Volunteered Raster Data
for Disaster Preparedness
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles as a means of data collection for participatory action research
Britta Ricker, PhD
Assistant Professor
@bricker0



Outline
- Disaster and Data Needs
- Participatory Action Research, the
Geoweb and Spatial Media = Communication! - Demystifying Drone Workflow
- Social Implications
- Conclusions and future work

Disaster Cycle

DIFFERENT Data NeEDS AT EACH PHASE


DATA PREPAREDNESS
AS
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
means to illuminate social and environmental injustices
co-construction of knowledge= Better understanding of HAZARDS?
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)
Participatory Mapping
"moment of translation
transforming experiential, testimonial and qualitative forms of knowledge into quantitative aggregated or abstracted forms" (Elwood & Leszczynski , 2012: 548)
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)
Maps --> Media

Applied
Quantitative
Theory
Qualitative


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
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"
(Elwood & Leszczynski, 2012)



Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS)







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)
{
}
Many Voices
Many forms

Medium influences who will participate
(Chambers 2006)
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


Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)


Aerial Photography



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
- OpenAerialMap
- 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
The Appalachian Mountaintop Patrol (AMP)
Laura grace chipley
Aerial Photovoice
- evokes emotion
- representations of place
- What if we used it for something more important?
Digital Maps! Digital Globes offer basemaps for participatory mapping. But they also control temporal and spatial resolution of those basemaps


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...
- ?????
Harmful Algal Blooms
Twin Lakes Home Owners Assiciation, Federal Way



Lake Loreen
Lake Jean
Lake Loreen
Lake Loreen

Demystify the Workflow
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 an orthophoto, 3D model + more in
> one hour total

Share your data



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

DATA PREPAREDNESS AS DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
- 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


Participation sparks critical thinking during each step of the process
Challenge
Illuminate methods in which to utilize these increasingly accessible technologies to edit your world, tell your truth,
share your experience in place.





Data Day Dreams


Thank You.
Acknowledgments: Agnieszka Leszczynski , Muki Haklay,
Sarah Elwood, Ali Modarres

U of Auckland
By Britta Ricker
U of Auckland
- 1,434