need for risk records concerning the structure of buildings. Other assessments identified by the World Bank. minor deficiencies were also noticed, such as failing The pilot phase consisted of workshops offering to create constant mapping volunteers and the use of training on the project and building construction time-consuming technical methods in a few cases as well as data collection in urban and rural areas. (e.g. Excel spreadsheets in data collection or manual The approach between rural and urban areas was methods of data manipulation). slightly different, although the result was similar. The original data were derived from paper maps, 39 3. Flood preparedness through OpenStreetMap, Jakarta, Indonesia Main lessons Interaction type Public" Government " Public • An a priori disaster response can be focused Trigger event Disaster management agency of Jakarta on appropriate models and parameters and can wanted to have better data for flood calculate damage in case of a physical disaster by planning and reporting. using VGI. Domain Mapping for disaster preparedness. • Interaction between official providers and VGI is a Organization Jakarta Disaster Management Agency parameter of success not only for the beginning of (BPBD DKI Jakarta). the project but also for its continuity. Actors Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR), United Nations • Open source data can be reliable for scenario Office for Coordination of Humanitarian building but its quality can vary, especially in Affairs (UNOCHA), HOT, University of Indonesia. terms of attribute data. Data sets OSM data of neighborhood boundaries • Risk managers, local communities and the (Rukun Warga), religious, health, sports public can combine local wisdom with scientific and government facilities, schools and knowledge to produce realistic scenarios for roads. numerous different physical disasters that may Process The heads of Jakarta’s 267 urban villages occur in an area of interest. were asked the locations of their critical infrastructure, which was then mapped • The coordination of participating organizations by university students and entered into OSM. and volunteers is important to take full advantage of human resources and technical innovations. Feedback Urban village leaders received paper poster maps of their villages. Goal Improve geographic information available for flood planning. Side effects Having a detailed basemap of Jakarta has made others interested in the idea of crowdsourcing and using community mapping to collect base data and record event data at a relevant scale. Contact point Kate Chapman, HOT, kate.chapman@ hotosm.org Jakarta, Indonesia, is a large megacity that has frequent seasonal flooding issues. Jakarta’s disaster management agency (BPBD DKI Jakarta) needed better data to prepare for the flood season. AIFDR, UNOCHA, HOT and University of Indonesia assisted in the process. The original idea was to ask the heads of the 267 urban villages the location of their critical infrastructure, then ask university students to help with technical mapping. Impact analysis using InaSAFE open source impact modeling software was then performed as part of a contingency planning process, and the data has been used to create government maps to report flood conditions 40 4. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team mapping in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and village heads have used poster maps to plan Interaction type Public" Government " Public logistics when responding to flooding. Trigger event A greater vision to create a “Smart City”. The project also created an open data set that can Domain Topographic mapping. be used for a variety of analyses at the village, district and provincial levels. Using an open Organization Ulaanbaatar City Governor’s Office. platform means that anyone can use the data and it Actors World Bank/ICT, HOT, Mongolian can be updated easily as the information becomes University of Science and Technology, outdated. The data collected was useful in both the city officials, Mongolian Land Management, Geodesy, and Cartography 2013 and 2014 floods, allowing the government of Department. Jakarta to show more detailed maps than previously available and increasing demand for additional Data sets Aerial and satellite imagery (Bing Maps), field survey. mapping at a higher resolution. Process Training core group of people in field One negative aspect of the methodology used is data collection, mapping a part of the that while it did collect the data very quickly, the city, creating conditions for the project to continue by setting up an OSM urban village officials do not have an easy way to community. update their area as the data changes. Feedback Topographic maps of the city. Main lessons Goal Map a part of the city, create an OSM community and train locals to continue • Collaboration between different teams of local the mapping effort in order to support people, depending on their knowledge, means the vision to transform Ulaanbaatar into a “Smart City”. participants can contribute to specific tasks and stages of the project. Side effects - Contact point - • Open data can be used at different levels of decision making policies such as village, district and provincial levels. At the beginning of March 2013, the local authorities of Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia announced their vision • Difficulties in keeping data up to date is one to turn their city into a “Smart City” by 2020. The of the most important concerns in terms of aim is to enable city residents to access information viability. regarding public services, provide a consolidated list of public service assets and allow citizens to send • Data can be used in a variety of ways, including comments, reports and requests to relevant officials by governmental bodies for the creation of maps. via the Internet. This effort is expected to promote transparency and fair public service while cutting down on bureaucracy. Such an effort could only be successful if it could rely on a comprehensive and detailed cartographic background of the city, which did not exist at the time. To support this effort a project to map the city was funded by World Bank/ICT. The aims of this project were to map a part of the city under OSM guidance and simultaneously train a core community to continue the task of mapping the entire city. The process started with basic training on tracing features from imagery and moved to the handling 41 of GPS devices in data collection. The data sets were documented by field papers and ground photos 5. Mapping schools and health which facilitated data management before the final facilities in Kathmandu Valley, uploading. An OSM wiki page was also created with useful information and a catalog of resources Nepal for trainees and the newly built OSM community, including training videos translated in Mongolian, Interaction type Public" Government" Public OSM data collection best practices and local tagging Trigger event No single event but increasing disasters rules. A consensus on the best tagging practice had to around the world, including the be achieved in order to describe geographic features earthquake in Haiti, inspired discussion about the safety of school and hospital that do not exist in other areas of the world and are buildings in Nepal. therefore not documented elsewhere. Domain Generic mapping of major points of An important challenge was that the city of interest and critical infrastructure as well as schools and health facilities. Ulaanbaatar was undergoing a great reconstruction phase and thus the available imagery data sets might Organization Department of Education and not provide up-to-date information. Additionally, Kathmandu Living Labs with support from World Bank/GFDRR. due to weather conditions, the data collection process was taking place during mild days while Actors Department of Education, Kathmandu Living Labs, World Bank/GFDRR, Nepal data management and upload was taking place days Risk Reduction Consortium (NRRC), later, possibly by volunteers who did not collect the NSET. data themselves. These two factors raise some issues Data sets Aerial imagery from Bing and HIU, lists regarding data quality. Another factor that might of schools from government and health influence the overall data quality was the fact that the facilities from other sources. Data sets contributors had no previous OSM experience, such on the road network and other points as an active OSM community or available OSM wiki of interest with a focus on school and health facilities have been generated. pages, while the contributors also had little knowledge of the English language to assist them in steepening Process Initial data about schools and hospitals were mapped using a variety of the learning curve. On the positive side, after five techniques and the results were weeks, the project had: created an OSM community presented to authorities and discussed. to continue the mapping project, improved the Feedback Interactive thematic map (for schools awareness of local officials of the use of VGI and and hospitals) showing structural and open data and also caught the attention of the private non-structural attributes; more detailed sector, which can enhance OSM community efforts by online map of Kathmandu Valley. providing resources while at the same time drawing Goal Collect and map exposure data for more official attention to them. schools/colleges and hospitals, digitize building footprints, build a robust OSM community. Main lessons Side effects None so far. • Building an OSM community from scratch might Contact point Nama Budhathoki, namabudhathoki@ be intensive and slow to begin with. gmail.com • Spatial data sets and mapping products might suffer in quality, at least until a populous and active OSM community forms. Nepal is considered one of the countries most • Local tagging requirements might be missing from exposed to natural hazards and especially the overall OSM project or might be considered as earthquakes. The capital city of Kathmandu has outliers when it comes to normalizing the data set experienced rapid urbanization in the last decades into a spatial product (e.g shapefile, import into a and is considered to be vulnerable to earthquakes as database schema, etc.). the majority of the houses do not meet earthquake safety requirements. In Kathmandu, local • Both governmental officials and private sector stakeholders have recognized the danger and have organizations recognize the value and potential of tried to be proactive by initiating an effort to create VGI and open data. an OSM map of the city. The aim is to provide a 42 critical resource for disaster risk mitigation and previous discussions were limited to government emergency planning. schools. Following the outcome of the project, the Department of Survey, Nepal’s authoritative In 2012, the World Bank’s South Asia Region mapping agency, is now exploring ways to integrate launched the Open Cities Project to create an asset VGI in their workflows. Additionally, the National and exposure database for urban areas and facilitate Society for Earthquake Technology in Nepal has its use for urban planning and disaster resilience. decided to share its own data sets with the public. As part of this project, Open Cities Kathmandu was As part of the Open Cities program, more than started in November 2012 as a pilot initiative. 1500 people received training on OSM procedures and a large number of presentations were delivered The process was to first divide the Kathmandu to universities in an effort to build a robust OSM Valley into zones, each one consisting of several community. At the same time, Kathmandu Living wards and assigned an OSM champion. Using GPS, Labs is continuing the effort to expand the coverage paper field maps, satellite imagery, web and mobile of the map both within and beyond Kathmandu technology, exposure data of schools/colleges and Valley, as well as enhance the quality of the data. health facilities was then collected in the field. These data were uploaded onto OSM using an in-house web application called WebDRI, developed by Kathmandu Main lessons Living Labs. This was followed by a rigorous data • Being proactive is key to ensure that an area is validation process, which ensured that data were prepared for future natural disasters. accurate. • A solid mapping background is needed for relief The champions worked simultaneously towards efforts following disaster. Creating or updating an building an OSM community in Nepal by delivering existing map is of great importance. sensitization presentations and training other people at mapping parties. This effectively took the project • A well-managed and coordinated effort to drum back to its direct recipients, the community. It also up public support can provide valuable input from multiplied the number of “surveyors” in the project both local and international contributors. because it produced new mappers and data providers, • As well as a short, intensive mapping effort, it is whose contributions enriched map data and brought also vital to create a community that will continue local knowledge of the exact locations of schools/ the task to complete or update the maps. hospitals in field. Mapping was done in multiple stages, focusing on different geographical features at different times, and regular validation was a part of the mapping process itself. In November 2013 the GeoCenter of USAID organized a distant mapping party with the collaboration of George Washington University and in one evening, 90 students digitized more than 15,000 buildings in Kathmandu. Open Cities Kathmandu has to date mapped over 130,000 buildings and collected exposure data for 2256 educational and 350 health facilities. The outcome of the project has sparked a policy-level discussion about ensuring the safety of schools and health facilities in emergency situations. This has also expanded to private schools while 43 6. Informal settlement a non-open source software, and Tile Mill and other MapBox products were also used. mapping, Map Kibera, The second phase of the project (February to August Nairobi, Kenya 2010) offered the opportunity for mappers to enhance points of interest such as water, public toilets, schools, Interaction type Public" Government" Public police stations