Producing Radiation Maps - Participatory Mapping: New Data, New Cartography - page 105

wrote many emails to individuals as well as
organizations and media - on all sides. We tried
to get hold of the contacts of all relevant people
involved, scientists etc, unfortunately too - many
of the maps for example do not provide clear
references to their authorship [ Sic ]. Andreas
Schneider, interview by email, July 31, 2011
6.2.3. Using all the available data sources
The last category of cartographers used all the available
radiation data both from official and alternative sources. The
maps using data from the Pachube Website are part of this
category, as the platform gathered data from the SPEEDI
government sensor network as well as data feeds from
Geiger counters such as Safecast's. The issue of aggregating
the available data here is a matter of necessity rather than
opinion.
The information deficit following the accident was so
significant that cartographers chose to join together all the
data that could be mapped. Combining data from multiple
sources is typical of a form of pragmatism in an emergency
situation. If the map is to provide a tool to monitor the
development of the situation for which the public authorities
are failing, it is important to be able to compile as large a
dataset as possible to tend toward a real-time report of the
situation. The quantity of the data has the priority over the
quality; and separating the data sources becomes less
important than monitoring the situation, as a mapmaker
summarizes:
I think accuracy is not very important in this
case. It is important to compare the changes
continuously.