A Feminist GIS Approach for Identifying, Mapping and Evaluating Gender Inclusive Features in Urban Public Spaces
Creators: name: Falahatkar, Hawjin
Publisher: name: Arts
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Feminist GIS
subject: Purpose-led GIS
subject: Women
subject: Disability
subject: Gender-inclusive urban spaces
subject: Gender-inclusive features
subject: Inclusive mapping
subject: University campus open spaces
subject: Safety
subject: Accessibility
subject: Urban and Regional Planning
subject: FOS: Social and economic geography
subject: Education--Social Sciences
subject: Geography
subject: Gender Studies
subject: Women's Studies
subject: Computer Science
subject: Physical Geography

description: This thesis thoroughly explores gender and movement disability inclusion in urban public open spaces, scrutinizing both physical design and digital mapping aspects. It illuminates the unique spatial behavior patterns observed among women and individuals with reduced mobility in urban settings, emphasizing the disparity between these behaviors and their representation in physical design and mapping systems. The study identifies the central concern of current urban designs’ inadequacy in providing safe and equitable access for these groups. Moreover, it recognizes the gender digital divide in mapping systems, where women are frequently underrepresented in spatial datasets, complicating accurate mapping of gender-place relations. To tackle these challenges, the research develops a feminist GIS framework focused on understanding, mapping, and evaluating urban public spaces from a gender and disability perspective. This framework includes defining a data topology containing various gender-inclusive features, collecting multiple data sets to represent these features, establishing a data source hierarchy, and utilizing Esri technology for data collection, mapping, analysis, and visualization. The study produces an interactive map and dashboard, the Inclusive UCalgary Campus Dashboard, to visualize gender-inclusive features and attributes publicly for UCalgary users. Furthermore, it establishes multiple assessment criteria to evaluate the condition of gender-inclusive features within UCalgary’s campus, gauging how UCalgary accommodates the spatial needs of women and those with reduced mobilities. The findings reveal diverse and often fine-scale map features representing women and individuals with reduced mobilities are absent from available datasets resulting in inadequate representation of this group on maps. Through a data source hierarchy, GIS functionalities, and online interactive mapping methods, it is possible to collect, store, manipulate, and map features that are crucial for this group’s space navigation and utilization. Furthermore, the assessment of UCalgary’s campus open space reveals significant challenges in gender and disability inclusion, particularly regarding the uneven distribution of gender-inclusive features and functions across campus areas which adversely affects safety, accessibility, and spatial quality, especially within campus peripheral zones. In conclusion, the study advocates for a purpose-led GIS by redefining the mapping process that prioritizes equity over efficiency. It highlights the feminist GIS framework’s potential to enhance accessibility, safety, and diversity in urban environments for less-represented groups, thereby promoting a sense of belonging and quality of life for all community members.