MAP-BASED SURVEYS FOR MAPPING HIGH-QUALITY AND DEGRADED SITES

The aim of this article is to examine the advantages and limitations of collecting spatial data through the use of map-based surveys. Citizens are increasingly called upon to produce spatial data. This occurs when people participate in research projects with a strong spatial dimension, or when they voluntarily join collaborative projects such as OpenStreetMap to produce free content, or when they take part in participatory planning experiences. However, this raise a question about the quality of spatial data produced. The reflections made in this article derive from the experience gained through the PARIDE project, in which an online survey was disseminated to citizens asking them to identify places they perceived to be either beautiful or degraded in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The answers to these questions required respondents to draw the locations of these places using points, lines and areas on maps which were incorporated in the survey. In addition to using maps to respond, participants also had an additional question which asked them to write about the places that were reported in the maps. This served to verify the correspondence between what the respondents had mapped and what they wanted to report, allowing those who were not comfortable with cartography to contribute. Although the reports received helped to study the different conditions of the regional landscape, the results obtained highlighted the difficulties in using interactive maps online.