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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Urban Planet: Citizen Cartography

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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of  blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.

“The map user has now become the map creator,” says Fraser Taylor, Director of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University. In a recent article on This Big City, author Christine McLaren explores the phenomenon of citizen cartographers. With the proliferation of mobile GIS technology and open-source mapping tools, citizens are increasingly finding and creating new datasets to map and overlay. Traditionally a way for authorities to control their jurisdictions, citizen-driven cartography is being used to hold governments to account.

Image from This Big City

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