How Well Do You Know Your City's Boundaries?

A new crowdsourced map projects asks people to draw their city limits from memory.

1 minute read

September 9, 2016, 8:00 AM PDT

Tanvi Misra shares news of the new mapping project by Alasdair Rae, an urban scholar at the University of Sheffield, U.K., who is crowdsourcing maps of the mental boundaries of cities.

Rae's own words describe this project:

Sometimes official city boundaries extend far beyond the urban fabric, and sometimes they don't include very much of it at all. I want to see what people consider to be part of their city, or not. All the drawn boundaries on this site come from your contributions.

Yes, you can draw your own map, and, yes, you can view previous mapping attempts.

Misra notes two takeaways. First, "[f]or many, the paths they take to move around the city become its de-facto borders. M25, the highway that circles London’s core, for example, is a popular option."

Second, the "map confirms what we’ve known for a while—that how our mind recalls the space around us depends heavily on the landmarks and routes that we know and take."

FULL STORY: Where Are Your City Limits?

Wednesday, September 7, 2016 in CityLab

Government / Politics Land Use World United Kingdom Cities Boundaries Mapping Crowdsourcing View More

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.