What is communiMap?

Local people notice things about their area that no official dataset ever captures. communiMap is where those observations go! 

communiMap is a free app for recording what you see in your local area and contributing to a shared picture of the place built from the ground up. 

No expertise needed. 

• Record your walks and reflect on what you notice about local streets, paths and green spaces.
• Spot and share nature, whether it’s wildlife sightings, seasonal changes, or interesting plants you spot.
• Identify, measure, and learn about local trees, including where to plant more and how trees help our climate.
• Observe and record water, including puddles, floods, droughts and help build a clearer picture of local climate impacts.
• Monitor composting at home or at school and share what works (or doesn’t!).
• Highlight local energy ideas and sustainable solutions in your community.

communiMap is flexible! 

Record a single observation on a walk, use it with a class over several weeks, or build your own record of a place you care about over time. 

Every spot you add builds a growing picture that captures what official data misses. 

Official data about our streets, green spaces, and local environments is collected by institutions, councils, planners, and researchers. 

But institutional data misses what local people actually experience: the tree that no map records, the path that always floods, the wildlife that appears and disappears with the seasons.  

communiMap fills that gap. 

Every observation adds to a shared picture of a place that belongs to the community that creates it. 

When you add your spots, you help:

• Build a record of your local area that captures what official datasets miss. 
  
• Contribute to research at the University of Glasgow, including work on nature connectedness, surface water flooding and urban trees that is already underway. 
  
• Create a picture of a place that communities can use to understand their environment and, over time, make the case for change. 

Whether you're someone who notices things on walks, a community group looking after a local space, a teacher connecting learning to the real world, or a researcher interested in what communities observe, communiMap is for you!

communiMap is developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow as part of the GALLANT project, a climate and nature research programme funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).  

The app is built on the Spotteron citizen science platform.

The data is public, the map is open, and the picture it builds belongs to everyone who contributes to it.  

communiMap started in Glasgow but is open to anyone, anywhere!

Your observations are already doing things! 

communiMap data is feeding into a Hunterian Museum exhibition opening in 2027, built with communities around what they notice in their local area. 

Researchers at the University of Glasgow are working on papers about nature connectedness and surface water flooding using observations from the map. 

A public data dashboard lets anyone explore the growing dataset. And a tree carbon sequestration map shows what urban trees across Glasgow are contributing to the local environment.  

The map is public. You can explore it, share it, and use it. 

As the dataset grows, so does its potential as evidence for anyone who wants to understand or change their local environment.