Mapping the data
Photo courtesy: Maryam Hussain
Reported Incidents By Maryam Hussain
Maryam Hussain is one of the prominent activists working with communities facing threats of forceful evictions because of the construction of Orange Metro line. We collected the data from her public profile, which contained dates, locations and her observations of the current situation regarding certain communities and synthesized it so it could be represented spatially allowing us to see the most effected areas along the route.
Media Reports By Various news agencies
Media in Pakistan has always played an important part in creating resistance to unjust policies and behavior. While researching about the Orange Metro Line project we came across many news articles and reports that were crucial to understanding the project. Hence we started mapping news article according to their subject matter and spatial location.
Social Mobilization By Lahore Conservation Society
Lahore Conservation Society is one of the main activist groups that has been protesting against the environmental degradation being caused by The Orange Metro Line. They have been rallying for environmental justice causes and have mobilized people to show support to people facing evictions. We spatially located their activities in order to understand their role in creating this narrative of the city.
Press Releases' By The Punjab Government
In order to understand the point of view of the Punjab Government we collected the official press releases and handouts from the Office of the Director General Public Relation's office and tried to spatially locate the content. There are certain limitations to spatializing this kind of data as the subject matter is sometimes just a remark regarding a certain issue relating to the project in which case we located those points to the respective offices from where they were released.
Locating informal settlements and low income areas analysis by us
One of the main objectives of our research work was to understand the vulnerable components of the city under threat by developmental projects like the Orange Metro line. So by joining our multiple data sets by common attributes we were able to identify points of Interest. These areas faced the most conflicts as well as received the most attention via media, social organizations etc. So for our future direction we would like to explore these areas further.
Using Maryam Hussain's reports as basis of the parameters of the effected areas, we also created a buffer around the metro line that would encapsulate the existing limits of effected communities ( 300 ft along the line). Overlaying the low income communities along the metro line with this buffer indicates the areas that need to be protected in the future proceedings of the Orange Metro Line as the construction continues.
The evictions visualized in a time lapse
This time lapse created using data from Maryam Hussain's work visualizes the evictions that have taken place due to the ongoing construction of the train line, As a way forward we would like to collect the data on the actual number of people evicted and re-design this time lapse according to that.
The Interactive map of our research in progress.
The interactive map made in Carto synthesizes all the information we have come across to build our narrative and links all the sources we've used to it. It allows the user to explore these issues on their own by clicking the points and find more details linked to them.