Mapping Change For Sustainable Communities, Hanif Rahemtulla In the United Kingdom the areas of East London and the Thames Gateway are facing huge and accelerating changes. If local people and communities are to engage effectively with the processes of change they need to know what is going on, to understand how proposed changes may affect them and to feel confident to play a positive role in those changes. Currently these communities face change in their areas with limited means (institutions and knowledge) to assess and influence decision‐making processes and feel excluded and alienated from the changes taking place and report that their concerns go unaddressed. As a result, some stakeholders are missing from project discussions. Mapping is a powerful way to engage local communities; to visually represent information; to provide evidence of environmental inequalities and also in helping to draw new links and ideas. Through participatory processes we developed an on‐line interactive GIS‐based map of East London which provides a central hub linking information in an accessible and policy relevant format. The map can be used to link planning proposals and development sites with flood and climate data, air and noise pollution mapping, local environmental and social issues, and projects. Most importantly, the map is continually evolving as local people are able to enter information and use the map as a mode of communication. In the long term, this map will help to develop a clearer identity of the environmental issues and inequalities which exist in East London and the Thames Gateway.
