Waterproofing Data Project: Participatory Mapping and Survey Resources, 2020-2021

The Waterproofing Data project explored how to build communities’ resilience to flooding by engaging them in generating the data used to predict when floods will occur. The project team developed a functional citizen-science mobile app prototype and a model school curriculum, which has been successfully co-produced and trialled with more than 300 students from over 20 schools and civil protection agencies of five Brazilian states (Acre, Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo). The app and curriculum enabled the communities involved to democratise flood data, raise awareness of flood risks, and co-design new initiatives to reduce disaster risks to communities. The project invited participants to co-create geospatial data that describes the perceived areas in which flooding impacted their territory. Through this process, the team sought to enhance knowledge about floods among those engaged with the project.

This dataset showcases participatory maps of three flood-prone neighbourhoods in Brazil. The maps were co-created and evaluated with the help of community members and school students living in underserved areas. Data was generated using the SketchMap tool https://sketch-map-tool.heigit.org. The tool supported i) printing paper maps of the neighbourhoods, ii) participants' drawings with the areas they perceived flooding risks, and iii) digitising those areas in a format suitable for GIS and cartography. The purpose of this process was to gather input from locals and identify areas that are prone to flooding in the two neighbourhoods. The process minimised personal data collection while the final map shows aggregated data that prevent linking data with the persons who provide it.

Initial prints, participant’s notes, and some final maps have Portuguese texts.