and clinics. It also included two other mini projects: the Voice of Kibera and the Kibera Trigger event - News Network. The first offered the opportunity to Domain Generic mapping of the biggest informal submit reports, write articles and add breaking news urban settlement area and thematic with the aid of Wordpress blogging and Ushahidi mapping of security, water sanitation, health and education. software. Work could be sent by SMS and published after approval by an editorial team. The second is Organization Map Kibera. a video journalism initiative offering more locals Actors Map Kibera team, CfK (Carolina for the opportunity to participate, ensuring the wider Kibera), GOAL, USIP, Indigo trust, acceptance of the project and hence its longevity. ATTI, Habitat, Global Giving, Plan Kenya, Hivos, Unicef, JumpStart Among the main successes is the project’s acceptance International, Ushahidi, SODNET by local government, which embraced it from the (Social Development Network), KCODA (Kibera Community Development beginning. At the end of the project, Map Kibera Agenda). representatives presented the analysis to government Data sets GPS tracks, open source and officials. The negotiation between the two sides had conventional software. a positive impact for the community, which became recognized as a real neighborhood, and residents Process Collecting GPS tracks and tracing them in the OSM platform after training gained new technological knowledge. workshops. The project faced various challenges, the primary Feedback Topographic and purpose-built maps for being to educate residents in new technologies. The the management of supplies in health, voluntary participation model was unrealistic in education, security and water sanitation. Kibera. Locals suffer great survival issues so a small Goal Map the unmapped Kibera and actively daily compensation was given for their participation. involve local people. Residents also found it hard to understand the benefits Side effects - they could gain through participation and the general Contact point Mikel Maron, HOT, mikel_maron@ potential impact of the project. Finally, NGOs found it yahoo.com difficult to cooperate and share information. They had learned to work separately and competitively for a long The homepage of the project welcomes the visitors by time, which meant that voluntary work was splintered stating that, “Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, was a blank off into small pieces, for different purposes. spot on the map until November 2009, when young Kiberans created the first free and open digital map Main lessons of their own community”. The welcome message summarizes the main idea behind the project, which • Slum mapping can be achieved by young local is to map one of the biggest informal settlements of people relatively quickly. the world by putting marginalized communities on • Basic topographic maps can be enhanced with the map. essential thematic layers. Map Kibera was launched in 2009 by Mikel Maron • A combination of open source and conventional and Erica Hagen with initial funding by Jumpstart software can facilitate VGI projects. International, an NGO specializing in community- • Compensation may be needed to improve based mapping. The first phase, which lasted three participation in locations where participants suffer weeks from October to December 2009, involved 13 great survival issues. young people who were trained to collect and edit GPS tracks. OSM was used to create a dynamic and easily • Innovative methods such as SMS, voice and video edited map and QGIS software was adopted to do reporting can support the appeal of mapping further analysis and create specialty maps. ARCGIS, projects. 44 7. Mapping of South Sudan the purpose of the mapping and inspire and train participants. The first event was in April 2011 at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, with a Interaction type Public" Government" Public satellite event in Nairobi at the same time. The next event was in September 2011, held by the South Sudan Trigger event On 9 July 2011 South Sudan became Africa’s 54th nation after its official National Bureau of Statistics in Juba. independence. Although it is the newest nation, it is poorly mapped. To aid their work, updated satellite imagery of the Domain Generic mapping of a poorly mapped region, covering 125,000 km2 (40 percent of the UN’s area and thematic maps of essential priority areas), was uploaded to Google Earth and features like roads, hospitals and Maps. In the last event volunteers worked together and schools. made hundreds of edits in less than four hours. The Organization Google, NGOs along with the World process is simple: citizens edit using available web Bank, United Nations Institute for tools and their local knowledge and, after approval, Training and Research (UNITAR) edits become visible to all Google users worldwide. Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) and Regional The mapping was used by the Satellite Sentinel Center for Mapping of Resources for Project, a collaborative project focused on human Development (RCMRD). rights violations and human security concerns in Actors The Sudanese diaspora, Google, the Sudan and involving Google, the Enough Project, Not World Bank, UNOSAT and RCMRD. On Our Watch, UNITAR, UNOSAT, DigitalGlobe, the Data sets Updated satellite imagery covering Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Trellon. 125,000 km2 (40 percent of the UN’s priority areas) uploaded to Google Earth Among the main factors for the project’s success is not and Maps. only the enthusiasm and inspiration of the Sudanese Process Workshops and editing on Google Maps diaspora, which encouraged them to convey the via Google Map Maker. experience and knowledge to other people, but also the interest that the local government showed in the Feedback Generic and thematic maps covering important points of interest such as project. The project’s approval by local government schools, hospitals and roads. and its impact in decision making policies is Goal To engage and train the Sudanese noticeable. Another innovation of the project is the diaspora and other volunteers worldwide principal role and contribution played by the Sudanese to participate in Google Map Maker. diaspora. Through VGI projects, local knowledge can Side effects Mapping the poorly mapped South be shared worldwide and from different parts of the Sudan so that the infrastructure world, not only from the area of interest. At the same and economy of the country could time, among the main weaknesses of the mapping is be developed and humanitarian aid that local people were not actively involved. The project provided to the local population. lacked research in the field, and did not use GPS or Contact point - open source software, although Google’s involvement guaranteed great participation levels. After years of political instability, South Sudan Main lessons became a new nation on 9 July 2011 after its official independence. Although South Sudan is expansive • Crowdsourcing projects can be coordinated and and the newest nation, it is poorly mapped. Maps are implemented from a distance. particularly important for the development of the • Great participation of volunteers and transmission infrastructure and economy of the country and the of motivation to others are key factors in terms of distribution of humanitarian aid. participation in crowdsourcing applications. Google, with the aid of World Bank, UNOSAT and • Inspiration for other projects and improved RCMRD, recognized this need and started the project applications can be beneficial to areas of interest. for the creation of better maps of South Sudan by supporting communities to map schools, hospitals, • Acceptance by local government as an opportunity roads and more with Google Map Maker. The project for decision making policies and humanitarian aid was launched with a series of events to disseminate can escalate the impacts of a VGI project. 45 8. iCitizen, mapping service Members of the public will be able to report issues by forwarding geotagged photographs, sending in delivery, South Africa locations via SMS or reporting issues via email. The first iteration of iCitizen was built upon the Drupal open source content management system (CMS). Interaction type Public" Government As an enterprise CMS, it provided a lot of services Trigger event - out of the box, including membership management, Domain Generic mapping with focus on local image upload, taxonomy (category) management, infrastructure issues. user commenting, thorough user permissions, field APIs (application programing interfaces), views Organization University of Witwatersrand, LINK Centre. templating and reporting and HTML5 theming capability. Researchers were able to extend the core Actors LINK Centre. functionality to include mapping enabled through Data sets Multiple data sets per service delivery geolocation, leaflet maps (using OpenStreetMap as issue to be tracked. the Map Tile server) and a voting API allowing users Process Collection of data points via mobile to verify incidents. phones. Adoption of different ways of geotagging photos in real time or via The designers of the application will be extracting SMS or/and email. boundary data for South African provinces, districts Feedback Generic and purpose-built maps for and local municipalities and exposing these on disaster preparedness. the online map using GeoJSON data. This will automate the process of calculating the jurisdiction Goal Reporting and solving fundamental problems with basic infrastructure and of any reported incidents. A live reporting engine services. and online social tool will also allow for two-way communication between the web server (and its user Side effects - base) and local municipalities and civil societies. Contact point Dr Kiru Pillay, University of the Witwatersrand, kiru2010@gmail.com The main difficulty relates to the acceptance of the project. One university found validity in the concept but was unable to commit resources for the development of the application. Going forward, two In recent years, South Africa has seen a surge in difficulties are envisaged. The first is acceptance political protest against slow service delivery. While of the validity of the generated data sets by local the United Nations Human Development Index municipalities. The second is acceptance of the use considers South Africa to be a middle-income country, of mobile phone and applications by the public as an there is a large disparity in income distribution effective tool for voicing service delivery concerns. across the population. Social unrest is an obvious Even though the penetration rate of mobile phones is consequence of poverty, high levels of unemployment fast approaching 100 percent of the adult population and service delivery backlogs. in South Africa, the use of mobile applications and Within the context of these issues a new initiative has GIS-mapping tools of this nature is largely untested. been launched, which intends to improve the daily life of citizens by collecting crowdsourced reports Main lessons of service issues and passing them to the relevant • Projects can be used for a variety of tasks at local authorities for resolution. The iCitizen project will level, not just that for which they were designed. give members of the public the ability to report on fundamental problems with basic infrastructure and • Using a range of software, programing languages services. The researchers involved in the project intend and platforms can broaden a project’s horizons. to contact local municipalities to discuss the extent to • VGI applications face financial issues due to their which this project can be embedded within current technological nature and the resources of the initiatives around citizen monitoring and evaluation. organizations involved. The main aim of the project is to give citizens an active voice. A secondary research objective is to • Concerns from agencies about the quality of understand and identify the role of mobile phones in generated data sets and improving public adoption citizen-led monitoring and evaluation. of mobile applications are common challenges. 