Outline

• Geospatial Technology 
• Citizen Science 
• Disaster and Data Needs
• Demystifying UAV Workflow
• Social Implications
• Conclusions and future work

Maps = Power

Waldseemüller map 1507

Dashboards = Power

Geospatial Technology

Global Positioning System (GPS)

SURVEYING

Remote SEnsing

Geographic Information SYSTEMs (GIS)

Title Text

GIS and spatial media

(Ricker, 2017)

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)

Geoweb

• interconnected tools and spatial data available on the web spanning multiple geographic regions (Lake and Farley, 2007)

• 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

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)

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Participatory Mapping

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

"moment of translation

transforming experiential, testimonial and qualitative forms of knowledge into quantitative aggregated or abstracted forms" (Elwood & Leszczynski , 2012: 548)

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

Tell me, I forget.

Show me, I remember.

Involve me, I understand. 

-Chinese Proverb (Paulos et al., 2009)

Citizen Science “scientific work undertaken by members of the general public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions.” (Haklay, 2015)

Examples of Student Work: Capstone Project

Scientists: Julie Masura and Cheryl Greengrove

Students: Chris Vandenburg, Dana Scott

•UW, NOAA, Center for Urban Waters, Sound Experience

MICROPLASTICS

Quantifying microplastics

Data Entry For Citizen Science? 

Who is the end user?

Who is entering the data?

What is going to be done with data?

Cost? 

Technical knowhow of the developer?

Microplastics

Julie's website http://depts.washington.edu/uwtocelb/wordpress/

ShowerHead Microbiome

Many Voices

Many forms

Disaster Cycle

DIFFERENT Data NeEDS AT EACH PHASE

DATA PREPAREDNESS
AS
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

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.

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...
• ?????

Particulate flow

Demystify the Workflow

Steps

1. Drone Selection Process
2. Flight Practice and Planning
3. Flying
4. 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

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) 

Tacoma Professional

Tacoma Amateur 

Only scratching the surface

MapTime

OSM for disaster PREPAREDNESS

Student Project: Pull from OSM

Streets:

•*Cobblestone streets

•*Roundabouts at intersections

•*One-way streets

•Narrow two-way streets (because of street parking, only one vehicle at a time can pass through in either direction.)

•Speed bumps on streets

Residences:

•*Single-family home; Duplex, Triplex, or Apartment Building

•Year built

•*Number of floors

• *how many apartments

•*Location of Gas Meter(s)

•*Location of Electric Meter(s)

•*Location of Stationary Propane Tank(s)

•*Location of Stationary Heating Fuel Tank (Heating Oil)

•Solar Panels of Roof? (Y or N)

•*Presence of a detached garage

Mobile application

for disaster preparedness

Communities of Practice

Esri App Studio

Communities of interest

Data

Ambiently collected?

Actively collected?

More research questions!

What knowledge is transferred

through the data entry/collection process?

Through the map interaction process?

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

Data Day Dreams

Challenge

Participate in Citizen Science!

Knowledge Discovery!       

Thank You.

Acknowledgments: Muki Haklay, Agnieszka Leszczynski,

Julie Masura, Andrew James, Sarah Elwood, Highline College Mast Center

University of Washington Office of Global Affairs Strategic International Partnership Travel Award