How the Crowdsourced Spatial Data Revolution is Being Used to Complement Official Data

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This research project focuses on societal aspects of emerging high-tech technologies: crowdsourcing, remote sensing, and open mapping. The goal is to advance understanding about the role of open, volunteered spatial data to produce knowledge needed by public institutions responsible for provision of services to all citizens. Despite that crowdsourced maps contain important information for building resilient communities and infrastructure, rarely are volunteered spatial data integrated into official cartographies. Local and national public institutions may lack trust of data quality, adherence to standards, and completeness. The researchers will closely examine the concepts and practices of using crowdsourced data relative to official cartographies within a small but representative set of national cases characterized by a range of public access, technologies, and governance configurations, namely Mesoamerica and the US Borderlands. This region of interest leverages experience with participatory cross-border harmonization of official fundamental spatial datasets in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and parts of neighboring Colombia and Texas. Findings will help expand the base of knowledge about evidence-based decision-making. The project will establish a foundation for building community across academic and government sectors interested in sharing and co-creating knowledge on specific applications, such as for hazards, development, and infrastructure services. The research team will provide theoretical insights within Science, Technology, and Society research as well as practical ideas to potentially harness the benefits of the data revolution for the public good.The research aims are (a) to better understand the barriers and conditions for acceptance when and where crowdsourced spatial data is available to be officially used in Mesoamerica and the US Borderlands (blind spots); (b) to better understand the impact of crowdsourced data when incorporated into official data sources; and (c) to produce missing geospatial data on vulnerabilities by engaging volunteer student mappers and official cartographers through participatory research (blank spots). A mixed-method approach leverages the unique positions of the research team as appointed authorities, commission chairs, and members of the PanAmerican Institute for Geography and History, a specialized arm of the Organization of American States. The researchers will empirically develop knowledge about the needs, opportunities, obstacles, processes and practices of crowdsourcing geospatial data relative to official cartographies. The project will use focus groups, interviews, critical incident techniques, broadly distributed web-based surveys, temporal comparative analysis, and participatory feedback to develop peer-reviewed articles as well as publications of best practices for use by informants, academics, and decision makers, in both English and Spanish. The project will train and engage students in this research from Texas Tech, one of only a few Hispanic Serving, Carnegie R1 Research Institutions in the US. Students will improve their workforce readiness for high-demand geospatial technologies careers. A final symposia at the OAS in Washington DC will provide a forum for input to deliverables and for dissemination. Results will contribute insight on NSF's Big Ideas, Harnessing the Data Revolution for 21st Century Science and Engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.