46 9. Skandobs, Scandinavian predator tracking system, Norway and Sweden Interaction type geographical size of the area under observation but Public" Government involving the public has been very successful. Trigger event Policy requirements for wildlife monitoring in Scandinavia. The Skandobs database is jointly maintained by two Domain Species population observation and national agencies, Norway’s Rovdata and Sweden’s tracking. EPA. Citizens can submit their observations at any time, using iPhone or Android smartphone Organization Rovdata (an independent part of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research applications or through the website. The addition of (NINA)) and the Swedish Environmental photographs and other information is encouraged. Protection Agency (EPA). The Skandobs database is made available for Actors Rovdata, EPA. download via a search interface on the website. A Google Maps-based visualisation tool is also available Data sets - to allow map-based visualisation of the Skandobs Process Using either smartphone applications or database. the Skandobs website contributors can submit their observations. Geographical User observations are subjected to internal validation data are required with each observation and anonymous submissions are not and when this is completed they are assigned allowed. All contributors who wish to see a validation status, which appears in the list of their contributions listed on the website observations. Only rated observations are also and stored in the Skandobs database added to Rovbase, the primary database for national must register on the website. Quality checks are performed by Skandobs staff. population monitoring data in Norway and Sweden. The number of observations in the database is Feedback The number of observations in the updated on the website every 15 minutes with tables database is updated on the website every 15 minutes. A table provides summarizing the total number of observations plus summary information of the total totals for the year and month. Observation totals are number of observations for the current also provided for key species. year and month. League tables also show top contributors by individual and There are concerns about the potential bias in the municipality. observational data. For example because there is Goal To collect observations for lynx, greater population density in southern Sweden, there wolverine, brown bear and wolf to increase knowledge about species will be more observations than in northern Sweden. populations in Scandinavia. This problem of the distribution of observations/ observers is a problem in citizen science and VGI Side effects Increasing expectations from NGOs, the media and the public who more generally. want information on numbers and distribution of carnivore populations in their countries. Main lessons Contact point - • Feedback can be provided to participants through real-time updating summaries of the types and quantities of contributions. • Nations can work together on VGI initiatives to Skandobs was developed to to collect observations meet policy requirements and reduce costs. for lynx, wolverine, brown bear and wolf locations and population sizes, driven by new legislation, • VGI initiatives can work well in transboundary international conventions and directives. Reliable situations. observations help to inform management objectives including long-term conservation and population- • Observational bias due to population distribution level management. Monitoring is complicated remains an inherent challenge in VGI. and expensive for many reasons, including the 47 10. Corine Land Cover 2006 in OpenStreetMap, France Interaction type Government" Public" Government no OSM data. The rest was not imported because it was in conflict with existing land cover polygons Trigger event Change in the license policy of the Corine Land Cover 2006 data set. created manually by the OSM contributors. This was deemed more efficient as the OSM community Domain Generic mapping (update of land cover/ realized that land cover polygons created by OSM environmental data sets). contributors were more accurate than the CLC2006 Organization European Environment Agency (EEA). data set. Moreover, as OSM contributors now have Actors French OSM Community, EEA. access to high-resolution Bing aerial imagery, their data should be even more accurate than the CLC, Data sets 44 land cover classes for France. which is based on IMAGE2006. Process CLC2006 data not overlapping existing OSM data have been imported The integration of CLC2006 to the OSM data sets (accounting for ~60 percent of the has instantly enriched the latter with data regarding land). The CLC2006 typology has been ~60 percent of the French territory. Land cover adjusted to match OSM. classification based on imagery interpretation needs Feedback - considerably more expertise than road classification Goal Update the OSM database with land and in general attracts fewer contributors that the cover information, mainly in rural areas, “high-profile” urban fabrics. However, in this case, as the contribution in such areas is the land cover parcels imported serve as first-class limited. photo interpretation keys to aid the OSM community. Side effects A number of national OSM communities The French example has paved the way and built the have followed the example and integrated expertise for more countries to follow this practice CLC2006. Inconsistencies in levels of detail, semantics and metadata between successfully (nine more countries have imported VGI and authoritative data sets have their national CLC2006 data). been revealed. The integration of the French CLC2006 and Contact point pieren3@gmail.com (OSM community member) OSM data sets has brought to light a number of issues characteristic of the co-existence of VGI and authoritative data. First, importing authoritative COoRdinate INformation on the Environment data into a VGI database injects both the positive (Corine) is a European Commission supported and negative endogenous issues, such as the failure program that aims to provide a land cover data set to keep the data up to date. For example, CLC2006 (known as CLC; Corine Land Cover) for 39 European data set was imported in 2009, which means the countries. The CLC2006 project was coordinated data were already two years old (the project for by the European Environment Agency. The image France finished in 2007). However, the authoritative production for the land cover digitization was nature of CLC2006 might give OSM users the false centrally coordinated by the EEA and the actual data impression that such data sets are more accurate or production was undertaken by EEA member states to more recent than they actually are, diverting their “benefit from local knowledge”. The data integration attention to other as yet uncovered areas. Second, of the national contributions was managed by the it should be expected that there will be semantic EEA and the European Topic Centre on Land Use inconsistencies. For example, the CLC2006 has and Spatial Information (ETC LUSI). As in previous fewer land cover classes than those used in OSM, CLC projects, CLC2006 includes 44 land cover while some CLC2006 classes are too vague for OSM classes. and have not therefore been converted and imported to OSM. Third, it must also be expected that there As permitted under the release terms of CLC2006, will be inconsistencies regarding the level of detail. the French OSM community imported the CLC2006 In the case of CLC2006, the features captured were data set into the OSM database. However, only ~60 at 1:100,000 (country-level) while OSM is a street- percent of the original data set was automatically level data set. imported, which was for those areas where there was 48 11. FixMyStreet for municipality maintenance Main lessons information, UK • The existence of active public communities Interaction type Public" Government facilitates the take up of opportunities to work on open source data. Trigger event - Domain Local authority/municipality • Data integration should not be considered easy or maintenance. straightforward. This should also be made clear Organization mySociety (originally developed with to volunteers as any integration initiative might central government funding). mean large workloads with moderate results. Considerable expertise among volunteers is Data sets Government data sets of postcodes, basemap, local authority boundaries, required for success. contact details and email addresses of relevant personnel in local authorities. • Successful, community-led efforts can be replicated by others now experience in solving Process A problem is indicated on a website using its location postcode and an email problems has been built and often shared. alerts the local authority. The authority can respond to the complaint on the • Multiple data sets often have semantic website. inconsistencies and temporal accuracy should be Feedback Update to participants provided through addressed during integration. the website and in email that can be triggered when a person registers. Goal Provide online tool for residents to report problems to their local authority and follow up the exchange with the public body in an open way. Side effects Application source code released under the GNU Affero GPL software license and has been used in other countries. Contact point - FixMyStreet is a web-based application, launched in February 2007, which enables the public to report local problems (e.g. abandoned vehicles, graffiti, unlit lampposts, potholes, litter). Reporting is facilitated by the use of Ordnance Survey maps as a backdrop for users to mark the exact location of the problem. Issues reported by users are propagated to the relevant local authorities by email. Users reporting a problem are contacted by FixMyStreet after four weeks to check if the issue has been resolved. FixMyStreet was built and administered by mySociety, a social enterprise (business with social aims), and is free to the public. However, there is also a FixMyStreet for Councils application, which is a paid version adapted to local authority needs for handling the problem reports. FixMyStreet has been one of the most popular web applications that enable the public to voice their 49 concerns regarding local issues. Through a simple In analyzing the success of FixMyStreet it is also process, the website has succeeded in engaging important to note the overall context: first, in UK people and opened a channel for public input into there are digital savvy members of the public, which problem solving. Moreover, it has resulted in public makes it easy for users to participate; and second, in value creation both direct (i.e. social gain that has most Western societies, the core social principles on immediate relationship with the user that reports which FixMyStreet is based are shared and voicing the problem and his/her neighbors) and indirect criticism of the government is accepted practice, (i.e. social gain that is dispersed to the entire which may not be the case in other countries (see community). The difference between FixMyStreet case study 8). and previous mechanisms for reporting local problems is the public aspect: instead of the report Main lessons being recorded on a local authority system, it is done in the open and other residents can see the issues • Given technological advances it should be reported and how the local authority dealt with them. expected that the public will find their way to web applications of this kind. However, there are some issues of concern especially when it comes to the data created: the cycle of • Authorities should develop processes and methods public data creation, propagation, consumption and to integrate data from the public in order to diffusion back to the public creates inconsistencies. avoid issues of data duplication, confusion and More specifically, councils themselves have an misunderstandings. independent channel for local problem reporting • Public VGI initiatives that address community and thus the launch of FixMyStreet created a parallel problems might overshadow existing authoritative channel that often simply duplicates problems structures. Flexibility in embracing such already known to the council or, in the worst case, initiatives might minimize future problems for confuses the authorities as descriptions of the same local authorities and maximize impact on society. problem appear slightly different. Additionally, when the council fixes the problem (which might • Successful examples of public participation can take more than four weeks), it is not able to report increase pressure on authorities for data sharing progress on the issue within the application. This is under flexible license schemes. the driving force behind FixMyStreet for Councils but as this is a paid version, few local authorities have adopted it so far. MySociety FixMyStreet (UK) is an example of participation in municipal maintenance 50 12. FINTAN vernacular placenames project, Ordnance Survey and Maritime and Coastguard Agency, UK Interaction type Government" Public" Government UK Coastguard were in the process of closing approximately half of their Coastguard centers and Trigger event Increasing recognition of the use recognized that a lot of local knowledge could be lost. of vernacular placenames and their importance to emergency services. In that context, both sides recognized the mutual benefit of capturing vernacular coastal placenames Domain Emergency operations such as search using the knowledge of the coastguards (professional and rescue. crowdsourcing) and local coastguard volunteers (local Organization Ordnance Survey (OS) and Maritime and people who assist in coastguard operations). Coastguard Agency (MCA). An updated database of vernacular placenames is Actors OS (research staff, data capture staff), MCA (coastguards), volunteer a priceless tool when it comes to providing swift coastguards. response to life-threatening situations. One of the most important parts of the response process is to Data sets OS topographic maps; address and placename gazetteers containing current understand the position of the person in difficulty known placenames. and often official mapping products might not Process FINTAN application developed by OS provide all the necessary information. It is very to enable MCA and their volunteers to common for people in need to use local names that enter, locate and classify vernacular do not exist in official gazetteers. placenames; OS then assessed the quality of the data. FINTAN is an OS application that enables the Feedback Many new vernacular placenames that crowdsourcing of vernacular local names of coastal are assessed and quality controlled by areas. FINTAN includes topographic mapping on a OS. wide range of scales provided to the Coastguard to Goal Improve ability of the Coastguard enable the recording of placenames. Additionally, to locate people when contacted in address and placename gazetteers containing current emergency situations; improve OS known placenames have been used. Special care has database of placenames for use in new and existing products. been taken to allow other emergency services that use different reference systems to work to a common Side effects Tensions in areas where English is geography and terminology. not the first language - some groups unwilling to report English names even Through FINTAN, HM Coastguard and their when in common usage even by locals. volunteers can enter, locate and classify vernacular Contact point Glen Hart, Ordnance Survey, glen.hart@ placenames of features such as beaches or rocks to ordnancesurvey.co.uk update the existing database. Personal connection with participants has been helpful in encouraging Two of the most prominent UK governmental participation, facilitated by coastguards inputting agencies, the HM Coastguard of the Maritime and data from their local volunteers, and the specialist Coastguard Agency, responsible for the initiation application has been targeted at their specific interest and coordination of all civilian maritime search and (as opposed to more generic approaches like OSM). rescue operations, and Ordnance Survey, the UK’s The future of FINTAN is promising as there are national mapping agency, have joined forces to create plans to open the application to other stakeholders, an up-to-date data set of vernacular placenames. such as sailing clubs, and thus harvest more local Vernacular placenames are those in common usage knowledge. irrespective of whether they are official names or not. On the negative side, tensions in areas where English There has been an increasing recognition by the is not the first language have been observed as some OS of the need to capture richer and more detailed groups are unwilling to report English names even vernacular placenames. At the same time, the when these are in common usage even by locals. 