Applying PGIS for rural mobility assessments
EXAF Centre and the Urban and regional planning community (CEAT) from EPFL (ENAC) start a new project in collaboation with the NGOs World Bicycle Relief and Nepal Flying Labs, supported by EPFL's Tech4Dev Research Grants.
The project proposal "A Participatory GIS Toolkit for Transportation Needs Assessments in Rural Areas" was selected by an independent, international committee as one of the four projects in the 2021 cohort of Tech4Dev Research Grants. This is a multidisciplinary project that will gather experts and researchers in the fields of GIS, IT and development studies to implement quantitative and qualitative spatial analyses.
The lack of reliable transportation in rural areas sidelines a large proportion of the global population (over 1 billion people), for whom mobility is one of the main factors of vulnerability. Moreover, important knowledge gaps regarding these populations’ mobility needs, including obstacles to their travels, hamper the elaboration of effective solutions.
The project will address these gaps by advancing an open-source, participatory mapping toolkit aimed at rural communities. This toolkit is intended to guide development planners and policy-makers in identifying transportation needs and barriers in marginalized areas. It aims to facilitate both collecting and sharing geodata required to evaluate the accessibility, utilization and sustainability of mobility options. The datasets prepared through this toolkit will be synchronized to OpenStreetMap, and thus will be publicly available for wider dissemination and impact.
Contact :
Vitor Pessoa Colombo, [email protected]