I've always had a thing for maps. When I was a kid, I rarely could sleep on those long road trips in the family wagon. It was either that I couldn't sleep or that I didn't want to sleep for fear that I might miss something good. In the backseat I would scour the road atlas and pepper my family members with a seemingly endless barrage of population statistics, regional geologic and geographic factoids, local cultural and historical sites, National and State Parks, and all sorts of mountain range names, desert names, lake names, stream names, etc.
But there was one key difference between the maps I was reading in the backseat on family road trips, and the new generation of maps like the new open-sourced, participatory mapping project, called the Green Map project, I couldn't make edits.
Participatory mapping and the Green Map
Humans have been making maps for thousands of years, but for much of that period, maps employed information compiled by "expert" cartographers, who, through no fault of their own, normally had little to no knowledge of the local. But a new generation of maps like those at Green Map, mixes user-generated knowledge and information with freely-available, high quality digital cartography that can be made to help tell stories only locals could tell.
Green Maps are a locally-made maps that uses a host of easily-recognizable icons to highlight significant sustainability sites, along with ecological, cultural, and civic resources in communities worldwide. Since 1995 the Green Map project has facilitated the publishing of over 365 local maps in 55 countries. Until now, the maps have been considered separate and distinct, but Green Map has just launched a new web-based project to combine the maps into a single, open-sourced map, synthesizing the data into a geographic encyclopedia, of sorts.
Open Green Maps
Formally launched on World Environment Day, June 5 2009, creators of the new Open Green Maps project hope to lower the the technical and financial barriers to online map making and inspire communities worldwide to get involved with a local participatory mapping project, giving all users a fresh, engaging perception of their home, as well as an opportunity to shape others' perceptions of it.
''A few months after collaborative development began in spring 2008, our locally-led global network began using this social mapping platform," stated Wendy Brawer, Founding Director of Green Map System. The Green Maps project now catalogues 5,000 individual green sites on more than 80 Open Green Maps, which are all now available to explore and enhance.
"Working with Open flows Community Technology Lab and Green Mapmakers worldwide, over time, even those without computers will benefit as Open Green Map's comprehensive data is shared in wireless, offline publication, printed Green Maps and other formats," said Carlos Martinez, Green Map's Director of Programs, noting that, "Already, Spanish and Portuguese interfaces are inviting Latin Americans to take part."
Open-Sourced eco-mapping
In recent years, all sorts of tools and mashups that use the Google Maps platform have emerged on the web. In particular, there a whole host of maps that highlight particular ecological and social issues and data sets, ranging from those that show the impact of sea level rises on the Earth's coastal regions, to ones that explore the world's dirtiest power plants, and the ones that represent the closure of those plants.
In addition to maps like the Green Map that use the familiar Google Maps platform, ever-increasing numbers of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) high-resolution renewable energy maps and open-source wind farm mapping software programs are being made available for free to the masses.
The Green Map System has been well received thus far, receiving the US National
Sustainability Award in New Communications Tools, a Technology Benefiting Humanity Laureate, and having been placed on the United Nations Best Practices 100 List. The popularity of Green Maps is also growing quickly. In 2009, the number of newly registered Green Map projects has increased 30% faster than in any previous year.
Green Map System soon hopes to begin development of mobile and data sharing applications that will make the array of Open Green Map sites accessible on iPhones and other mobile devices.
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