51 13. Towns Conquer, gamification and Instituto Geográfico Nacional toponyms database, Spain Main lessons Interaction type Public" Government • Crowdsourcing can be a valuable tool when it Trigger event Funding opportunity from AGILE and comes to existing knowledge preservation. EuroSDR project on Crowdsourcing in National Mapping 2013. • Professional crowdsourcing might be equally Domain Validation of a national toponyms or even more productive compared to general database. crowdsourcing practices when collecting data for specific areas or subjects. Organization Universities (University of Nottingham UK and Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain), ESRI Europe (sponsor), Instituto • Local and regional interests and perceptions might Geográfico Nacional (IGN) Spain. introduce biases to the data collected. Actors IGN, University of Nottingham UK and • Two-way data flow can be a win-win situation for Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain. all involved parties as well as the general public, Data sets IGN national toponyms database of and is facilitated by shared interests and benefits. Spain. Process Users provide updates to the database while playing a game for rewards, contributions are checked by the national mapping agency before being incorporated into the national database. Feedback Users played the game to gain points. Points were maintained in a league table format and when a user gained enough points they became the mayor of that particular region. The more validations the user provided, the more points they gained. Goal Volunteer validation of a national toponyms database. In Spain it has taken over ten years to implement a model to standardize the nomenclature of municipalities, yet today there are still conflicts with the names of some places, especially in regions with two languages. Side effects Validated gamification techniques for public update and management of important national databases. Contact point Dr. Joaquín Huerta, Universidad Jaume I, Castellón, Spain, huerta@uji.es The Towns Conquer application was developed when the research team were awarded a small funding prize from a joint funding venture between AGILE and EuroSDR. This funding allowed the support of one person to work in the university, in collaboration with a nominated national mapping agency. The aim of this project was the validation of a toponyms database provided by the Spanish Instituto 52 Geográfico Nacional, with 136,454 entities requiring validation. The public is involved through mobile and 14. National web-based gamification techniques, which are used Biodiversity Data to persuade users to contribute their amendments to the given toponyms database. The goal is for citizens Centre, Ireland to amend well-known placenames while playing a game and using their knowledge of their local area or Interaction type Public" Government" Public other areas/regions in Spain. Trigger event - An Android-based game was developed which was Domain Update of national biodiversity database. linked to a web-map service at IGN. This allowed Organization National Biodiversity Data Centre IGN Spain to deliver the toponyms database on (NBDC), Ireland. suitable basemaps for the mobile application. Users Actors NBDC and the Irish biodiversity signed up for free. There were some prizes at the community (in particular university end of the game (with a time limit on the number researchers). of months) for the citizens who had gained the most Data sets Existing NBDC database. points (conquered the most placenames) during this time. Placenames submitted to IGN via the Process Users enter their observations through the appropriate HTML forms on the gamification software were checked by an IGN NBDC website. Observational data is official before being submitted and updated in the checked internally at NBDC then made database. available for access and visualisation on the online maps and charts. Data is This funding allowed the NMA to test out submitted by email for large and possibly incorrectly formatted observations. crowdsourcing and gamification as a means of updating a national database. In Spain it has taken Feedback Data is quickly checked and made over 10 years to implement a model to standardize available for access and visualisation on an online map. Those who submit their the nomenclature of municipalities, yet today there data to the system can access this data in are still conflicts with the names of some places, the future. especially in regions with two languages. Goal Heighten the understanding of biodiversity in Ireland and widen the This project did highlight that gamification base from which observational data may techniques (when properly designed and thought be obtained. out) could provide a very good platform from which Side effects - bodies like IGN could involve the public in updating and managing important national databases. The Contact point Dr. Liam Lysaght, National game also provided the mechanism to motivate users Biodiversity Data Centre, llysaght@ biodiversityireland.ie to participate. Main lessons The National Biodiversity Data Centre initiated • Funding can drive innovative VGI projects and this project to leverage the potential of outreach instigate new modes of engagement. groups and the general public for data survey and observation. This widens the base from which • Links between government agencies and research observational biodiversity data may be obtained centers can generate the resources required for in Ireland. The NBDC also launched this project VGI projects. with an aim to initiate a stronger engagement • Gamification can be a successful way of engaging of non-professional scientists and heighten the the public in VGI projects. understanding of biodiversity related matters in the general population in Ireland. There is a good • Data quality issues can be addressed through tradition of observational work being performed by checking processes done by the official volunteer community groups in Ireland. organization. All of the systems and software are housed at NBDC. Contributors are also given assistance in working out grid references for their records, observations 53 and sightings. The system provides online forms Main lessons for recording observations but these can also be • Feedback for contributors is very important submitted in bulk via email if the contributor has and can be established in many forms. For collected a lot of data. example personal contact with contributors, Since June 2012 there have been over 61,000 publishing information on the website (“we have records submitted, validated and stored in the NBDC x records this month”), awards for distinguished databases. Approximately 1600 records are submitted contributors. per month. NBDC also makes these data available to • Providing several options for users to contribute the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), their biodiversity observations improves a network of 80 participants worldwide working on accessibility for different users. an open biodiversity data infrastructure, funded by governments. It allows anyone, anywhere, to access • Allowing contributors to provide as much (or as data about all types of life on earth, shared across little) information as they have available means national boundaries via the Internet. The NBDC there can be great diversity in the resolution of is Ireland’s GBIF node and contributes Irish data data provided, requiring manual and automated to the more than 400 million biodiversity records checking controls. mobilized through the GBIF data portal. For the submission of observational data there are species and site forms, with the latter allowing a more detailed recording of biodiversity information. The data from these forms and collections are extracted and merged with other data sets in the NBDC for insertion into their spatial databases. Data is quickly checked and made available for access and visualisation on an online map. Those who submit their data to the system can access this data in the future. When there is particular need for observation or data collection for a specific species there is a call for “species in focus” where the importance, reasoning and biodiversity importance of a specific species is outlined. The NBDC ensures that the contributors have their efforts well recognized and advertised online. For example there is an annual distinguished recorder award presented to the person who has made an outstanding contribution. This is very important in recognizing the work of the volunteers who submit data to initiatives like this. Workshops are also held on a frequent basis which report on the progress of this project, the types of uses that this data is being put to, and how the project can be sustained and improved. Events such as Bioblitz (held annually) involve the general public in biodiversity data collection events which have an aspect of fun and competition. 54 15. Haiti disaster response Interaction type Public" Government" Public involvement of volunteers). The first imagery was loaded on the OSM platform in 48 hours. Sixty Trigger event A natural disaster (earthquake) and people were trained and more that 700 contributed humanitarian crisis. to the mapping, among them people from UN Domain Generic mapping (topographic maps agencies, NGOs, National Haitian Mapping Agency, of the area) and purpose-built maps (disaster relief management). National Center of Spatial Information (CNIGS) and Haitian civil society. Historic maps, CIA maps Organization HOT. and high-resolution imagery from Yahoo were first Actors United Nations, NGOs, National Haitian used for tracing in OSM to improve the basic maps. Mapping Agency, National Center Volunteers with paper maps and GPS completed of Spatial Information, Haitian civil the second phase of tracing. The effort led to the society. PDNA (Post Disaster Needs Assessment), the Data sets Historic maps, CIA maps, high- result of the analysis of satellite and aerial imagery resolution imagery from Yahoo, paper by multiple sources, in which more than 30,000 maps and GPS tracks. damaged infrastructures were identified and Process Tracing in OSM platform from different classified. According to HOT, 600 volunteers added data sources and collecting GPS tracks. spatial information to OSM in a month and the Feedback Topographic and purpose-built maps for result was used as a default basemap for responding the management of supplies of medicine organizations and the Haitian government. and food, and location of settlements. Goal Facilitate disaster response The main reasons for its success can be focused on management. four main factors; time, cost, great participation of Side effects The data sets created have not been used volunteers and official trust. The sensitization of the by the national mapping agency but by public to the Haitian crisis led to a great participation international aid organizations (UN, of volunteers and immediate mobilization worldwide. USAID). The contribution of NGOs and other official partners Contact point Mikel Maron, HOT, mikel_maron@ and the release of conventional data sets as reference yahoo.com maps for tracing without license restrictions were vital to success. Government support was inevitable due to the critical circumstances and limited resources. Haiti was dramatically affected after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the capital city of Port-au-Prince on Although, the project is characterized as successful, 12 January 2010. Death toll estimates range from there were a few weaknesses. On the one hand, all 100,000 to 200,000. More than 250,000 residents the responding organizations lacked experience and were injured and more than 30,000 buildings awareness of the operational norms in humanitarian collapsed or were severely damaged. When the response, which constitute an operational framework magnitude of the disaster became clear, the main for the accountability of different sources. Deficiency issue for those responding to the disaster was of coordination led to the duplication of data. The that the only available spatial data were poor and national mapping agency, CNIGS, also never really last updated in 1960s. The local mapping agency engaged with OSM, although official data were given collapsed in the earthquake, with the loss of most of supportively at the beginning of the project. the skilled employees. An updated map was urgently needed for the distribution of supplies, identification of collapsed buildings, damaged infrastructure and Main lessons medical stations. • This was the first crowdsourced mapping exercise for humanitarian reasons and shows its successful The Haiti disaster response is one of the successful use in reacting to disaster. examples of geographic information being made open by official partners, enhanced by public • An integrated methodology of this kind follows volunteers and returned to government for action four steps: spatial data contributed by official (although the government was reluctant about the providers, supplemented with GPS tracks, 55 16. Mapping for Natural Resources Canada integrated into OSM and updated by a great Interaction type Government" Public" Government number of volunteers from each part of the world. Trigger event The proven inability of the NMA to • Time, cost and official trust of data by NGOs and keep data sets up to date along with the familiarisation of its personnel with other official partners are key to success. OSM data, quality and processes. • Lack of coordination and experience between Domain Generic mapping (update of national different actors can lead to duplication of data and topographic database). waste of resources. Organization Mapping Information Branch (MIB) at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). • Differentiation between conventional and governmental data in terms of engagement to the Actors