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Slideshow: The Beautiful and Impactful Aerial Imagery of Grassroots Mapping
Want to learn more about grassroots mapping? Read this post about the burgeoning movement and the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science.
All images have been dedicated to the Public Domain, or used with permission by the photographers/cartographers.
Special thanks to Jeff Warren, Stewart Long, Liz Barry, Ray Cha, and all of the grassroots mappers who are building a cartographic movement that makes a difference, and for providing their images and expertise here.
Within the past two years, an inspired bunch of DIY cartographers have pioneered the field of "grassroots mapping." The concept is simple: for about $100 in materials you can shoot aerial imagery that is higher resolution than any standard p
Jeffrey Warren of MIT's Media Lab came up with the basic concept last year while working on a land-rights dispute in Lima, Peru. The first ever trial "flight" was made on MIT's campus in Nove
And here's the first ever trial flight, airborne.
A close-up of the balloons lifting the digital camera.
One of the main benefits of grassroots mapping is that you can create images that are higher resolution than any publicly-available satellite imagery from NASA, NOAA, or Google Maps. Here you can see the high resolution shots from that first trial fli
MIT's iconic McDermott Court from above. The first grassroots mapping trial run was a success.
Warren pioneered the grassroots mapping concept in order to help resolve some land rights issues in Lima, Peru. Here's the Juan Pablo II neighborhood, taken in January of 2010.
Grassroots mapping really came of age in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill aftermath. Working with the Lousiana Bucket Brigade during the media blackout when FAA regulations prevented
Here's an oil slick near the Chandeleur Islands, taken on May 2, 2010.
Warrent writes:
On Sunday, Stewart Long, Shannon and Mariko from Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and several other vol
Reeling out the balloon near the Chandeleur Islands on May 9, 2010.
A month later, on June 3, 2010, there were oil booms in place around the Chandeleur Islands.
A map of an oyster reef restoration project in Mobile, Alabama. A collaboration with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade ,
Lake Borgne in Louisiana from above. Aerial imaging acquired by grassroots mapper Erin Sharkey, and processed by Stewart Long at GonzoEarth.com
In June of 2010, grassroots mapping was employed by mountaintop removal activists in Appalachia. In Sundial, West Virginia, Marsh Fork Elementary School (which we wrote about a couple y
The camera, equipped with fins to prevent excessive rotation, and labeled with a mailing address, in case it gets lost.
Credit: Chris Eichler Photography
Jeff Warren "wrangling" the balloon above Marsh Fork Elementary School.
Photo by Chris Eichler Photography. Used with permission.
Marsh Fork Elementary School from above. On the bottom right is the coal ash slurry pond. The school in in the center top, 400 feet downhill.
Another mountaintop removal mapping project. The Black Mountain mining site is no longer a mountain. And, writes, Warren, "don't be fooled by the green color -- coal companies spray an invasive weed over it from planes, it grows on anything.
In July, 2010, Warren traveled to the city of Mestia in Georgia (the nation) to work with Open Maps Caucasus. Here's a trace of the balloon's flight path, overlay on Google Earth.
Mestia from above. The first ever balloon map of a whole city, all captured in a single day.
This January, a team set out to create an aerial map of the notoriously polluted Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.
The team floated on canoes down the Gowanus Canal, following this route.
The Gowanus Canal from above.
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