Community Centered Urban Sensing
Community-Centered Urban Sensing (CCUS) is a project of the University of Virginia School of Architecture, collaborating with communities and government to better understand and address neighborhood issues using community-based methods for collecting, analyzing, and acting on urban environmental data. Working with the City of Charlottesville, CCUS examines the issue of nighttime street lighting across the City. Low-quality and uneven lighting of streets and public spaces affects mobility and health by limiting our ability to travel on foot or by bike and affecting our sense of security, but also by disrupting the natural rhythms of night and day. CCUS collects both lighting data using low-cost environmental sensors and public input on lighting issues through the website. The CCUS website maps environmental data and public input of photos and text and allows for comparison to other key environmental and demographic factors. The online data, maps, and analysis are contributing to the design of new responsive lighting infrastructures and a plan for lighting in the City that accounts for to local concerns.
For more information, please visit Next Cities
Authors and Contributors:
Mona El Khafif
Andrew Mondschein
Eric Field
Zihao Zhang
Gabriele Andrade
Taylor Thompson
Sesi Cadmus