Liveable Urbanism Design Studio to use crowdsourcing to create a GIS map of Kochi, India

The Welsh School of Architecture’s Liveable Urbanism Studio is planning to create a GIS (geographic information system) map of Kochi, India using the crowdsourcing method.

The ambitious project will map every single building and road in the city, appealing to the public to complete a survey to help to mark the various aspects of the town, including the physical environment, on a map. The map will then be used for advanced spatial analysis of Kochi, with the Studio aiming to develop an evidence-driven vision and dynamic urban strategy to make the city more sustainable and liveable considering all the social, ecological, economic and spatial complexities.

Dr Shibu Raman, Lecturer in architecture and urban design said:

“One of the biggest issues in working with cities on such an ambitious agenda is the availability of data and maps and this be- comes even more critical in cities in Global South. Geo- graphically located data normally in the form of a GIS map is fundamental in analytical modelling of cities and in the absence of this, Liveable Urbanism Studio endeavoured to develop their GIS map through a collaborative workshop with local architecture students.”

The Studio now plans to map fine-grain data on physical characteristics of the city, environmental, ecological, social, cultural, economic characteristics and travel behaviour and hope to present their creative ideas and strategies to the city in June or July 2021 with a virtual or physical exhibition of the work.

The project has now featured twice in The Times of India newspaper and it is hoped that this will provide better access to data.

Dr Raman said:

“I am really pleased with how we focused on this ambitious goal of production of GIS map of a whole city from scratch due to lockdown this year. This is now allowing us to do better urban analytics, sophisticated spatial modelling, morphometric analysis and developing links with local and international research group on urban modelling.”

For more information on the project and to access the survey please visit the Liveable Urbanism website.