Nature Reviews Methods Primers paper on citizen science

At the end of September 2021, I received an email from Nature Reviews Methods Primers (NRMP) with an invitation to lead a paper on citizen science. NRMP is a journal that commissions methodological papers on different topics, so they can be used by early career and experienced researchers, to learn about a new methodology and … Continue reading Nature Reviews Methods Primers paper on citizen science

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New Paper: A Thematic Similarity Network Approach for Analysis of Places Using VGI

Building upon our work on volunteered geographical information (VGI) and ambient geographic information (AGI) and how such data (e.g. social media) can be used to understand place, Xiaoyi Yuan, Andreas Züfle and myself have a new paper entitled: “A Th…

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New Paper: A Thematic Similarity Network Approach for Analysis of Places Using VGI

Building upon our work on volunteered geographical information (VGI) and ambient geographic information (AGI) and how such data (e.g. social media) can be used to understand place, Xiaoyi Yuan, Andreas Züfle and myself have a new paper entitled: “A Th…

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Papers from PPGIS 2017 meeting: state of the art and examples from Poland and the Czech Republic

About a year ago, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, hosted the PPGIS 2017 workshop (here are my notes from the first day and the second day). Today, four papers from the workshop were published in the journal Quaestiones Geographicae which was established in 1974 as an annual journal of the Faculty of Geographical and Geological … Continue reading Papers from PPGIS 2017 meeting: state of the art and examples from Poland and the Czech Republic

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European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) 2018 Conference – day 2: Beyond the deficit model, inclusiveness, libraries, and

The second and last day of the conference (day 1 is covered here) started early, with a keynote: “Science society continuum: From ‘deficit model’ to social demand on research – the reform of science in progress” Lionel Larqué, FR – [physicist and head the collaboration of education, civil society organisations, and science. Influenced partnerships between science … Continue reading European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) 2018 Conference – day 2: Beyond the deficit model, inclusiveness, libraries, and

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European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) 2018 conference – day 1: keynotes, education, and national & international programmes

Notes from the European Citizen Science Association Conference in Geneva, 4-5 June. Welcome to the conference! Katrin Vohland, ECSA Vice Chair, (DE) – conferences started from volunteering by Science et Cité two years ago. ECSA has been growing through participation in projects, and this allows ECSA to do things such as the conference and other … Continue reading European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) 2018 conference – day 1: keynotes, education, and national & international programmes

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Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government

A few weeks ago, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), published an update for the report from 2014 on the use of crowdsourced geographic information in government. The 2014 report was very successful – it has been downloaded almost 1,800 times from 41 countries around the world in about 3 years (with more … Continue reading Identifying success factors in crowdsourced geographic information use in government

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Geothink & Learn citizen science session

The following recording is from the Geothink & Learn lunchtime webinar. The call for the event stated: “Should it be only people with graduate degree who make extraordinary scientific discoveries? Maybe not. Citizen scientists around the world have contributed to new discoveries in fields such as astronomy, biology, meteorology, geography, public health, and more. It … Continue reading Geothink & Learn citizen science session

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Participatory soundscape sensing – joint paper with Dr Chunming Li

One of the lovely aspects of scientific research is its international dimension – the opportunity to collaborate with people from different places, cultures, and necessarily practices and points of view. During 2017, Dr Chnming Li, of the Institute of Urban Environment of the Chinese Academy of Science, was a visiting researcher in ExCiteS. Dr Li … Continue reading Participatory soundscape sensing – joint paper with Dr Chunming Li

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Citizen Science & Scientific Crowdsourcing – week 2 – Google Local Guides

The first week of the “Introduction to Citizen Science and Scientific Crowdsourcing” course was dedicated to an introduction to the field of citizen science using the history, examples and typologies to demonstrate the breadth of the field. The second week was dedicated to the second half of the course name – crowdsourcing in general, and its … Continue reading Citizen Science & Scientific Crowdsourcing – week 2 – Google Local Guides

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PhD studentship in collaboration with the Ordnance Survey – identifying systematic biases in crowdsourced geographic information

