Abstract
Colouring Cities is an open digital platform that enables the collaborative collection and visualization of building data. The platform provides a unique opportunity to collect spatial information on the characteristics, performance, and evolution of building stocks, thereby bridging existing data gaps and supporting sustainable urban development. By harnessing the power of crowdsourcing, Colouring Cities allows researchers, architects, and urban planners to gather spatial information in a more efficient and cost-effective manner than traditional methods. The user-friendly interface and comprehensive data management capabilities make Colouring Cities a valuable citizen science platform, empowering everyone to collect, collate, visualize and share data. The paper reports on the platform and the worldwide activities as well as experiences in two case studies, Colouring London (UK) and Colouring Dresden (Germany). It highlights the platform’s potential for knowledge production and transfer in urban and architectural history research, as well as digital humanities. While there is a need for further technical development and research on the impact of citizen science, the platform demonstrates great potential in these fields.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
The Virtual Map Forum (https://kartenforum.slub-dresden.de) contains numerous geo-referenced sources on Dresden, such as the Damage Map of 1946, which shows the different degrees of destruction of Dresden buildings after the end of the Second World War (https://slubdd.de/schadensplan).
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
To get an automated count for four subcategories, please refer to https://petscan.wmflabs.org/?psid=24776495.
- 7.
The first address book for Dresden was published in 1702, from 1800 to 1944 they are available digitally almost without gaps (https://digital.slub-dresden.de/kollektionen/72).
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
References
Hudson, P.: Urban characterisation; expanding applications for, and new approaches to building attribute data capture. The Historic Environ.: Policy & Practice 9, 306–327 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/17567505.2018.1542776
Münster, S., et al.: Where are we now on the Road to 4D Urban History Research and Discovery? ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. VIII-M-1–2021, pp. 109–116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-VIII-M-1-2021-109-2021
Sikder, S.K., Behnisch, M., Herold, H., Koetter, T.: Geospatial analysis of building structures in megacity Dhaka: the use of spatial statistics for promoting data-driven decision-making. J. Geovisualization Spatial Analysis 3(1), 1–14 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41651-019-0029-y
Meinel, G., Hecht, R., Herold, H.: Analyzing building stock using topographic maps and GIS. Building Res. Inf. 37, 468–482 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210903159833
Tooke, T.R., Coops, N.C., Webster, J.: Predicting building ages from LiDAR data with random forests for building energy modeling. Energy and Build. 68, 603–610 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.10.004
Aksözen, M., Hassler, U., Rivallain, M., Kohler, N.: Mortality analysis of an urban building stock. Building Research & Inf. 45, 259–277 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2016.1152531
Evans, S., Liddiard, R., Steadman, P.: 3DStock: a new kind of three-dimensional model of the building stock of England and Wales, for use in energy analysis. Environ. Planning B: Urban Analytics City Science. 44, 227–255 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/0265813516652898
Miatto, A., Schandl, H., Tanikawa, H.: How important are realistic building lifespan assumptions for material stock and demolition waste accounts? Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 122, 143–154 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.01.015
Biljecki, F., Sindram, M.: Estimating building age with 3D GIS. ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. IV-4/W5, pp. 17–24 (2017). https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-IV-4-W5-17-2017
Kohler, N., Hassler, U.: The building stock as a research object. Building Res. Inf. 30, 226–236 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210110102238
Huuhka, S., Lahdensivu, J.: Statistical and geographical study on demolished buildings. Building Res. Inf. 44, 73–96 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2014.980101
Bradley, P.E., Kohler, N.: Methodology for the survival analysis of urban building stocks. Building Res. Inf. 35, 529–542 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210701266939
Hudson, P., Dennett, A., Russell, T., Smith, D.: Colouring London–a crowdsourcing platform for geospatial data related to London’s building stock. In: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Gis Research UK Conference. pp. 23–26. , Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK (2019)
