Local ground: A paper-based toolkit for documenting local geo-spatial knowledge

Comprehensive spatial knowledge is vital for making good planning decisions - whether it be for planning infrastructure, public projects or addressing other community needs. Often it is the local residents themselves who have the most current and accurate understanding of the uses and condition of any place. Including diverse voices is difficult in the planning process, as many local groups do not have access to the same technologies as larger institutional actors. To address their needs, we have developed Local Ground: a tool that allows local residents to document their personal knowledge of places using simple bar-coded paper maps, computer vision techniques and free, publicly available mapping and charting tools. Users annotate paper maps using simple pens, markers and stamps. These maps are scanned and aggregated online, where they can be analyzed and overlaid on information obtained from other knowledge sources, allowing local perspectives to influence planning decisions. We tested Local Ground with a group of high school youth involved in an urban revitalization project in a low-income neighborhood in Richmond, California. Students and teachers found our tools to be portable, fun, collaborative, and easy to learn. In this paper we describe the Local Ground toolkit, including its strengths as a geospatial data collection and dissemination tool, and some findings obtained from our initial field pilot in Richmond.