Deadline 28th July 2017 UCL Department of Geography and the Ordnance Survey are inviting applications for a PhD studentship to explore the internal systematic biases in crowd-sourced geographic information datasets (also known as Volunteered Geographic Information – VGI). The studentship provides an exciting opportunity for a student to work with Ordnance Survey on understanding the … Continue reading PhD studentship in collaboration with the Ordnance Survey – identifying systematic biases in crowdsourced geographic information

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Citizen Science 2017 – workshops day and opening panel

The Citizen Science Association conference is held at the River Center in St Paul, Minnesota on 17th to 20th May. This post and the following ones are notes that were taken during the meeting in the sessions that I’ve attended. Wednesday was dedicated to workshops, and I joined the Citizen Science at College level workshop. Organised by Thomas … Continue reading Citizen Science 2017 – workshops day and opening panel

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The Potential of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Future Transport Systems

An aspect of collaborative projects is that they start slowly, and as they become effective and productive, they reached their end! The COST Energic (European Network for Research into Geographic Information Crowdsourcing) led to many useful activities, with some of them leading to academic papers. From COST Energic, we’ve got the European Handbook on Crowdsourced Geographic … Continue reading The Potential of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Future Transport Systems

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The study of slums as social and physical constructs: challenges and emerging research opportunities

Conceptual model for integrating social
and physical constructs to monitor,
analyze and model slums.

Continuing our research on slums, we have just had a paper published in the journal Regional Studies, Regional Science entitled “The Study of Slums as Social and Physical Constructs: Challenges and Emerging Research Opportunities“. In this open access publication we review past lines of research with respect to studying slums which often focus on one of three constructs: (1) exploring the socio-economic and policy issues; (2) exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, (3) those modelling slums. We argue that while such lines of inquiry have proved invaluable with respect to studying slums, there is a need for  a  more  holistic  approach  for  studying  slums  to truly understand  them at the local, national and regional scales. Below you can read the abstract of our paper:

“Over 1 billion people currently live in slums, with the number of slum dwellers only expected to grow in the coming decades. The vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres in the less economically developed countries, which are also experiencing greater rates of urbanization compared with more developed countries. This rapid rate of urbanization is cause for significant concern given that many of these countries often lack the ability to provide the infrastructure (e.g., roads and affordable housing) and basic services (e.g., water and sanitation) to provide adequately for the increasing influx of people into cities. While research on slums has been ongoing, such work has mainly focused on one of three constructs: exploring the socio-economic and policy issues; exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, those modelling slums. This paper reviews these lines of research and argues that while each is valuable, there is a need for a more holistic approach for studying slums to truly understand them. By synthesizing the social and physical constructs, this paper provides a more holistic synthesis of the problem, which can potentially lead to a deeper understanding and, consequently, better approaches for tackling the challenge of slums at the local, national and regional scales.”

Keywords: Slums; informal settlements; socio-economic; remote sensing; crowdsourced information; modelling.

Framework for studying and understanding slums.

We hope you enjoy this paper and we wound be interested in receiving any feedback.
Full Reference:

Mahabir, R., Crooks, A.T., Croitoru, A. and Agouris, P. (2016), “The Study of Slums as Social and Physical Constructs: Challenges and Emerging Research Opportunities”, Regional Studies, Regional Science, 3(1): 737-757. (pdf)

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The study of slums as social and physical constructs: challenges and emerging research opportunities

Conceptual model for integrating social
and physical constructs to monitor,
analyze and model slums.

