Climate Cartographics
Lindsay Bremner (Principal Investigator), John Cook, and Ben Pollock
Map of tree planting by Trees for Cities at Northholt Racecourse Estate
[Map by Ben Pollock and John Cook]
CLIMATE CARTOGRAPHICS IS a Proof of Concept Grant to investigate the commercial potential of the mapping techniques developed during Monsoon Assemblages, a European Research Council funded project that ran 2016-2021. Our cartographic methods combine climatic, geographic and societal data to produce visually powerful maps and data visualisations of the impacts of climate change on particular sectors and contexts. To test the feasibility of this idea, this grant has enabled us to undertake market research into competitive products and services, understand who the key market players are, profile potential clients for our product, and learn what market drivers, barriers and triggers they might face are. In addition, we have investigated the IP and data security issues our innovation raises and scoped out the strengths and weaknesses of potential commercialisation strategies.
Most importantly, we have pilot projects with partners from different sectors to develop how our services can assist customers from across public, private, not-for- profit and academic sectors. We have partnered with: the Active Travel Academy, the NGO Trees for Cities, Southwark Council, and Pelagian, a private under-sea cable company. These projects have enabled us to refine our value proposition for each sector and undertake market segmentation within and across sectors. It has highlighted how each client has different cartographic needs, and how to tailor the services we provide to meet their requirements, including: type of product, depth of enquiry, and presentation, methods of delivery and engagement and difference in price and ways of calculating.
Piloting has tested and expanded our cartographic repertoires in response to client briefs and provided data on which to compare their needs and develop a grid of criteria to guide future work and build future markets. By the end of the Proof of Concept phase we aim to have formalised contracts with at least one client from each sector for future work.