OSM community, MIB, NRCan. project did not prevent success. Data sets Canvec (mainly the road network). Process NRCan releases its database into .osm format. The data is imported into OSM and updated/modified by the OSM community. NRCan regularly compares OSM data sets with its own as a change detection mechanism to keep its database up to date. Feedback Change detection data sets that have been verified by NMA employees. Goal Keep national databases up to date. Side effects OSM data cannot directly be used by the authorities due to IPR and licensing issues. Contact point - National mapping agencies are responsible for providing up-to-date topographic maps and a range of spatial products to the public and private sector. The role of the Mapping Information Branch at Natural Resources Canada is to provide accurate geographic information of the landmass at the scale of 1:50,000. However, this translates to regularly covering an area of 10 million km2 divided into 13,200 map sheets so keeping geographic information up to date is a challenge. The collaboration with the OSM community is based mainly on two factors: i) a proven inability to keep national data up to date, and ii) a willingness to trust OSM VGI data. The Canadian authorities are also well organized and equipped to implement standard processes of data collection, change detection, quality control and assurance. This facilitates the integration of the two different data sets. 56 17. Boston StreetBump, US The process was enabled the Centre for Topographic Interaction type Public" Government Information in Sherbrooke (CTIS) release of Canvec (the digital topographic map of Canada) in .osm Trigger event Smartphone technologies and resurgent civic engagement. format (the native OSM format). This allowed the Canadian authoritative data to be integrated into Domain Public contribution to urban services OSM and gave the OSM community the opportunity reports database. to interact with it (i.e. by completing, correcting or Organization Mayor’s office, City of Boston. updating). The OSM database is regularly compared Actors The City of Boston Roads and Public with the Canvec data to pinpoint the differences. Infrastructure Division. Any differences are treated as potential changes and Data sets - are verified using the authoritative channel in the field. Verified changes are propagated to the Canvec Process Using the accelerometer and GPS database. devices on smartphones users with the StreetBump application automatically Leveraging the OSM crowdsourcing mechanism report “bump” or pothole information to the City of Boston. These reports are means the Canadian authorities have developed a collected in a database. The Roads and much needed change detection process, which helps Public Infrastructure Division carefully them concentrate resources on potential changes. monitor these reports. If a specific area receives many reports, an engineer will Challenges include: the compatibility of the two physically examine that location. data sets (in terms of semantic and attribution differences), the lack of metadata for OSM data and Feedback Users gain points (“street cred”) for each pothole they assist in reporting which is the differences in coverage (OSM contributions subsequently fixed or repaired by the city are concentrated mainly in urban areas). These engineers. challenges stem from the differences in the two Goal Overcome the manual, antiquated data generating processes (i.e. the bottom-up, method of reporting potholes from informal OSM process compared to the top-down, public complaints or manual survey by authoritative NMA procedures) and still need to be city inspectors. addressed. Moreover, there is a conflict between the Side effects The City of Boston uses this information license and use terms of OSM data and the IPR of to plan long-term investments in road Canadian authorities that needs to be resolved. and street infrastructure repair, upgrade and construction. Contact point - Main lessons • The need for other sources of geographic data sets, such as VGI, can be generated when authorities Boston’s Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics are falling short of their targets. (MONUM) pilots experiments that offer the potential to improve the quality of city services. • VGI data sets can be used by authoritative and New technology – from smartphones to GPS – and governmental bodies to supplement or facilitate a resurgent spirit of civic engagement have created their standard operational procedures. increased opportunities for closer connection and • Differences in structure and operation mean that communication between the city government and updates to geographic information do not move its citizens. Partnering frequently with the Mayor’s freely between the two systems. Constituent Service Office, MONUM is piloting projects that leverage this new technology and civic • Connectivity between the two different data sets is spirit to deliver services that are more personal and limited by different terms of use and licenses. citizen driven. Using the motion-sensing capabilities of smartphones, volunteers who download Boston’s StreetBump application automatically send 57 18. Open data initiative, New York City, US information to the city about the condition of the Interaction type Government" Public" Government streets they are driving on. When their cars hit a pothole—or a pothole-to-be—their phone sends the Trigger event Adoption of open data policy. accelerometer data to a server application, which Domain Local authority. combines the information from many other phones Organization NYC GIS Department and Department to pinpoint problem areas on the streets. If three or of Information Technology and more bumps occur at the same location, the City Telecommunications (DoITT). of Boston will physically inspect this obstacle and Actors NYC OSM community, NYC assign it to a queue for short-term repair or record its government, private sector. location to assist with longer-term repair planning. Data sets Building footprint, addresses. There are some problems around the reporting of Process Data import into OSM and public “false positives”. The use of phone accelerometers maintenance in OSM platform. means that other vibrations felt/absorbed by the Feedback Daily changes. phone can be incorrectly calculated as a pothole or bump in the road surface. Users are encouraged to Goal Leverage volunteers to help keep authoritative data current. ensure that the phone is stationary inside the vehicle with horizontal positioning of the device likely to Contact point Alex Barth, MapBox, alex@mapbox.com offer more accurate observations according to the help documentation. However these “false positives” In September 2013, New York City released over are reviewed manually internally. Unless there are 200 government data sets to the public as part multiple reports of a bump or pothole problem of a broad open data initiative to “improve the in the vicinity of a specific location it will not be accessibility, transparency, and accountability of physically investigated by city engineers. Users can City government.” Using the web-platform Socrata, contact a specific hotline number to manually report the data is made available for download or through a problem. In addition to the passive reporting of APIs (application programing interfaces) that allow the accelerometer, GPS data users can also submit software developers to construct mobile and web- geolocated photographs of the problematic street based applications that incorporate this information. segment. This data release continues an aggressive open data push by the city government that began in Main lessons 2011. New York City’s open data law, signed by • VGI can be used to address urban service Mayor Bloomberg in March 2012, mandates that all issues such as problems with roads and street city agencies “systematically categorize and make infrastructure. accessible in “open” formats all public data sets at no charge” before 2018. To date, over 1100 data sets have • “False positives” in reports can be effectively been made available on the city’s open data portal handled by applying a limit to the number of and numerous applications have been built that reports which are required before action is taken address issues ranging from transportation to food by the government agency. safety and the environment. • The types of devices and their hardware In partnership with the Department of Information capabilities must be considered in the planning Technology and Telecommunications, the members in using VGI. Some technologies can be of the local OSM community have begun to import unreliable, over-sensitive or unsuited to particular city building footprint and address point data sets applications. into the OSM database. These critical data sets, which are necessary to support a wide variety of data analysis and visualization projects, can be difficult and expensive to keep up to date in a city as large and dynamic as New York. Thanks to software developed 58 by the company Mapbox, the New York City GIS • VGI communities and government departments department now receives daily emails detailing can bring technical resources, significant labor changes to OSM building or address information. and solid coordination. These emails allow the GIS team to quickly assess updates in OSM to identify where new construction • Municipal data sets, even when of high quality, or other changes in the city may necessitate updates need to be maintained in order to stay accurate. to the authoritative city data set. This can be achieved effectively and at lower cost than via traditional practices through the Upon completion of the import of the city data cooperation of VGI communities and government into OSM, a feedback loop between the city and departments. the volunteer OSM community allows both the government and the public to work together to create and make use of up-to-date and high-quality spatial data. Importing large and detailed data sets like addresses and buildings is a complex process that requires technical resources, significant labor and solid coordination between the OSM community and others involved. In this case the information released by DoITT was up to date and of high quality, but the same cannot be said of all municipal data sets. It should also be noted that DoITT has expressed interest in incorporating OSM into other parts of their data management practices but have so far been unable to due to the conflict between OSM’s share-alike license and the public domain license required by NYC open data mandates. There has also been a great deal of communication between the city government, the OSM community and the people working on the import, which is critical to the success of these kinds of efforts. It will be important and useful to revisit this project in the future in order to learn more but so far it provides an excellent example of cooperation between local government and the volunteer OSM community around open data. Main lessons • Releasing government data sets freely into the public domains means citizens can download and create their own applications. • VGI communities like those of OSM can keep government data sets up to date even in large, dynamic cities. • Cooperation between VGI communities and relevant government departments allows them to work together to create and make use of up-to-date and high-quality spatial data. 59 19. Imagery to the million changes to the map. These changes provided detailed information on the location and extents Crowd, State Department of pre-event infrastructure as well as preliminary damage assessment. The OSM data created through Humanitarian Information these efforts was in turn used by a number of actors Unit, US in the response, including UNOCHA, MapAction, the World Bank and the American Red Cross. Interaction type Government" Public" Government Another recent Imagery to the Crowd project, Trigger event Adoption of new policy (the “Imagery to implemented in partnership with the Global Facility the Crowd” program). for Disaster Reduction and Recovery and USAID, recently organized volunteers in Nepal, the United Domain Generic mapping and purpose-built maps for humanitarian relief programs. States, Germany and the United Kingdom to digitize roads and building footprints in the Kathmandu Organization HIU State Department’s Imagery to the Crowd program. Valley of Nepal. Kathmandu is one of the most seismically at-risk cities in the world and the data Actors HIU, HOT. created through this program will help inform Data sets Satellite imagery. an earthquake retrofitting program led by the government of Nepal and disaster response planning Process Manual digitization of roads, buildings and other features. by USAID (see also case study 5). Feedback Access to vector OSM data for local These examples from the Imagery to the and international humanitarian Crowd project demonstrate that the release of organizations. US government owned imagery to volunteer Goal Leverage volunteers to create OSM data communities has resulted in the creation of to support efficient management of valuable spatial data, which is in turn accessible to disaster relief efforts. governments and international agencies. Technical Contact point Josh Campbell, State Department HIU, and policy efforts are underway to increase the CampbellJS3@state.gov speed at which imagery can be released and to standardize and improve the process but this new As shown in Haiti (see case study 15), facilitating initiative has already achieved demonstrable results. the access of volunteer communities to high-quality In cases like USAID’s work in Nepal, this becomes aerial and satellite imagery can have dramatic a full-loop example where a US government agency results. However, such imagery is often prohibitively makes direct use of the data created as a result of expensive or only available under licenses that the imagery release. In other instances the users are would prevent digitization by the public. With this UN agencies or not-for-profit organizations working in mind, the US State Department’s Humanitarian towards humanitarian ends. Information Unit launched a new initiative in 2012 called “Imagery to the Crowd”. This program Main lessons makes high-resolution imagery, purchased by the • Making