Community Mapping

Our community mapping project is a live activity we offer at events designed to gather and share local people’s knowledge and experiences of their local river.

The activity consists of a large interactive map taking in the whole length of the Ouse and surrounding 4km of land. People are facilitated to share their concerns, observations and mark key features of the river by writing on post it notes which they stick directly on the map.

It’s a powerful tool for collecting data that is at a community level by people who live with their waterway. It can capture vital data that is harder to quantify but is equally as important as scientific data.

By processing the contributions we can gain insightful and poignant snapshots and information about how people regard and relate with the Ouse. These can involve important emotion and cultural connections, day to day observations and be an inclusive learning tool.

It helps us to:

Gauge and understand how people interact and connect with their river
Build a picture of what’s important to people
Identify and build upon key features of the river
Create a means for identifying problems & solutions
Identify and sign up interested people/groups to get involved
Help prioritise, link up & focus learning areas and actions

Check out our mapping activity reports to date:

“Piddinghoe. The river there is my spiritual home- my church...swim there every day if I can! Nature heaven...egrets, swans, cormorants, gulls, kingfisher and sometimes blessed with a seal!” Community Mapping anonymous contribution at the River Festival in Sept 2022