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“Mapping is very important to communities, to be able to demarcate their territories and identify the lands that are important to them,” he said. “It’s used in negotiations with government, resource companies and others.”

Photo by Google

Conventional mapping exercises — where people mapped out where they do things such as hunt, fish or perform ceremonies — used to take place on paper place maps, DeRoy said. “But when Google came out with Google Earth, that really changed the field for us.”

Now DeRoy uses a direct-to-digital exercise that projects Google Earth on the wall during a community workshop where people use a laser pointer to show what should be added. Instead of mapping on paper, the information is captured digitally and cuts down on the time it takes to get out to the community or public.

“It really transformed how we carry out research with indigenous communities by being able to reduce the amount of post-processing effort, increase the amount of spatial literacy and increase the amount of accuracy in which these maps and data are collected in,” he said. “You can also get really close into the ground to see details such as trees, lakes or shorelines and actually pinpoint with great accuracy the location of all these places.”

Google said it will continue to work with partners to add more data in Google Maps and Earth in the months to come. Individuals and communities can also recommend changes or additions through the Maps’ Send Feedback feature or Google’s Base Map Partner Program.

“The powerful thing about Google’s mapping tools is that they are so easy to use. Even if community members don’t have professional degrees in mapping, they can come to short workshops and start learning,” she said.

“It opens it up for a lot more members of the communities to be involved in the process, which I think is really exciting. It’s sort of democratizing map making.”

Financial Post

jomcconnell@postmedia.com

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