Participatory 3D Modeling

Participatory 3D Maps are scaled landscapes generated by communities to illustrate their perception of what is on the ground around them. The maps are generated by multiple groups within a community: youth assemble the basemap (commonly referred to as a blank), elders describe the initial legend and select colors and markers for items on the landscape to be identified, and finally others community members participate in updating the legend and then together add point, line, and polygon data to the basemap over several days. These maps may include local names for locations or describe the landscape in ways that are unknown to scientific researchers. Maps can then be used in a multitude of way to better understand how a given group uses the landscape, as well as how they value different aspects of the landscape.