government-owned high-resolution US Government from providers like Digital Globe, imagery accessible to humanitarian organizations accessible to humanitarian organizations and the and the volunteer communities can support them volunteer communities that support them. Since its in their work worldwide. inception, Imagery to the Crowd has facilitated the digitization of basic infrastructure data into OSM in • Technical and policy efforts are required to eight countries to support humanitarian response or increase the speed at which imagery can be disaster risk reduction. released and to standardize and improve the process. In the recent 2013 Typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines, Imagery to the Crowd published images • Such projects demonstrate successful full-loop and for Tacloban, Ormoc, Northern Cebu and Carles. half-loop feedback projects. This imagery supported a massive volunteer effort of over 1600 mappers from the OSM community, coordinated by the HOT, who contributed nearly five 60 20. OpenStreetMap At the moment, the US Census Bureau has no formal interaction with OSM. However, a small community of practice, number of internal champions have been working to build a community of mapping enthusiasts to US Census Bureau create support for the incorporation of OSM into the Bureau’s work. Interaction type Public" Government" Public One of the leading advocates for the use of Trigger event Internal champion. volunteered geographic information within the US Domain Generic mapping. Census Bureau’s programs says that there a number Organization United States Census Bureau. of ways in which the platform could be useful. Data collection is expensive and OSM could offer a way for Actors United States Census Bureau. the Census to partner with citizens to help identify Data sets OSM. areas where change has occurred and, perhaps, collect basic location data about the neighborhoods Process Mapping events and outreach within the Bureau. where they live. OSM could also be used as a tool for helping Census professionals better understand Feedback - issues that Census field representatives encounter Goal To build a group of mappers and in their work. For example, by participating in OSM, supporters of OSM within the US they would have to engage with ambiguity in tagging Census Bureau. systems as well as better understand the geography Side effects - of the areas to which they are assigned. Contact point Steven Johnson, OSM, US In order to help grow the OSM community within the Census Bureau, advocates held mapping Suitland Federal Center - Google Maps and OpenStreetMap comparison Google, OpenStreetMap contributors 61 21. Crowdsourcing The National Map, National Map Corps, US events during lunch hours every other week Interaction type Public" Government" Public during June and July of 2013. Participants were given basic information about the OSM platform Trigger event The need to update the national map and other national map databases. and community, taught how to map using OSM tools, and sent out in small teams to survey the Domain Generic mapping. area around the Suitland Federal Center, where Organization US Geological Survey (USGS), National the Census Bureau offices are located. In addition, Geospatial Program. advocates have given a number of internal Actors Local, state and federal agencies presentations about OSM and its applicability to the including the USGS. Census’s mission and brought their colleagues to Data sets USDA National Aerial Imagery OSM conferences and meetups. Program (NAIP) imagery, National Map base layers, ESRI world imagery, OSM champions face a number of challenges in Alaska community photos, the national promoting adoption of OSM within the Census structures database and USTopo. Bureau. Many who have traditional GIS backgrounds Process Using crowdsourcing techniques, the have difficulty accepting OSM’s open source model USGS’s National Map Corps encourages of data production. In government data sets, there public volunteers to collect and edit data is a notion that databases are authoritative. OSM about human-made structures to provide accurate and authoritative spatial map offers no such assurances. The OSM community data for the USGS National Geospatial has no central point of contact to provide support. Program’s web-based The National Map. Thus, learning how to engage with the distributed Feedback Updated structures are contributed in OSM community would be an important part of real-time. Databases are downloaded on any adoption. Finally, the census could potentially a nightly basis. Data collected is in the use OSM as a data source for TIGER/Line products, public domain and freely downloadable. which describe fundamental features such as Goal Maximize limited resources while transportation networks, natural features and continuing to support the National geographic boundaries, but are unable to do so Geospatial Program by leveraging volunteers with local knowledge to because the Census would need to release this update The National Map and USTopo. into the public domain, which is disallowed by the current license. Side effects - Contact point Elizabeth McCartney, emccartney@ usgs.gov or nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov Main lessons • Building support within government organizations for VGI requires time and VGI is not new to the USGS, but past efforts have willingness to learn different models of creating, been hampered by available technologies. Over the validating and using data. last two decades, the USGS has sponsored various • Hands-on exposure to OSM tools is a useful way forms of volunteer map data collection projects, of helping individuals understand the platform including the Earth Science Corps where volunteers and its potential value. annotated topographic paper maps, the collection of GPS points using handheld GPS devices and, finally, web-based technology to input data in 2006. In spite of these efforts, and as valuable as the updates were, technology could not keep pace with decreasing USGS resources, and the VGI effort was suspended in 2008. Today, improved technology, social media and ever decreasing resources have once again made crowdsourcing an attractive option. 62 After several pilot projects to determine the viability media interaction and a tiered editing approach. of bringing back the volunteer mapping program, Using these techniques has been successful. The The National Map Corps volunteers are successfully National Map Corps continues to see substantial editing ten different structure types in all 50 states, increases in the number of volunteers and volunteer including schools, hospitals, post offices, police contributions to The National Map. stations and other important public buildings. Using National Agricultural Imagery Program imagery Other challenges continue to exist and include: as the primary base layer, volunteers collect and organizational resistance to accepting data from improve data by adding new features, removing volunteers as being “good enough” to populate obsolete points and correcting existing data. Edits are national databases; and working through issues for contributed through a web-based mapping platform which there is no well-established policy regarding built using open source technology developed by government accepting data from citizens. One OpenStreetMap. Points edited are incorporated into example is the requirement to obtain approval The National Map and ultimately become part of for conducting a “survey” from the Office of USTopo. Management and Budget as part of the Paperwork Reduction Act even though the project is not really In order to address quality concerns, an analysis of a conducting a “survey”. pilot project was conducted over the state of Colorado. For all structure feature types, volunteer involvement Main lessons was found to improve positional accuracy, attribute accuracy and reduce errors of omission. The • Adoption of challenging techniques such as Colorado pilot demonstrated that volunteer edits gamification has been successful and attracts improve baseline structures data; that further review volunteer interest. by advanced volunteers willing to provide peer review • Evaluation of the quality indicated that the improves the data further; and that sample-based participation improves accuracy and reduces inspection by USGS personnel can monitor these errors. processes. • Organizational resistance to accepting data from Successful crowdsourcing is not without challenges, volunteers is one of the major challenges for VGI some of which include volunteer recruitment, projects of this kind. volunteer engagement and participant motivation. The National Map Corps endeavors to meet • Key factors to successful crowdsourcing include these challenges using gamification techniques building on past experience, leveraging existing and a mixture of traditional and social media. technology and having the support of key Gamification includes easy on-ramping, virtual individuals within the organization. recognition badges, friending, map challenges, social US National Map Corps editor Elizabeth McCartney, USGS 63 22. US Geological Survey “Did you feel it?” first-person descriptions of how the earthquake Interaction type Public" Government affected them. However it is made clear on the form Trigger event Paucity of instrumental ground-motion that if the USGS uses this qualitative information data in regions of low seismicity. the user will only be referred to as “the observer”. Domain Collection of ground-motion seismic Contributors can watch the DYFI webpage for data from the public. the display of their report. Maps and graphics are Organization United States Geological Survey (USGS) generated automatically by the DYFI system and Community Internet Intensity Map made available to the public. (“Did you feel it?”, DYFI). The “Did you feel it?” form interface is easy to use. Actors USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. Ideally those reporting earthquake events in the Data sets - United States will know their ZIP code but citizens Process On feeling earthquake activity, users from outside the US can submit observations with log-on to the DYFI website and submit their coordinates in longitude and latitude. The form their observation. The intensity of is mostly comprised of drop-down lists asking for the earthquake they have just felt is quantified using the Modified Mercalli feedback on: your situation when the earthquake Intensity (MMI) scale. There is no occurred, your experience of the earthquake (shaking need for users to have experience in strength, duration, reaction), earthquake effects seismology. (sounds, damage to free standing objects, etc.), Feedback Maps and graphics are generated damage to buildings, etc. automatically by the DYFI system and made available to the public. There is DYFI’s appeal to users means the data makes up in no specific personalized feedback to the quantity what it may lack in scientific quality and contributor. offers the potential to resolve long-standing issues Goal To integrate the public into the seismic in earthquake ground-motion science. Such issues monitoring network and allow USGS to have been difficult to address due to the paucity continue to learn and understand more about earthquake activity. of instrumental ground-motion data in regions of low seismicity. Prior to this system, intensity Side effects The data collected from DYFI is made compatible with ShakeMap, a product of maps were rarely made for US earthquakes of a the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program magnitude of less than about 5.5; now intensities as in conjunction with regional seismic low as magnitude 2.0 are routinely reported for the network operators. smallest felt earthquakes nationwide. The intensity Contact point - of earthquakes reported by users is quantified using the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale. MMI measures the intensity of ground motions from the The USGS’s Community Internet Intensity Map perspective of human and structural response on (more commonly referred to as “Did you feel it?”) a qualitative scale from 1 (not felt) to 10 (very heavy is a website that automatically maps reports from damage) or sometimes 12 (total destruction), based citizens about their perception of recent seismic on descriptions such as “felt indoors” (MMI = 3) activity in their area. If a member of the public feels to “felt by all, windows, dishes, glassware broken, a tremor they can visit the DYFI website and report weak plaster cracked” (MMI = 6) to “some structures their location and their estimate of the intensity with complete collapse” (MMI = 9). The MMI of the tremors they have just felt. In combination allows anyone to report activity. There is no need for with a large network of sensors, which are placed the contributor to have experience in seismology. all over the world, these additional citizen reports This public reporting allows the USGS to continue allow USGS to develop a more detailed map of the to learn and understand more about earthquake intensity of an earthquake’s activity. Over 360,000 activity. In addition the USGS can then use this earthquake events have been submitted to DYFI and knowledge to inform emergency response planning are available to browse online on the archive section efforts and budgets for modeling disaster relief. of the website. There is an option for users to give 64 23. Places of Interest project, National Park Service, US There are some negative aspects to “Did you feel Interaction type Public" Government" Public it?”