Blog 1
Paper:
SUPPORTING URBAN DESIGN WITH OPEN SOURCE GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES Megan Haynes, S. Coetzee* , V. Rautenbach
The authors of this paper reviewed various geospatial technologies in order to create a toolbox for professionals, researchers, and urban design projects. All geospatial technologies were open source and evaluated for both their functional requirements and non-functional requirements. Functional requirements include requirements such as data collection, data storage, and data visualization. Non-functional requirements include requirements such as perceived novice user ability and degree of support and documentation available. To evaluate tools, the authors looked at three distinct scenarios involving researchers collecting geospatial data for various projects. The following are the unique scenarios: improving a neglected neighborhood, identifying crime hotspots within a neighborhood along with suggestions for urban design to reduce crime, and understanding trade networks of informal traders and entrepreneurs in order to suggest urban design improvements to increase profits. All scenarios involve field research and data collection without guaranteed access to wifi, data storage and management with the ability to share data with larger team, and data visualization with the ability to manipulate and export the final product. Other criteria were also measured. The final result of the study was a table listing a toolbox of geospatial tools (EpiCollect5, Arbiter, GeoODK, Field Papers, MapServer, GeoServer, GeoNetwork, Geonode, MapWindow5, QGIS) and their respective functions for urban designers. The researchers concluded that many of the tools fulfilled the functional requirements, and the major difference occurred when analyzing the non-functional requirements. In this study, I think it’s crucial that the geospatial tools analyzed were open source so that the study is relative and accessible for all urban designers, researchers, and professionals in South Africa.
Below is a table summarizing the article findings:
