And together, it happened.

Monday 10th February PM. And so we close this first workshop 'Mapeando desde el Cielo, Mapeando desde el Suelo' (Mapping from the Sky, Mapping from the Ground); but not before agreeing the plan of action until we meet again in April 2014. This has truly been one of the most enriching learning experience.

Refining the variables

Monday 10th February PM. We come together in a plenary with the mappers from Barrios Altos and Jose Carlos Mariategui to share fieldwork experiences. The reflections made pointed to the importance of making visible what is already known, but also the discovery of new aspects through the transect walks. For many, the technical input was appreciated as a means of gathering the information in a systematic way. But more so, the mapping workshop is appreciated for highlighting the need and importance of organization amongst the inhabitants; this, not only to resist unwanted change, but drive the desired visions for the respective areas.

We revisit all the variables previously discussed with the mappers. Having undertaken the transect walks, those that need refining become evident. We discuss and contextualise these further in preparation for phase two in April.

3D Reconstruction

We are starting the reconstruction of the 3d model and so far its looking great. Model will be sent remotely to London for further processing and printing.  

Making the contradictions visible

Sunday 9th February AM- The mapping team prepares to walk the landscape in three areas. Tracing and juxtaposing  the borders of the current occupation, the proposed limit in certified plans, and the foreseen future expansion for each of the 'Agrupacion Familiar', reveals a complex and contested field of actors. As described by one of the mappers these include, the first comer, the corrupt, the tourist and the newcomer.

A struggle to transpose the plan prepared by a quantity surveyor, devoid of any reference to the topography, onto the aerial photograph. The disjuncture between these two is stark.

Combing Barrios Altos

Saturday 9th February AM. We divide in teams, working on either side of the chosen axis and stopping at key points to gather more detailed information. This pilot walk reveals that the labyrinthine typology of the buildings in Barrios Altos hides many aspects such as land use, that cannot be noted through observation only from the street. The pilot walk is seen as key to refine the research questions, the information to be gathered and the method.

While mapping, the leaders of Barrios Altos, also take this opportunity to reach out to their neighbours and inform them about how to acquire basic services as well as resist eviction.

A closer look

Barrios Altos Area today. Image via Drone Adventures.

Sunday 9 February PM. Incredible results from Drone Adventures! These "close to real-time" updated images were incredibly valuable in yesterdays and today's field work, as people depended on the aerials captured from the mapping drone to define critical territorial borders in areas undergoing otherwise 'invisible' change..

These limits were later mapped in greater detail by local mappers, who walked the boundaries using GPS trackers. Details on the field trip in JMC and Barrios Altos to follow..

Sneak Peek - Mapping drones in Lima

Monday 3 February PM. Pilot flight of a mapping drone in the JCM settlement in Lima Peru with DPU, CASA UCL and Drone Adventures. The team had to reach a height of about 2000m. to capture the whole area. Great launch!

For the mappers interested in our location, we were here:

Mapping from the sky completed!

Saturday 8 February PM. While several members of the local community were watching the deployment of the “avioncitos”, we completed the mapping of the Barrios Altos + Lima-city-center areas. The eBee drones made a wonderful job in mapping more than 4 square kilometers of the capital under the “attentive supervision” of the local birds.

phone mapping

First day at the workshop Thursday 6th February pm

Saturday 8 February PM.The use of phones for mapping have shown great potential, even for users who are not familiar with the use of smart phones. Several applications allow customization of crowdsourcing information and new technologies can aid in speeding up many time consuming processes.

Popular applications such as twitter has great potential for future uses, as it is already known to some of the mappers. However, the workshop identified categories that require the use of survey type collectors. For Barrios Altos, there was a need of crowdsourcing information from land uses of individual buildings, to building condition and census data. Twitter was used as a method for submitting uncategorized information and cases of emergencies.

Early visualizations of geolocated information from the field work in Barrios Altos shown below. Results send directly from Lima to London at CASA UCL.

Tracing the axis of change

Friday 8 February PM. The discussion takes us to explore wanted and unwanted processes through various axes of change.  Tracing such axes takes us to identify six streets where different visions of Barrios Altos meet. These range from heritage preservation to the defacing of the area through the peppered emergence of storage. Still to be ascertained is the correlation between de facto occupancy rights, de jury property rights and the many grey areas in between that threatened both the possibility of preserving the historic heritage and popular dwelling of the heart of Lima.   

Why to map?

Friday 8 February PM. Community leaders and residents from Barrios Altos, CIDAP and the DPU team come together to plan the mapping that will be done on the field tomorrow. We start by discussing WHY TO MAP.  Mapping is identified by the communities as a means to document and denounce otherwise invisible processes of change such as slow evictions. It is also seen as a strategic activity to understand trends and ongoing processes of chance by institutions and real estate developers. Last but not least, mapping is seen as a tool to capture the physical and social architecture of Barrios Altos and the room for manoeuvre to promote strategic interventions.  

Mapping from above - mapping from below

Thursday 6 February PM. Twenty two women and men from  10 community organisations in the extensions of Jose Carlos Mariategui come together  with the team from DPU, CENCA, Foro Ciudades para la Vida and CASA to decide what to map. Zooming out to the wider territory of the quebradas reveals a map of constantly shifting borders and interactions and the community mappers decide to make this the focus of the fieldwork on Sunday. The borders define not just the current territory but the multiple visions and practices that converge in shaping the area, from the slow occupation of the slopes and the traces of quotidian actions to dwell the ravine, to the 'pop up' developments driven by informal land trafficking.

Expanding the possibilities for spatial analysis

Thursday 6th February AM. While the Drone Adventures team continues rendering the high resolution images captured in Jose Carlos Mariategui, the output from the pilot flight is printed to be used as a basis for the discussions with community mappers later in the day. Although the image above was captured at 500 metres from the ground, the level of detail is impressive and the possibilities for spatial analysis exciting!

“I want an ‘avioncito’ too!”

Wednesday 5th February PM. Excited about the flight of the drones or 'avioncitos', the kids from 12 de Octubre in José Carlos Mariátegui were eager to be part of the landing crew.

Ouch!

Wednesday 5th February PM. Compared to yesterday, the landing today was rather eventful on the hills of Jose Carlos Mariátegui.