. Despite their significant value to emergency responders, the subjective observations of untrained Trigger event Licensing and data validation concerns. users are only a qualitative indicator of the effects of Domain Mapping of tourist infrastructure and an earthquake. Moreover, the effectiveness of DYFI- natural features. based maps may be greatly hampered by the speed Organization National Park Service (NPS), US. at which people report critical information during crises. Actors NPS. Data sets OSM. Main lessons Process Edits to NPS data are made by Park Service employees. There is no validation • Quality control can be achieved by securing a large in effect but this may change in future. response rate from contributors. Feedback Internal park data sets that have been • The requirement for non-technical jargon free digitized from park maps. locational data allows greater levels of public Goal To create an up-to-date map of all the participation. parks for viewing and use by the public on the parks’ websites. • Accessible and easy to understand input forms Side effects None yet, but data quality issues are which avoid using specialist terminology helps to anticipated. engage non-specialist users. Contact point Jim McAndrew, US National Park • VGI can be used to fill gaps in official data sets Service and supplement official government monitoring programs. The National Park Service does not have a comprehensive data set of geographic information describing tourist infrastructure and natural features for all of the 400 or so individual territories managed by NPS. Some parks have their own GIS departments and produce excellent data, while other parks are small and do not have these resources. The aim of the NPS Places of Interest project is to allow non-technical users to add and modify important landmarks in the parks in a single map. This map can then be used as a basemap for all NPS web maps. When users see the crowdsourced map in parks and notice errors, they will be able to make changes to the maps immediately. The NPS Places project uses the OSM platform because of the robust open source tools that are available. This includes the backend API and rendering formats as well as the easy-to-use iD editor. It does not use the OSM database itself. Due to licensing restrictions on OSM data, the NPS maintains its data separately. The project is designed to collect point data from NPS employees that will be displayed on most of the web maps on the NPS website. There are future plans to expand this project further to the public and 65 use Park employees to verify information before it is published on the map. 24. California Roadkill There is currently no easy way to extract information Observation System from the NPS Places project although its API is open (CROS), US and fully documented. It is possible for motivated users to extract the information they want from this Interaction type Public" Government API. Trigger event A university-based research project. The biggest success of this project is collecting Domain Development of a database of user- contributions from non-technical Park staff. This contributed observations of roadkill includes people with extensive knowledge about the incidents. parks, such as rangers and maintenance managers. Organization ICE (an environmental information These people know the parks better than anyone, brokerage and research laboratory in the but they have not been able to get their data into Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California, traditional GIS at parks without a dedicated GIS staff. Davis) and Caltrans (California Few non-technical users are involved yet but the Department of Transportation). project is planning to visit the parks and train users Actors ICE, Caltrans. so they know what they can add. Some parks with GIS departments have already started synchronizing Data sets GIS data sets such as Californian roads infrastructure. their own information with the system and have been making a big push to use the system for all of Process A user can contribute details of incidents their web pages. of roadkill in California (location, type of roadkill, photographs, etc). The biggest challenge is that OSM does not deal Contributions are uploaded on the CROS website then submitted to the CROS with traditional GIS very well. This means building database and displayed on the public web tools to synchronize ESRI databases with the NPS map interface. database using the ESRI REST API. NPS would Feedback The contributor of roadkill information like to make contributing to the system as easy as is provided with feedback to state that possible for the existing GIS departments that do the the contribution has been successfully bulk of the GIS work in the parks. While the goal is submitted to the CROS system. If contributors register on the website their to get non-technical people involved, the core of the name is placed beside any contribution project will still be the GIS departments the exist in they make. All contributions are made the parks and the regional offices. publicly available. The top 20 species observed and top 20 observers are listed on the website. Main lessons Goal To understand the ecology, wildlife • It is possible and sometimes desirable to use behavior and how transportation contributes to this problem. This the OSM toolset to facilitate voluntary mapping includes the application of GIS and activities without using the data set itself. statistical modeling to predict roadkill hotspots, to measure the contributing • The OSM platform can be used as a great platform factors to roadkill, to quantify impacts, for empowering non-technical users to start and to estimate benefits of different remedial actions. modifying maps. The iD editor is extremely easy to use and rendering tools, such as Tile Mill and Side effects Caltrans have used the data from CROS Mapnik, allow the data to be updated in real time. and the expertise at ICE to develop a guidance manual for effective strategies to address road/wildlife conflicts in • The success of the system relies on working with California. existing GIS managers on site and regional offices. Contact point - • Non-specialists are an important part of this process but require more training to get their contributions into the system. The California Roadkill Observation System can be used to record observations from reporters out in • Live feedback is an important feature to encourage the field who come across identifiable road-killed contributions. wildlife. This includes the type of animal and/ 66 25. Shelter Associates, slum mapping in India or species found, its location, when it was found, In urban areas of India the percentage of citizens how long it might have been dead, pictures of the who live in slums fluctuates from 10-50 percent, roadkill and any additional details about road or which means that a great number of people lack traffic conditions. CROS displays a summary of basic infrastructure and housing. Housing, health, this information for different wildlife groups across sanitation, education and livelihood are among the the state. Information about where wildlife vehicle main issues that NGO Shelter Associates tries to collisions occur, what animals are involved, on address in specific areas of India through a variety what kinds of roads and other data can help inform of projects intended to improve the living conditions policy, management and financial investment to of slum dwellers. Shelter Associates was established reduce roadkill. The mission is to provide a safer in 1993 by architects and planners and works in environment for wildlife in relation to California direct collaboration with the local government for motorways. the improvement of citizens’ lives. It has adopted a hybrid model of experts in various academic fields, The collectors of the roadkill data are a university- such as GIS analysts, sociologists, planners and based research organization. The CROS project architects, who work with the aid of local volunteers. includes past and current participation by over 900 The volunteers contribute to slum mapping by volunteer scientists, including several hundred maintaining up-to-date data for informal settlements academics as well as agency and NGO biologists and and supporting community participation in other natural historians. More than 25,000 observations projects carried out by Shelter Associates. have been logged on the website since August 2009. An Android application is available but the website According to Shelter Associates, the main issue that is the most stable and robust means of submitting local government faces is the lack of local knowledge contributions. about the spatial infrastructure of slums, which results in the exclusion of informal settlements from The observations are used in a geographic city planning and urban development. The local information system to find wildlife-vehicle collision people consider mapping as an opportunity to move hotspots. By contributing wildlife observation data, to other areas where schools are located or to save users help researchers understand where wildlife live money by adopting better transportation routes. and the threats they face from human activities. The research organization hope to use this data and their Shelter Associates pioneered the use of GIS for GIS analysis to inform transportation planning in poverty mapping in the late 1990s. However, in the state of California. Caltrans and ICE teamed up recent years, the need to connect the data collected to create a guidance manual for California. for the various projects, and stored in different layers alongside spatial information, became crucial. The team adopted Google Earth as a basemap for the Main lessons slum mapping and among other benefits, Google • Internet-based training materials can be provided Earth is easy to use, easy to understand because it to allow some contributors to undertake training includes aerial images and offers a clear picture of in scientific methods of surveying. development within the city. The spatial data was introduced into a variety of projects to support good • The user interface for contribution should be easy governance and decision making policies. to use and should include widgets such as pre- defined lists and clickable maps to decrease the opportunities for erroneous data submission. • Photographs submitted in addition to basic geographical data can provide very useful visual context information. 67 26. Crowdsourcing 27. Agricultural data collection satellite imagery in and sharing by Community Somalia Knowledge Workers, Uganda This is a humanitarian project to geo-locate all The digital divide is an urgent social and technical shelters in Somalia’s Afgooye corridor with the aid of issue in Uganda, especially for small farmers satellite imagery provided by the Standby Volunteer who have low literacy rates and limited access to Task Force. UNHCR, DigitalGlobe, Tomnod, SBTF the power grid to support the use of technical and Ushahidi are the main organizational bodies equipment. The lack of technology savvy people also cooperating so that crowdsourcing can take place results in the exclusion of local people from data with the aid of volunteers. The aim of the project collection, which could help them to reach informed behind this collaboration is to map all shelters by decisions and improve their farming efficiency and dividing them into three main categories: large consequently their everyday lives. permanent structures, temporary structures with a metal roof and temporary shelters without a metal Community Knowledge Workers (CKW) is an roof. The rule set describes the shape, color, tone initiative of the Grameen Foundation that aims to and clustering of the different shelter types. The train locals in the use of technology, overcoming project was divided into two phases: a trial and an power infrastructure issues, for data collection official launch where specific instructions were and sharing to enable their communities to make given to participants. The goal of the project is to informed decisions based on actionable and up-to- test the feasibility of crowdsourcing rapid shelter date farming knowledge. enumerations of internally displaced persons to After registering, participants of the CKW network support population estimates. The process cannot be can use mobile phones to collect a range of replaced by an automated system because this could information regarding livestock and farming. The not identify the type of shelter. mobile phones can be recharged by solar power or The satellite imagery methodology was adopted manually (e.g. using bicycles). As most areas are because access to the area of interest is limited. not covered by the mobile network, data collection The main question was how many people are in takes place offline simply using the GPS sensor the shelters and need humanitarian aid in order of the device and properly designed forms. Once to inform decision making around logistics and the phones are inside a wireless or mobile network planning policies. During the project, 253,711 tags area, the data is uploaded to a central server and were created and more than 9400 shelters visually becomes available to other farmers or stakeholders. identified after processing 3909 satellite images. The information shared is helping farmers and policy makers to evaluate the needs of farmers, assess potential disease outbreaks, provide market price updates, receive weather forecasts and even provide income to the farmers as the surveyed data is used by agricultural organizations. All the data have feedbacks to the farmers in terms of improved policies and prompt government action. Thus, CKW has established an efficient grassroots network of data and services that has fundamentally changed agricultural knowledge sharing in Uganda. 