Hecht, R., Rieche, T.: Mit einer Citizen-Science-Plattform Gebäudewissen kartieren, erforschen und vermitteln und dabei klimagerechte Architektur unterstützen. gis.Business pp. 34–36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.26084/PGVC-TX74
Hudson, P. (ed): Colouring London and the Colouring Cities Open Manual, Wiki (2023). https://github.com/colouring-cities/manual/wiki/
Hecht, R., Meinel, G., Buchroithner, M.: Automatic identification of building types based on topographic databases – a comparison of different data sources. Int. J. Cartography 1, 18–31 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/23729333.2015.1055644
Herold, H., Hecht, R.: 3D reconstruction of urban history based on old maps. In: Münster, S., Friedrichs, K., Niebling, F., Seidel-Grzesinska, A. (eds.) UHDL/DECH -2017. CCIS, vol. 817, pp. 63–79. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76992-9_5
Wu, M., Zeng, W., Fu, C.-W.: FloorLevel-Net: recognizing floor-level lines with height-attention-guided multi-task learning. IEEE Trans. on Image Process. 30, 6686–6699 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1109/TIP.2021.3096090
Fan, H., Zipf, A., Fu, Q., Neis, P.: Quality assessment for building footprints data on OpenStreetMap. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci. 28, 700–719 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2013.867495
Hecht, R., Kalla, M., Krüger, T.: Crowd-sourced data collection to support automatic classification of building footprint data. Proc. Int. Cartogr. Assoc. 1, 1–7 (2018). https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-proc-1-54-2018
Alhamwi, A., Medjroubi, W., Vogt, T., Agert, C.: OpenStreetMap data in modelling the urban energy infrastructure: a first assessment and analysis. Energy Procedia. 142, 1968–1976 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.397
Biljecki, F.: Exploration of open data in Southeast Asia to generate 3D building models. ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. VI-4/W1–2020, pp. 37–44 (2020). https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-VI-4-W1-2020-37-2020
Hecker, S., Haklay, M., Bowser, A., Makuch, Z., Vogel, J., Bonn, A.: Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science. Society and Policy, UCL Press (2018)
Vohland, K., et al. (eds.): The Science of Citizen Science. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4
Haklay, M.: Citizen science and volunteered geographic information: overview and typology of participation. In: Sui, D., Elwood, S., Goodchild, M. (eds.) Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge, pp. 105–122. Springer, Netherlands, Dordrecht (2013)
Shirk, J.L., et al.: Public Participation in Scientific Research: a Framework for Deliberate Design. E&S. 17, art29 (2012). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-04705-170229
Bemme, J., Munke, M.: Digitale Wissenschaftskommunikation im und mit dem Wikiversum. Erfahrungen aus der SLUB Dresden. 027.7 Zeitschrift für Bibliothekskultur / Journal for Library Culture. 9, (2022). https://doi.org/10.21428/1bfadeb6.4112166b
Mazumdar, S., et al.: Citizen science technologies and new opportunities for participation. In: Hecker, S., Haklay, M., Bowser, A., Makuch, Z., Vogel, J., Bonn, A. (eds.) Citizen Science - Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy, pp. 303–320. UCL Press, London (2018)
Land-Zandstra, A., Agnello, G., Gültekin, Y.S.: Participants in citizen science. In: Vohland, K., et al. (eds.) The Science of Citizen Science, pp. 243–259. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_13
Schaefer, T., Kieslinger, B., Brandt, M., van den Bogaert, V.: Evaluation in citizen science: the art of tracing a moving target. In: Vohland, K., et al. (eds.) The Science of Citizen Science, pp. 495–514. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_25
Kieslinger, B., Schäfer, T., Heigl, F., Dörler, D., Richter, A., Bonn, A.: Evaluating citizen science - towards an open framework. In: Hekler, S., Haklay, M., Bowser, A., Vogel, J., Bonn, A. (eds.) Citizen Science - Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy, pp. 81–95. UCL Press, London (2018)
Balázs, B., Mooney, P., Nováková, E., Bastin, L., Jokar Arsanjani, J.: Data quality in citizen science. In: Vohland, K., et al. (eds.) The Science of Citizen Science, pp. 139–157. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_8
Hecht, R., Kunze, C., Hahmann, S.: Measuring completeness of building footprints in openstreetmap over space and time. IJGI. 2, 1066–1091 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi2041066
Zhou, Q., Zhang, Y., Chang, K., Brovelli, M.A.: Assessing OSM building completeness for almost 13,000 cities globally. International Journal of Digital Earth. 15, 2400–2421 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2022.2159550
Biljecki, F., Chow, Y.S., Lee, K.: Quality of crowdsourced geospatial building information: a global assessment of OpenStreetMap attributes. Build. Environ. 237, 110295 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110295
Roper, J., Hudson, P., Petersen, H., Pettit, C., Russell, T., Ng, M.: Colouring Australia: a participatory open data platform. ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. X-4-W3–2022, pp. 229–235 (2022). https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-4-W3-2022-229-2022
