Bird's eye photovoice
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles as a means of data collection for participatory action research
Britta Ricker
Assistant Professor
Urban Studies
Outline
- GIScience, the Geoweb and Spatial Media, Participatory Action Research
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) as a Tool for Data Collection
- Steps and Methods for utilizing UAVs for Participatory Mapping and Photovoice
- Social Implications
- Conclusions and future work
Geographic Information Science
Geographic Information Systems
Knowledge Politics
Political Power
"...knowledge politics to be shaped by deeply institutionalized tendencies in planning and policy making to grant greater weight to knowledge expressed as quantitative data or represented in cartographic forms."
Data Driven Decision Making
(Elwood & Leszczynski, 2012: 545)
"From expert to everyday"
Geoweb
-
interconnected tools and spatial data available on the web spanning multiple geographic regions
-
Revolutionized spatial data (Sui, 2008)
-
but not democratizing it (Haklay, 2013)
-
Provides access to satellite and aerial imagery! (Goodchild, 2007; Harvey, 2014; Kingsbury & Jones, 2009)
-
Opportunity to contribute Volunteered Geographic Information (Goodchild, 2007)
Spatial Media
Elwood & Leszczynski (2012) New spatial media, new knowledge politics. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (38): 544-559.
"Mediums or channels that extend our ability to interact with and create geographic information online" p 544
Maps --> Media
Applied
Quantitative
Theory
Qualitative
"moment of translation
transforming experiential, testimonial and qualitative forms of knowledge into quantitative aggregated or abstracted forms" (Elwood & Leszczynski , 2012: 548)
Geoweb
Spatial Media
Maintain a keen awareness as to not reproduce inequalities. Active engagement in effort to use these technologies to combat inequalities (Elwood, 2015)
{
}
means to illuminate social and environmental injustices
co-construction of knowledge
promotion of self and critical awareness that leads to individual, collective social change
Participatory Action Research
Tell me, I forget.
Show me, I remember.
Involve me, I understand.
-Chinese Proverb (Paulos et al., 2009)
Photovoice
Purpose
Method by which participants identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique
- Identify community assets and deficits
- Use photography to draw attention to a social issue
- Induce change by informing policy makers
Participatory Mapping
Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS)
Many Voices
Many forms
Medium influences who will participate
(Chambers 2006)
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
Negative connotation
Militarization
Surveillance
(Sandvik & Lohne, 2014)
Drones for good
- Archaeology
- Forestry
- Emergency response
- Search and Rescue
- Natural resource management
- (Precision)Agriculture
- Construction
- Remote Sensing
- (Colomina & Molina, 2014; Everaerts, 2008, Forance et al., 2014; Upton et al., 2015; Zhang & Kovacs, 2012; Rokhmana, 2015).
Organized #DronesforGood
- Digital Humanitarianism
- UAViators
- DIYDrones
- OpenDroneMap
- DroneAdventures
- Conservation Drones
- Drone Code
Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University created this 3D model from aerial imagery captured by UAV.
Spatial Media: Aerial Photovoice Cinemtography
Aerial Photovoice
- evokes emotion
- representations of place
- What if we used it for something more important?
Aerial Photography
Harmful Algal Blooms
Twin Lakes Home Owners Assiciation, Federal Way
Lake Loreen
Lake Jean
Lake Loreen
Lake Loreen
Digital Maps! Use of UAV could offer control of temporal and spatial resolution of base maps.
Putting a UAV in the hands of a community, could they monitor...
- Community changes through the course of a day, season, year...
- Acute changes - landslide event, urban encroachment
- Gradual changes - land use change, urban growth
- Ecosystem services
- Access to water resources, refugee camp movement
- Habitat loss...
- ?????
Steps
- Drone Selection Process
- Flight Practice and Planning
- Flying
- Data Processing
Drone Selection
(Eisenbeiss, 2011: 34)
Classified by takeoff and landing methods
DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus
- 25 minute flight time
- Return home when battery is low
- Compass and GPS
- 14 mega pixel camera and Gimble
- ~$1200
Process
Flight Practice and Planning
Flying
Auto Pilot
Free Flight
Image Processing
Photography and Cinematography
Mapping
Image Processing
MapKnitter, Google Maps, MapBox, GeoServer + OpenLayers, ESRI Online
Manual Processing
Structure from Motion (SfM) software
Generate an Othophoto
2012
2015
Title Text
- Bullet One
- Bullet Two
- Bullet Three
77 photos to make this orthophoto in >one hour total
Social
Implications
Similar critiques of GIS
and mobile spatial media (Elwood, 2008; Thatcher, 2016)
Privacy (Curry, 1997)
- Geoweb transformation of the social contract around privacy – societal agreement (Elwood, 2015)
Access to technology (Obermeyer, 1995)
Risk of Re-enforcing inequality
Legality
- Decline of the public sector - private sector leading
- "Enthusiasts" can fly, not governments
- International regulations vary dramatically
Medium influences who will participate
(Chambers, 2006)
Comfort level when flying
Tacoma Professional
Tacoma Amateur
Only scratching the surface
Conclusion & Future
Maps are political
INVITE PARTICIPATION
Work with communities
Opportunity to establish ethical standards for UAV usage
Hope
- Illuminate social and environmental injustice
- Relevant Temporal Resolution
- Enhanced Spatial Resolution
- Increased coverage
- Complement existing research methods
- Opportunity to establish good practice with community engagement
Google Earth date unknown
UAV imagery March 2015
Participation sparks critical thinking during each step of the process
Challenge
to utilize these increasingly accessible technologies to edit your world, tell your truth,
share your experience in place.
Thank You.
@bricker
Acknowledgements: Joseph P. DiGrazia, Ali Modarres, Sarah Elwood, Kris Seymer, Chris Davidson, Mark Pendras, Jim Thatcher
Bird's eye photovoice The use of unmanned aerial vehicles as a means of data collection for participatory action research Britta Ricker Assistant Professor Urban Studies
UAV Dartmouth
By Britta Ricker
UAV Dartmouth
This presentation was given on April 8, 2016 at Dartmouth College
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