Written by Background
Think City is an urban impact organisation based in Malaysia that aims to make “cities more people-friendly, resilient, and liveable.” With expertise in urban policy thinking, city planning, and urban development, Think City is a regional citymaking agency that aims to change the way cities are planned, developed, and celebrated, with a core focus on placemaking, resilience, analytics and conservation & adaptive reuse.
In 2018, Think City began working on a concept of open geodata sharing to be delivered via a user-friendly web-map platform. They wanted to democratise location data and enable citizens to access data quickly to stay informed about their local area, something they believe is key to healthy urban transformation.
Senior Manager and Analytics Team Lead Dr. Ceelia Leong said: “We chose Mango for our map visualisation and narrative because of its simplistic and straightforward nature. The Mango interface is relatively light and easy to navigate and can be viewed either on desktop or mobile, making it useful to both our on-ground survey teams and the active public. One of our deciding factors was Mango’s consistent and excellent customer service that has always been responsive and collaborative.”
The Problem Mango Solved
In 2019, Think City launched Urban Analytics, their open geodata portal with Mango as the underlying map software. Think City’s Urban Analytics portal contains a variety of maps and data and has become the centre point of discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data for end users, encompassing a centre for data collection, cleaning and integration, analysis and interpretation, and visualisation for all Malaysian cities.
Mango Map’s simple and easy to use interface enables Think City to overcome the technical complexities associated with presenting spatial data online while offering tools to foster creativity in other aspects of map visualisation, such as playing with data juxtaposition and colours.
Urban intelligence allows city authorities and citizens to understand their cities better
“Mango’s overall functionality has eased our minds about technical complexities often associated with presenting spatial data online. Mango is […] a stable, safe and reliable platform for our spatial data management. We are happy to have Mango as a collaborator, and we hope to remain a client for a long time.”
Results
By publicising and democratising geodata, Think City has established a connection between governments, private agencies, policymakers, urban strategists, and the general public to overcome issues surrounding Malaysian cities, providing everyone access to the latest data to make informed decisions and forge evermore people-friendly communities and cities.
Mango has been fundamental in forming Think City’s Urban Analytics portal to visualise data connected to Malaysian cities and analysing it to create creative solutions while shaping better cities for its citizens.
Mango has also been key to successfully articulating some of Think City’s most significant outputs, including the Kuala Lumpur Creative and Cultural District (KLCCD): Strategic Master Plan and George Town World Heritage Site (GTWHS): Population and Land Use Change.