68 28. Twitter use in Italian 29. Portland TriMet, municipalities transportation planner, Research investigating the Twitter profiles of Italian Oregon, US municipalities identified that, at the time of the TriMet is a public agency that provides bus, light rail survey (November 2013), only 461 of more than and commuter rail transit services in the Portland, 8000 Italian municipalities had Twitter profiles, Oregon, metropolitan area. In an effort to keep the approximately 6 percent. After a few months, this services provided to the public at the highest possible increased to about 25 percent while six months level, TriMet is incorporating a range of services such before, only 368 municipalities had a Twitter as multimodal trip planning and service change account. The geography of municipal Twitter profiles analysis. TriMet needs a new generation of data that in Italy seems to reflect the urban structure of the traditional proprietary data sets cannot provide. To country, which is mostly made up of many small and solve this problem, TriMet turned to the use of OSM. medium sized cities. At the time of the survey, only 1 As well as traditional road network data sets, OSM percent of the 461 profiles had been activated by large also provides data about pedestrian paths and bicycle municipalities, 4 percent by medium municipalities, routes that can enable TriMet to provide multimodal 44 percent by small to medium municipalities, while services to the citizens of Portland. Moreover, 51 percent had been activated by municipalities with proprietary routing data sets are costly and do not less than 10,000 inhabitants. come with near real-time updates. This demonstrates that reduced population size is In this context, OSM data sets are now used by all not a barrier to the spread of social applications but internal systems and applications that need routing may in fact be an advantage or a driver. The first and data. Also, TriMet officials have realized the value of most active (in terms of tweets sent and followers) OSM data and have committed to contribute to OSM municipalities on Twitter are those which started with a full-time employee. Moreover, city officials with the activation of “civic networks” (municipality realized that by releasing governmental data to the websites) in the late 1990s, showing the relationship public, the OSM community will contribute to data between the adoption of these kinds of technologies. improvement and will enable TriMet to provide The survey analyzed the types of messages sent, better services to the public. since the activity profiles must be assessed not only in relation to the amount of tweets and followers but also with respect to the quality and type of information sent. The latter relate to different fields, which include simple messages for informational purposes up to more complex messages addressing planning and territorial management. The research team classified the hashtags used by most municipal profiles into several categories and the most widely represented information related to culture and tourism, followed by geographical information, utilities and weather forecasts. Messages about governance are still quite limited except in some cases, demonstrating that the potential of Twitter as a collector and distributor of information on complex issues around which to initiate debates and discussions has not been realized. Only a few municipalities have used Twitter for emergency and risk management, such as Castelnuovo Garfagnana (earthquake) and some municipalities in Sardinia (flooding). Nevertheless it is worth noting that the news about L’Aquila’s severe earthquake of 2009 was first announced through Twitter before other media. 69 References and sources Aronoff, S. 1989. Geographic Information Systems: a Brown, M. and Heaton, L. 2011. New Country in the management perspective. WDL Publications: Ontario. Making: Building a Map for South Sudan [online] Available at: [http://www.enoughproject.org/blogs/new-country- Atkinson, G. M. and Wald, D. J. 2007. “Did You Feel It?” making-building-map-south-sudan] [Accessed 28 April intensity data: A surprisingly good measure of earthquake 2014]. ground motion. Seismological Research Letters, 78, 362-368. Castellote, J., Huerta, J., Pescador, J. and Brown, M. Ball, M. 2013. New York City Opens More of City’s Data, 2013.Towns Conquer: A Gamified Application to Collect Including OpenStreetMap Collaboration [online] Available at: Geographical Names (vernacular names/toponyms). [http://informedinfrastructure.com/6088/new-york-city- Proceedings of AGILE 2013 in Leuven, Belgium. Available open-more-of- the-citys-data-including-openstreetmap- at: [http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2131/] [Accessed 16 collaboration/] [Accessed 22 December 2013]. April 2014]. Barron, C., Neis, P. and Zipf, A. 2014.A comprehensive Chapman, K., Wibowo, A. and Nurwadjedi, 2013. Filling framework for intrinsic OpenStreetMap quality analysis. the Data Gap with Participatory Mapping for Effective Transactions in GIS, doi:10.1111/tgis.12073. Disaster Preparedness [online] Available at: [http://www. jointokyo.org/files/cms/news/pdf/(Final)_Session_2_ Barth, A. 2013. New York City and OpenStreetMap Summary.pdf] [Accessed 10 December 2013]. Collaborating Through Open Data [online] Available at: [https://www.mapbox.com/blog/nyc-and-openstreetmap- Deffner, R. 2013. Mongolia, mapping Ulaanbaatar [Online] cooperating-through- open-data/] [Accessed 22 December Available at: [http://hot.openstreetmap.org/projects/ 2013]. mongolia_mapping_ulaanbaatar] [Accessed 12 April 2014]. Beaulieu, A., Begin, D. and Genest, D. 2010. Community Mapping and Government Mapping: Potential EIONET. 2012. Corine Land Cover 2006 [online] Available Collaboration? Symposium of ISPRS Commission I, Calgary, at: [http://sia.eionet.europa.eu/CLC2006] [Accessed 18 Canada, June 16-18, 3. December 2013]. Begin, D. 2012. Towards Integrating VGI and National Fowler, A., Whyatt, J.D., Davies, G. and Ellis, R. 2013. How Mapping Agency Operations - A Canadian Case Study. The Reliable Are Citizen-Derived Scientific Data? Assessing Seventh International Conference on Geographic Information the Quality of Contrail Observations Made by the General Science. Available at: [http://web.ornl.gov/sci/gist/ Public. Transactions in GIS, 17 (4), 488–506, doi:10.1111/ workshops/2012/documents/Begin,%20Daniel%20-%20 tgis.12034. Paper.pdf] [Accessed 15 February 2014]. GFDRR. 2013. Preparing Communities through Berdou, E. 2011. Mediating Voices and Communicating Understanding Risk [online] Available at: [http://www. Realities. Using information crowdsourcing tools, open data gfdrr.org/sites/gfdrr.org/files/Pillar_1_Preparing_ initiatives and digital media to support and protect the Communities_through_Understanding_Risk_0.pdf] vulnerable and marginalised [online] Available at: [http:// [Accessed 10 December 2013]. mapkibera.org/wiki/images/7/78/IDS_MediatingVoices_ FinalReport.pdf] [Accessed 16 April 2014]. Gollan, J., Lobry de Bruyn, L., Reid, N. and Wilkie, L. 2012. Can Volunteers Collect Data That Are Comparable Brabham, D. 2013. Using Crowdsourcing in Government. to Professional Scientists? A Study of Variables Used in Collaboration Across Boundaries. IBM Center for The Monitoring the Outcomes of Ecosystem Rehabilitation. Business of Government: Washington, DC. Available at: Environmental Management, 50 (5), 969–78, doi:10.1007/ [http://www.businessofgovernment.org/report/using- s00267-012-9924-4. crowdsourcing-government] [Accessed 16 April 2014 ]. Goodchild, M.F. 2007. Citizens as sensors: the world of Brain Off. 2010. Haiti OpenStreetMap Response [online] volunteered geography. GeoJournal, 69 (4), 211-221. Available at: [http://brainoff.com/weblog/2010/01/14/1518] [Accessed 8 December 2013]. 70 Hagen, E. 2010. Putting Nairobi’s Slums on the Map. Final Lamy, F. 2011a. South Sudan is now official on Google Maps Report [online] Available at: [https://openknowledge. [online] Available at: [http://blog.google.org/2011/09/ worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/6072/ south-sudan-is-now-official-on-google.html] [Accessed 25 deor_12_1_41.pdf?sequence=1] [Accessed 18 April 2014]. April 2014]. Hagen, E. 2012. Workspaces: The changing environment of Lamy, F. 2011b. South Sudanese sing and map their way to infomediaries/Map Kibera [online] Available at: [http://wiki. independence [online] Available at: [http://google-africa. ikmemergent.net/index.php/Workspaces:The_changing_ blogspot.gr/2011/07/south-sudanese-sing-and-map-their- environment_of_infomediaries/Map_Kibera] [Accessed 19 way.html] [Accessed 27 April 2014]. April 2014]. Lamy, F. 2011c. Using the power of mapping to support South Haklay, M. 2010. Usability of VGI in Haiti earthquake Sudan [online] Available at: [http://googleblog.blogspot. response [online] Available at: [http://www.slideshare.net/ gr/2011/05/using-power-of-mapping-to-support-south. mukih/usability-of-vgi-in-haiti-earthquake-response- html] [Accessed 26 April 2014]. preliminary-thoughts] [Accessed 8 December 2013]. Longley, P. A., Goodchild, M. F., Maguire, D. J., and Heymann, Y., Steenmans, Ch., Croissille, G. and Rhind, D. W. 2001. Geographic information system and Bossard. M., 1994. Corine Land Cover. Technical Guide. Science. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Map Kibera. 2014. [online] Available at: [http://mapkibera. org/] [Accessed 15 April 2014]. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. 2013. Haiti [online] Available at: [http://hot.openstreetmap.org/projects/haiti- Maron, M., 2007. OpenStreetMap. A disaster waiting to 2] [Accessed 8 December 2013]. happen [online] Available at: [http://www.slideshare. net/mikel_maron/openstreetmap-a-disaster-waiting-to- Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. 2013. Indonesia. happen] [Accessed 8 December 2013]. [online] Available at: [http://hot.openstreetmap.org/ projects/indonesia-0] [Accessed 15 December 2013]. Marras, S. 2012. Kibera, Mapping the Unmapped. [online] Available at: [http://www. djemme. com/docs/docsschede/ Huxhold, W. An Introduction to Urban GIS. Oxford and KiberaEN. Pdf] [Accessed 17 April 2014]. New York: Oxford University Press. McLaren, R. A., 2011. Crowdsourcing Support of Land iRevolution. 2011. Crowdsourcing Satellite Imagery Analysis Administration. A New Collaborative Partnership between for Somalia: Results of Trial Run [online] Available at: Citizens and Land Professionals. London: Royal Institute of [http://irevolution.net/2011/11/01/crowdsourcing-unhcr- Chartered Surveyors (RICS). somalia/] [Accessed 25 May 2014]. Meyer, R. 2013. How Online Mapmakers Are Helping the iRevolution. 2011. Crowdsourcing Satellite Imagery Analysis Red Cross Save Lives in the Philippines [online] Available at: for UNHCR-Somalia: Latest Results [online] Available at: [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/ [http://irevolution.net/2011/11/09/crowdsourcing-unhcr- how-online- mapmakers-are-helping-the-red-cross-save- somalia-latest-results/] [Accessed 25 May 2014]. lives-in-the-philippines/281366/] [Accessed 22 December 2013]. IT News Africa. 2011. Google maps out Southern Sudan [Online] Available at: [http://www.itnewsafrica. The National Map. 2014. Home [online] Available at: com/2011/07/google-maps-out-south-sudan/] [Accessed 25 [http://nationalmap.gov/] [Accessed 27 April 2014]. April 2014]. The National Map, US Topo. 2014. US Topo Quadrangles King, S.F. and Brown, P. 2007. Fix my street or else: — Maps for America [online] Available at: [http:// using the Internet to voice local public service concerns. nationalmap.gov/ustopo] [Accessed 27 April 2014]. Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Theory and practice of electronic governance. ICEGOV, 72–80. 71 OpenSource.com. 2010. OpenStreetMap Haiti [online] Shelter Associates. 2014. GIS and Remote Sensing [online]. Available at: [http://opensource.com/osm] [Accessed 8 Available at [http://shelter-associates.org/gis-remote- December 2013]. sensing] [Accessed 9 June 2014]. OpenStreetMap. 2014. WikiProject Mongolia [online] South Sudan Mapping. 2014. [online] Available at: [https:// Available at: [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ sites.google.com/site/mapsudan/] [Accessed 27 April WikiProject_Mongolia] [Accessed 6 June 2014]. 2014]. OpenStreetMap. 2013. WikiProject Indonesia [online] Thörnelöf, E. 2013. EPA Network Workshop – Citizen Available at: [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ Science 12 -13 March 2013 - Increasing involvement of the WikiProject_Indonesia] [Accessed 16 December 2013]. public in large-scale monitoring of large carnivores across Scandinavia. Sweden, EPA. Available at: [http://epanet. OpenStreetMap. 2012. WikiProject Corine Land Cover ew.eea.europa.eu/ad-hoc-meetings/epa-network-workshop- [online] Available at: [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ citizen-science-12-13-march-2013/eva-thornelof_-sepa- WikiProject_Corine_Land_Cover] [Accessed 18 December sweden.pdf] [Accessed 1 June 2014]. 2013]. Tomlinson, R. 2007. Thinking about GIS: Geographic OpenStreetMap Indonesia. 2014. Home [online] Available information system planning for managers. Redlands, CA: at: [http://en.openstreetmap.or.id/] [Accessed 4 January, ESRI Press. 2014]. Touya, G. and Brando-Escobar, C. 2013. Detecting Level- OpenStreetMap Indonesia. 2012. Community Mapping of-Detail Inconsistencies in Volunteered Geographic for Exposure in Indonesia. Project Report [online] Available Information Data Sets. Cartographica, 48 (2), 134–143. at: [http://www.openstreetmap.or.id/docs/Community_ Mapping_for_Exposure_in_Indonesia_EN.pdf] [Accessed United States Department of Agriculture, Farm 7 December 2013]. Service Agency. 2014. Naip Imagery [online] Available at: [https://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/ OpenStreetMap Indonesia. 2012. Evaluation of apfoapp?area=home&subject=prog&topic=nai] [Accessed 1 OpenStreetMap Data in Indonesia. Final Report [online] June 2014]. Available at: [http://openstreetmap.or.id/docs/Final_ Report-OSM_Evaluation_in_Indonesia_2012.pdf] U.S. Geological Survey. 2014. Home [online] Available at: [Accessed 10 December 2013]. [http://navigator.er.usgs.gov/] [Accessed 1 June 2014]. Roberts, S. 2014. Open Cities and Crisis Mapping [online] Waters, T. 2010. The OpenStreetMap project and Haiti Available at: [http://blog.usaid.gov/2014 /01/opencities- Earthquake Case study [online] Available at: [http://www. and-crisis-mapping/] [Accessed 8 December 2013]. slideshare.net/chippy/openstreetmap-case-study-haiti- crisis-response] [Accessed 8 December 2013]. Roberts, S. 2011. UNHCR and Crowdsourcing, A partnership with the Stand By Task Force [online] Available Zoljargal, M. 2013. Ulaanbaatar to become a ‘smart at: [http://swfound.org/media/54239/s2-02%20roberts. city’ [online] Available at: [http://ubpost.mongolnews. pdf] [Accessed 1 June 2014]. mn/?p=3238] [Accessed 12 April 2014]. Shelter Associates. 2014 [online] Research and Poverty Mapping (city slum profiles). Available at [http://shelter- associates.org/mapping-research/] [Accessed 9 June 2014]. Shelter Associates. 2014 [online] Home Page. Available at [http://shelter-associates.org/] [Accessed 9 June 2014]. 72 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 www.worldbank.org 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 www.gfdrr.org University College London OpenStreetMap for Kathmandu Gower Street photo: ©OpenStreetMap contributors London WC1E 6BT Tiles courtesy of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team www.ucl.ac.uk 73