Colouring London/Prototype News 2023

11th September 2023 - Work begins on the Showcase/Data Application section

Work is beginning on the Colouring Cities Showcase section which will allow academia, government, the third sector, industry and citizens to upload case studies on how Colouring Cities building attribute data are being used, as well as examples of applications of comparable data derived from other sources.

30 July 2023 - New Construction section features

We have now updated our construction section using the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation classification system. GEM is the most comprehensive taxonomy for construction and materials data available and has been designed to operate across countries. We are grateful to the Foundation for helping us identify the highest priority attributes from their very detailed list.

26 July 2023 - New Source Type dropdown

We have now added a new dropdown under each data class to allow users to add information on the type of source used. The range from assessments by eye and government databases to computational inference using Colouring Cities attribute data (e.g materials inferred from age and land use). This supplements the existing 'Source link' box and will help increase our understanding of the effectiveness of specific data capture methods and reliability/usefulness of specific types of source.

26 July 2023 - New Typology section features

Today we are launching our updated Colouring London Typology section so please do feed back any comments on our technical or non-technical Discussion links. Typology data are useful for many areas of research. These range from better targeting of retrofit methods to locations, supporting calculations of energy and waste flows, understanding the relationship between building form and health and well-being outcomes, and creating open 3D planning simulations. The section collects data on 'Basic typology classification' (i.e. is the building high or low rise? densely or loosely spaced?; 'Architectural style/period'; 'Dynamic tissue classification' (i.e. what is the likelihood of, and capacity for, adaptation within plots), 'Original Building Use' (relevant to analysis of flexibility of building regarding change of use over time), and 'Attachment/Adjacency' (i.e. whether the building is detached, semi-detached etc.).

25 July 2023 - Colouring Cities featured as Turing research highlight of 2023

Delighted to announce that Colouring Cities has been chosen as one of The Alan Turing Institute's top 10 highlights of 2022-23. For further information please see the Turing Annual Report

6 July 2023 - London Data Week and thanks to top contributors and historic environment advisors

Thank you to all those who contributed data as part of London Data Week (LDW), and especially to our top contributors 'Toase of London2' and 'Weavers' who have now provided Colouring London with over 50,000 data entries each! Absolutely fantastic! We are also very grateful to Colouring London's Historic Environment Advisory Group (CLHEAG) for notifying members about LDW at short notice. CLHEAG brings together advisors from Historic England, The National Library of Scotland, Victoria County History (Institute of Historical Research), The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), The Association for Studies in the Conservation of Historic Buildings (ASCHB), The Georgian Group, The Victorian Society, The 20th Century Society, The Wildlife Trust, and the Alan Turing Institute's Computer Vision and Digital Heritage Special Interest Group and its 'Living with Machines', 'Map Reader' and 'Machine reading maps' programmes.

24 April 2023 - New disaster management tool

In anticipation of an invitation to talk at the 'Women in Data Science Conference' held by The American University of Beirut, focusing on disaster management, we are launching a new disaster management feature in our 'Resilience' section. The 'Building Damage Assessment Tool' enables live collection of data on damage to buildings in disaster scenarios e.g from floods, heatwaves and earthquake to damage from accidental explosions or political conflict. The feature draws from the World Ware 11 London Bomb Damage Maps in which buildings were colour coded by severity of damage. The introduction of a live feature for Colouring Cities platforms based on these maps, enable live collection of data in disaster situations was first discussed with The American University of Beirut/Colouring Lebanon, and SARAID following the Beirut explosion of 2020, and tested within the OpenMapLebanon platform. The tool also allows for damage to be recorded for use use in reconstruction strategies/funding bids, and addresses the problem of multiple aid agencies assessing the same building because no centralised database exists. It is hoped that the tool will provide an addition to those developed by Humanitarian OpenStreetMap and others involved in the use of open maps for humanitarian work.

24 January 2023 - New Planning Control Features

Today we are launching our new planning visualisation tool which is located within Colouring London's Planning Controls section which streams and maps planning application data, and visualises planning application status at building level.

The main purpose of the tool is to increase ease of access to planning information for all stakeholders, help local authorities better monitor change within their areas (and understand rates of change in context of other authorities), and improve dialogue and knowledge sharing on planning issues, between local authorities, developers and citizens. The tool has been developed as part of a research collaboration between The Alan Turing Institute’s Colouring Cities Research Programme (CCRP) and Loughborough University. Funding has been provided by Loughborough University’s Enterprise Projects Group (EPG) via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA).

The Colouring London planning visualisation tool has been built in line with the UK's Digital Strategy and aims to influence national and international agenda relating to streaming and spatial visualisation of planning application data to support inclusive communities and participatory decision-making. Users can use the tool on (1) the status of planning applications in a local area (including recent and historical planning applications) by streaming official planning data from the GLA’s Planning London Datahub; (2) existing planning constraints and special protections applying to sites (including listed buildings, conservation areas, flooding zones, etc.); (3) the impact from new development, including expected demolition or alteration of historical assets. It also includes a feature allow communities to colour in where they think development may occur.

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