Smelly Maps: The Digital Life of Urban Smellscapes

Smelly  Maps    The  Digital  Life  of  Urban  Smellscapes  @danielequercia  @rschifan  @lajello  @katemclean  

Humans  Discriminate  >  1  Trillion  Smells  Science,  March  2014  

City  planning  can  discriminate  only  few  bad  odors    

How  do  we  measure  odors?  

smell  walks  Amsterdam,  Pamplona,  Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  Newport,  Paris,  New  York.  

Match  collected  words  to  social  media  

London  &  Barcelona  

17M   436K   1.7M  

violet   rose  50  

33  

42  

14  

23  

23  

8  31  

12  

7  

Community  structure  emerges  

Nature  Animals  

Emissions  

Urban  Smellscape  Aroma  Wheel  

Both  posiVve  and  negaVve  smells  

EmissionsIndustry

FoodTobaccoCleaningSynthetic

WasteAnimalsNatureMetro

Emissions

Industry

Food

Tobacco

Cleaning

Synthetic

Waste

Animals

Nature

Metro

−0.4

−0.2

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

classificaVon  is  ecologically  valid  

The  first  urban  smell  dicVonary    researchswinger.org/smellymaps  

2    Capturing    smell  notes  from    social  media  

00.05 0.1

0.15 0.2

0.25 0.3

0.35 0.4

0.45

Emission

s

Indus

tryFoo

d

Tobac

co

Cleanin

g

Synthe

ticWas

te

Animals

Nature

Metro

0.15

0.27

0.21

0.42LondonBarcelona

Base  Notes  of  London  &  Barcelona  

Air  Quality  &  Smell  Categories  

Results  do  not  change  across  social  media  

Results  do  not  change  across  ciVes  

Flickr  London  Smellscape  (Nature)  

Flickr  London  Smellscape  (Nature)  

Hide  Park  

Flickr  London  Smellscape  (Emissions)  

Flickr  London  Smellscape  (Emissions)  

Park  LN  

Kensington  Road  

Flickr  Barcelona  Smellscape  

Park  Güell  

Montjuic  

Flickr  Barcelona  Smellscape  

Travessera  de  Dalt  

Ronda  Litoral    

Flickr  London  Smellscape  (Animals)  

Flickr  London  Smellscape  (Animals)  

London’s  Zoo  

Flickr  Barcelona  Smellscape  (Animals)  

Zoo  &  Ciutadella    Park  

Reading  Smelly  Maps:  The  Digital  Life  of  Urban  Smellscapes