Berlin – 6-8 October 2024. The WZB – Berlin Social Science Center hosted the 4th Mapineq Consortium meeting. Over the course of the two-day event, participants engaged in a series of presentations and discussions focused on the latest work package results. Topics ranged from the impact of housing and environmental factors on educational transitions to the effects of economic conditions on late-career opportunities across Europe.
Towards a new equality of place: Leveraging geospatial data for policy impact
The meeting also featured a public hybrid event, where we introduced our Mapineq Link database and Interactive online dashboard. Mapineq Link allows journalists, policymakers, researchers, and data scientists to visually explore and understand inequalities more precisely than ever.
“We are thrilled to introduce this innovative and unique tool that can be used to explore and analyse regional distribution of socioeconomic inequalities using diverse data sources and advanced analytical methods. This is a huge step forward from the nation-level comparisons that researchers and decision-makers have relied on until now“.
Professor Jani Erola, Mapineq project coordinator
The tool uses multiple governmental, commercial, and unconventional data sources, including geo-located socioeconomic, environmental, infrastructure, and health indicators from government agencies, commercial providers, and less conventional channels such as satellite images.
The graphical, easy-to-use mapping tool, available for all users, allows local, regional, and national comparisons of associations between any two user-chosen indicators included in the database. The tool will also enable researchers to conduct more complex analyses using any number of indicators – in combination with their own data.
“Mapineq Link is a fundamentally different interactive tool that harmonises geospatial data, from pollution to real-time information on housing prices, to tackle local disparities and promote equality throughout the life course. This groundbreaking tool is a crucial step towards a new equality of place”.
Professor Melinda Mills, Mapineq Link project lead
An interactive web tool for various users
Mapineq Link comprises three components: a database that includes various indicators from multiple sources, an interactive web dashboard that makes the database accessible to a broad audience, and an API (Application Programming Interface) that allows users to access and retrieve data from the database.
The tool is designed to serve various user groups. Through the dashboard, journalists, policymakers, researchers, data scientists, and other users can access information to explore data spatially and uncover correlations between indicators.
“Policymakers may want to understand how different types of inequalities or inequalities are patterned in a certain region, district, or country, whereas journalists may want to use it for investigative journalism or producing data-driven stories. Furthermore, researchers can download and embed data in their articles, and data scientists can access and retrieve data for further analysis.”
Professor Melinda Mills, Mapineq Link project lead
Improving functionality through user feedback
The database and the dashboard will be fully launched for public use in December 2024. The dashboard is available at https://www.mapineq.org/ and Mapineq Link reports can be found at https://mapineq.eu/inequality-database/ . Mapineq Link is free to use and does not require registration.
To introduce the tool and gather user feedback, we are organizing a Mapineq Link Webinar series will be held 9–11 December at 13:00–14:00 CET. The series will explore the structure and scope of Mapineq Link, demonstrate dashboard navigation, and provide a technical walkthrough of the API. Read more and register here.
If you would like to share your thoughts or suggestions on the tool, we kindly invite you to fill out our feedback form here: https://mapineq.eu/feedback/
“Future plans for Mapineq Link include expanding the database beyond Europe, enhancing its functionality based on user feedback, and incorporating new indicators such as job site advertisements to see supply and demand in different regions.”
Professor Melinda Mills, Mapineq project lead
Watch the recording of the launch event now:
