The Green Map System as a Means for PPGIS Education and Exploration

In this paper, the author explores the technique of the Green Map System (GMS) and the use of Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) and Technologies. According to the author, Green Mapping has become an increasingly popular community-based technique for describing the opportunities for sustainable living and showing patterns of green space, and provides an important tool for community participation in capturing and expressing information about the local environment. This helps create a fresh perspective of cities and towns, and helps inhabitants locate eco-resources such as bike lanes, farmers markets and wildlife habitats.

Building on the well-developed techniques of the Green Map System (GMS), students at Rutgers University have developed Green Maps as a class exercise in conducting inventory, analysis, and communicating the environmental assets of a community. While many examples of Green Maps have been developed without the aid of Geographic Information Systems - for example, a hand-drawn map from a small village in Uganda - the ability to produce sharp, accurate, easily edited and readily reproducible maps has made GIS a popular medium for these processes. Many of the maps are produced in cities or regions where significant quantities of GIS data are available, but the addition of new data is central to the GMS process.

The author proposes that the GMS provides an interesting opportunity for college-level classroom applications as a teaching resource. At Rutgers, the GMS has been integrated into a landscape architectural design studio as a proxy for traditional inventory as Green Mapping creates unique opportunities for exploring a site and gathering information about it. Based on initial inventory experiences, the process forces students to develop a theme and communicate it and cartographic information about the place. While it is not a substitute for a landscape architectural design problem, these class projects do allow the students to apply their creativity in problem-solving, icon design, graphic design, and communication. At the same time, it is suggested that students have also learned important lessons about community participation and the potential for PPGIS from each of these projects.

The author concludes that published Green Maps have the potential to reach vast audiences because they can be used by children, parents, tourists, community groups, and environmentally-unaware citizens. As an educational tool, applications of the GMS has great potential for a variety of classroom situations. While opportunities for K-12 Green Mapping has been well developed, the opportunities for college-level education has been largely overlooked. At Rutgers the landscape architecture classes have been an experiment in the application of GMS. The author has been exploring the possibility of running a semester-long Green Map project in an Environmental Geomatics class that could embrace the participatory elements and more fully explore the inventory and analysis. The potential for an applied geography or cartography class could be significant as well. The author states that most importantly, Green Mappers should be more actively encouraged to contribute to the growing PPGIS case studies and literature. While they may not be entirely representative of the larger PPGIS field, they certainly fit within the boundaries that have been established thus far.