Biljecki, F., Chew, L.Z.X., Milojevic-Dupont, N., Creutzig, F.: Open Government Geospatial Data on Buildings for Planning Sustainable and Resilient Cities (2021). http://arxiv.org/abs/2107.04023
Stoltz, D.: Kartenforum und Virtuelles Kartenforum - Ein Werkstattbericht zum Refactoring. In: Munke, M.(ed.) Landes- und Regionalgeschichte digital Angebote - Bedarfe - Perspektiven. pp. 95–105. Thelem, Dresden (2022). https://doi.org/10.25366/2021.31
Hosseini, K., Wilson, D.C.S., Beelen, K., McDonough, K.: MapReader: a computer vision pipeline for the semantic exploration of maps at scale. In: Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Humanities, pp. 8–19. ACM, Seattle Washington (2022)
Jäger, J.: Fotografie und Geschichte. Campus, Frankfurt /New York (2009)
Steadman, P., Evans, S., Liddiard, R., Godoy-Shimizu, D., Ruyssevelt, P., Humphrey, D.: Building stock energy modelling in the UK: the 3DStock method and the London building stock model. Buildings and Cities 1, 100–119 (2020). https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.52
Tanikawa, H., Hashimoto, S.: Urban stock over time: spatial material stock analysis using 4d-GIS. Building Res. Inf. 37, 483–502 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210903169394
Roumpani, F., Hudson, P., Hudson-Smith, A.: The use of historical data in rule-based modelling for scenarios to improve resilience within the building stock. The Historic Environ.: Policy & Practice 9, 328–345 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/17567505.2018.1517142
Stanilov, K., Batty, M.: Exploring the historical determinants of urban growth patterns through cellular automata: determinants of urban growth. Trans. GIS 15, 253–271 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9671.2011.01254.x
Hecht, R., Rieche, T., Neumann, M.: Dokumentation des Workshops zum Ideensprint der Citizen Science Projektidee “Baukultur und klimagerechte Architektur in Dresden – Gebäudewissen kartieren, erforschen und vermitteln” (2022). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7101800
Hecht, R., Danke, T., Rieche, T., Gruhler, K., Kriesten, T., Schinke, R.: Dokumentation des “Workshops zur Ausarbeitung der Gebäudemerkmale und deren Erfassung” im Rahmen des Citizen Science Projektes “Colouring Dresden” (2023). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7624511
Maiwald, H., Schwarz, J., Abrahamczyk, L., Kaufmann, C.: Das Hochwasser 2021: Ingenieuranalyse der Bauwerksschäden. Bautechnik 99, 878–890 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/bate.202200062
Oudin Åström, D., et al.: The effect of heat waves on mortality in susceptible groups: a cohort study of a mediterranean and a northern European City. Environ Health. 14, 30 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-015-0012-0
van Noordwijk, T. (C.G.E.), et al.: Creating positive environmental impact through citizen science. In: Vohland, K., et al. (eds.) The Science of Citizen Science, pp. 373–395. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_19
Cappa, F., Franco, S., Rosso, F.: Citizens and cities: Leveraging citizen science and big data for sustainable urban development. Bus Strat Env. 31, 648–667 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2942
Fritz, S., et al.: Citizen science and the United Nations sustainable development goals. Nat Sustain. 2, 922–930 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0390-3
Paulmann, J., et al.: NFDI4Memory. Consortium for the historically oriented humanities. Proposal for the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) (2022). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7428489
Acknowledgments
The project Colouring Dresden is financially supported by prize money from the Citizen Science Competition ‘Auf die Plätze! Citizen Science in deiner Stadt’, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and jointly coordinated by Wissenschaft im Dialog gGmbH and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. We would like to thank all our partners of Colouring London and Colouring Dresden. Special thanks go to the Colouring Cities Research Programme and the people of this international network. Mateusz Konieczny in particular is to be thanked for his valuable feedback related to OpenStreetMap.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hecht, R., Danke, T., Herold, H., Hudson, P., Munke, M., Rieche, T. (2023). Colouring Cities: A Citizen Science Platform for Knowledge Production on the Building Stock - Potentials for Urban and Architectural History. In: Münster, S., Pattee, A., Kröber, C., Niebling, F. (eds) Research and Education in Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries. UHDL 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1853. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38871-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38871-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38870-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38871-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)