Collaborative Mapping

Dear Colleagues,

More accurate, detailed and up-to-date maps are needed for a large number of scientific applications including monitoring and assessment of biodiversity, climate change, risk and vulnerability, energy supply and demand, and food security, especially in the current environment of rapid change. Remote sensing (RS) can provide comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage of the earth’s surface but there is a lack of reference data, which is needed to calibrate and validate these maps. Moreover, there are situations where RS data are too expensive and the temporal coverage is insufficient (e.g. for applications of emergency response). The increasing number of citizen sensors (i.e. volunteers contributing information from the internet, mobile devices and newly developed sensors) has already begun to radically change mapping through citizen collaboration, e.g. OpenStreetMap and Google MapMaker. The aim of this special issue is to publish the latest research on collaborative mapping including but not limited to the following:

• Thematic and geometric accuracy of collaborative mapping (i.e. quality of the information)
• Development of indicators of robustness of / confidence in the VGI
• Authoritativeness of collaborative map products, i.e. ideas on how to bring collaborative map products to a level of authority that is not disputed
• Data harmonization
• Collaborative mapping and the role of mapping institutions
• Spatial cognition in collaborative mapping
• Cost effectiveness and cost benefits of collaborative mapping
• The use of collaborative mapping in the areas of biodiversity, land use science, climate change, emergency response, and other relevant applied fields

Dr. Linda See
Dr. Steffen Fritz
Dr. Jan de Leeuw
Guest Editors

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