Continuing our research on slums, we have just had a paper published in the journal Regional Studies, Regional Science entitled “The Study of Slums as Social and Physical Constructs: Challenges and Emerging Research Opportunities“. In this open access publication we review past lines of research with respect to studying slums which often focus on one of three constructs: (1) exploring the socio-economic and policy issues; (2) exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, (3) those modelling slums. We argue that while such lines of inquiry have proved invaluable with respect to studying slums, there is a need for  a  more  holistic  approach  for  studying  slums  to truly understand  them at the local, national and regional scales. Below you can read the abstract of our paper:

“Over 1 billion people currently live in slums, with the number of slum dwellers only expected to grow in the coming decades. The vast majority of slums are located in and around urban centres in the less economically developed countries, which are also experiencing greater rates of urbanization compared with more developed countries. This rapid rate of urbanization is cause for significant concern given that many of these countries often lack the ability to provide the infrastructure (e.g., roads and affordable housing) and basic services (e.g., water and sanitation) to provide adequately for the increasing influx of people into cities. While research on slums has been ongoing, such work has mainly focused on one of three constructs: exploring the socio-economic and policy issues; exploring the physical characteristics; and, lastly, those modelling slums. This paper reviews these lines of research and argues that while each is valuable, there is a need for a more holistic approach for studying slums to truly understand them. By synthesizing the social and physical constructs, this paper provides a more holistic synthesis of the problem, which can potentially lead to a deeper understanding and, consequently, better approaches for tackling the challenge of slums at the local, national and regional scales.”

Keywords: Slums; informal settlements; socio-economic; remote sensing; crowdsourced information; modelling.

Framework for studying and understanding slums.

We hope you enjoy this paper and we wound be interested in receiving any feedback.
Full Reference:

Mahabir, R., Crooks, A.T., Croitoru, A. and Agouris, P. (2016), “The Study of Slums as Social and Physical Constructs: Challenges and Emerging Research Opportunities”, Regional Studies, Regional Science, 3(1): 737-757. (pdf)

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Published: Why is Participation Inequality Important?

I’ve mentioned the European Handbook for Crowdsourced Geographic Information in the last post, and explained how it came about. My contribution to the book is a chapter titled ‘Why is Participation Inequality Important?‘. The issue of participation inequality, also known as the 90:9:1 rule, or skewed contribution, has captured my interest for a while now. … Continue reading Published: Why is Participation Inequality Important?

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New book: European Handbook of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

COST ENERGIC is a network of researchers across Europe (and beyond) that are interested in research crowdsourced geographic information, also known as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). The acronym stands for ‘Co-Operation in Science & Technology’ (COST) through ‘European Network Researching Geographic Information Crowdsourcing’ (ENREGIC). I have written about this programme before, through events such as twitter … Continue reading New book: European Handbook of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

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A Semester with Urban Analytics

This past semester I gave a new class at GMU entitled “Urban Analytics”. In a nutshell the class was about introducing students to a broad interdisciplinary field that focuses on the use of data to study cities. More specifcally the emphasis of the cla…

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A Semester with Urban Analytics

This past semester I gave a new class at GMU entitled “Urban Analytics”. In a nutshell the class was about introducing students to a broad interdisciplinary field that focuses on the use of data to study cities. More specifcally the emphasis of the cla…

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Esri survey123 tool – rapid prototyping geographical citizen science tool

There are several applications that allow creating forms rapidly – such as Open Data Kit (ODK) or EpiCollect. Now, there is another offering from Esri, in the form of Survey123 app – which is explained in the video below. Survey123 is integrated into ArcGIS Online, so you need an ArcGIS account to use it (you … Continue reading Esri survey123 tool – rapid prototyping geographical citizen science tool

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Citizen Science and Policy – possible frameworks

Back in February, my report ‘Citizen Science & Policy: a European Perspective‘ was published by the Wilson Centre in the US. As I was trying to make sense of the relevance of citizen science to policy making, I used a framework that included the level of geography, area of policy making and the type of … Continue reading Citizen Science and Policy – possible frameworks

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Spatial Conversation – #VGIday #COSTEnergic

The COST Energic network (see VGIBox.eu ) is running a 2 day geolocated twitter chat, titled ‘Volunteered Geographic Information Day’ so the hashtag is #VGIDay. The conversation will take place on 14th and 15th May 2015, and we are universalists – join from anywhere in the world! Joining is easy – and require 3 steps: Follow the … Continue reading Spatial Conversation – #VGIday #COSTEnergic

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OpenStreetMap in GIScience – Experiences, Research, and Applications

