Public Map Platform

Climate change is a social justice issue. It cannot be addressed without revealing and tackling the inequalities within society and where they are happening. Only when we know what is happening in detail, and where, can we make strategic, holistic decisions to benefit people and the planet in the long term. This is why the focus of this pragmatic project is on building a Community Open Map Platform (COMP) to help Local Authorities and their communities picture what is happening in a place as a basis for informed decision making and local action on climate change.

The Isle of Anglesey/Ynys Môn in North Wales - the size of Greater London but with an ageing population of 70K - has been chosen as the pilot COMP because it is rural, disconnected and deprived of investment, and also because Anglesey County Council has high ambitions to reinvent itself as a centre of sustainable innovation.

The need to include people in decision making about their future is at the heart of the Future Generations Wales (2015) Act (FGA), a ground breaking piece of legislation that is currently being emulated in a range of 'wellbeing economy governments' across the globe. The COMP has developed in response to Welsh Government's need to operationalise the FGA as well as the Isle of Anglesey County Council's need to align its activities and performance with the FGA. Anglesey's priority 'wellbeing objectives' are children and young people, zero net carbon and poverty, hence the focus of this short project on the experiences of children, young people and their families. The COMP will help Anglesey achieve and evidence its progress towards these priorities as part of the green transition through the development of a holistic value map that encompasses layers that demonstrate social, environmental and economic value, the 'triple bottom line of sustainability' and culture, a key pillar of the FGA, one that will be explored through the integration of arts and humanities practitioners (bards) into...