Map the Ecosystem
Focus on mapping what interest you most for your Fab City Hub !
Why does it matter ?
To set up your local Fab City Hub you need to understand the surrounding ecosystems and find out possible missing gaps that will affect or will be affected by your FCH.
Fab City Hubs follow the vision to become a motor for systemic change, helping to transform currently wasteful and extractive cities into circular ecosystems. As open spaces that bring together skills, knowledge and resources around local manufacturing, design and food production, Fab City Hubs aim to build productive communities that generate the knowledge and products needed by our cities. In contrast to other maker spaces and Fab Labs, Fab City Hubs operate at an ecosystem-level. They should connect existing initiatives, enable learning amongst manufacturers and foster pathways for resource exchange and circular material flows amongst people and nature.
To play this role as a facilitator of circular productive ecosystems, every Fab City Hub should start with gaining as much knowledge about the existing local ecosystem as possible. Who are the existing manufacturers and producers in the area? Which similar initiatives and projects exist within our area? By mapping those who have skills, knowledge and resources to share, Fab City Hubs are better equipped to find, engage and connect the right partners for local activities. A simple digital map that visualises stakeholders and additional information about them can be helpful in two ways. First and foremost, it can help Fab City Hubs to create a mental model of all relevant stakeholders and help them keep track of potential opportunities and partnerships to explore further. Which locally available waste streams could be used to demonstrate and teach about reuse and upcycling? Which partners could become knowledge providers for workshops in the future? Next to this internal map, FCH can also benefit from publishing a map of all supporting stakeholders that are part of a joint vision towards a local productive community. Especially when Fab City Hubs do not have a centralised place, having a map of decentralised networks of places that offer resources for learning opportunities can help to create a virtual community.
Mapping the local ecosystem does not stop with mapping people and their resources. Fab City Hubs should equally acknowledge the ecological “non-human” stakeholders that surround us and have historically been damaged by unsustainable production in cities. Building circular ecosystems also means regenerating the bioregional ecosystems that our cities depend on. In CENTRINNO, therefore, we have mapped potential local soil pollution, littering, water pollution and the loss of green space. Mapping the local ecological ecosystem and its potential needs and services can help facilitators of Fab City Hubs to communicate and create programs around locally relevant ecological problems and potential solutions.
Key aspects
Find here a selection of key aspects related to map the ecosystem that could be relevant for your Fab City Hub.
Tools/Stories
Find here a curated selection of Tools and Stories from the 9 Fab City Hub Network members that could help you in organise actions to map your surrounding ecosystem :
👥pageCentrinno Cartography ( ex-Kumu)🛠️pageResource Flow Mapping🛠️pageMapping roles in the Circular Economy🏭pageMake Works for Food Producers🏭pageKumu for learning ecosystems🏭pageDesigning Democratic DialoguesOther Resources
Find here a list of other resources collected to know more about the power of mapping for Fab City Hub.
→ CENTRINNO Cartography : A digital platform with more information on urban ecosystem mapping and insights into mapping journeys adopted by CENTRINNO pilots
→KUMU: A mapping tool used by our pilots to visualise and analyse data gathered on local stakeholders
→Materiom: A library of recipes for creating biomaterials from locally abundant (waste) materials. This can be useful for Fab City Hubs to find out what could be done with locally available resources that they have mapped
→CENTRINNO Opportunities Explorer Tool : An interactive case study library created as part of the CENTRINNO project to help FCH find circular opportunities and business cases around common urban waste materials
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