A new book out about OpenStreetMap and Geographic Information Science. The book, which was edited by Jamal Jokar Arsanjani, Alexander Zipf, Peter Mooney, Marco Helbich  is “OpenStreetMap in GISciene : Experiences, Research, and applications” contains 16 chapters on different aspects of OpenStreetMap in GIScience including 1) Data Management and Quality, 2) Social Context, 3) Network Modeling and … Continue reading OpenStreetMap in GIScience – Experiences, Research, and Applications

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Geoweb, crowdsourcing, liability and moral responsibility

Yesterday, Tenille Brown led a Twitter discussion as part of the Geothink consortium. Tenille opened with a question about liability and wrongful acts that can harm others First off we can look at the definition of “torts”- a tort refers to a wrongful act which results in injury to another person, etc #geothink — Tenille E. […]

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Crowdsourcing Urban Form and Function

We have just had published a new paper entitled: “Crowdsourcing Urban Form and Function” in International Journal of Geographical Information Science which showcases some of our recent work with respect to cities and how new sources of information can be used to study urban morphology at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Below is the abstract for the paper: 

“Urban form and function have been studied extensively in urban planning and geographic information science. However, gaining a greater understanding of how they merge to define the urban morphology remains a substantial scientific challenge. Towards this goal, this paper addresses the opportunities presented by the emergence of crowdsourced data to gain novel insights into form and function in urban spaces. We are focusing in particular on information harvested from social media and other open-source and volunteered datasets (e.g. trajectory and OpenStreetMap data). These data provide a first-hand account of form and function from the people who define urban space through their activities. This novel bottom-up approach to study these concepts complements traditional urban studies work to provide a new lens for studying urban activity. By synthesizing recent advancements in the analysis of open-source data we provide a new typology for characterizing the role of crowdsourcing in the study of urban morphology. We illustrate this new perspective by showing how social media, trajectory, and traffic data can be analyzed to capture the evolving nature of a city’s form and function. While these crowd contributions may be explicit or implicit in nature, they are giving rise to an emerging research agenda for monitoring, analyzing and modeling form and function for urban design and analysis.”

This paper builds and extends considerably our prior work, with respect to crowdsourcing, volunteered and ambient geographic information. In the scope of this paper we use the term ‘urban form’ to refer to the aggregate of the physical shape of the city, its buildings, streets, and all other elements that make up the urban space. In essence, the geometry of the city. In contrast, we use the term ‘urban function’ to refer to the activities that are taking place within this space. To this end we contrast how crowdsourced data can related to more traditional sources of such information both explicitly and implicitly as shown in the table below. 

A typology of implicit and explicit form and function content

In addition, we also discuss in the paper how these new sources of data, which are often at finer resolutions than more authoritative data are allowing us to to customize the we we aggregate the data  at various geographical levels as shown below. Such aggregations can range from building footprints and addresses to street blocks (e.g. for density analysis), or street networks (e.g. for accessibility analysis). For large-scale urban analysis we can revert to the use of zonal geographies or grid systems.  
Aggregation methods for varied scales of built environment analysis

In the application section of the paper we highlight how we can extract implicit form and function from crowdsourced data. The image below for example, shows how we can take information from Twitter, and differentiate different neighborhoods over space and time.

Neighborhood map and topic modeling results showing the mixture of social functions in each area.
Finally in the paper, we outline an emerging research agenda related to the “persistent urban morphology concept” as shown below. Specifically how crowdsourcing is changing how we collect, analyze and model urban morphology. Moreover, how this new paradigm provides a new lens for studying the conceptualization of how cities operate, at much finer temporal, spatial, and social scales than we had been able to study so far.

The persistent urban morphology concept.

We hope you enjoy the paper.

Full Reference:  

Crooks, A.T., Pfoser, D., Jenkins, A., Croitoru, A., Stefanidis, A., Smith, D. A., Karagiorgou, S., Efentakis, A. and Lamprianidis, G. (2015), Crowdsourcing Urban Form and Function, International Journal of Geographical Information Science. DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2014.977905 (pdf)

 

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