ABSTRACT
The quality of urban environments can play an important role in shaping children’s well-being by providing spaces for play, environment and social learning and active and independent mobility. Researchers concerned with the geography of children’s well-being are increasingly turning to novel modes of visualisation to highlight patterns of children’s spatial behaviour and the complex set of relations that define their everyday travel and activity in cities. In this chapter we highlight the possibilities and challenges for spatial researchers when visualising the geography of children’s well-being. The chapter offers a reflection on three layers of visualisation from a mixed methods study in Perth, Western Australia. Each layer is informed by different research methods, analytic techniques and technologies, including GPS, GIS and photovoice. We argue that researchers need to be cognisant of the strengths and limitations of different visualisation techniques and that combining analysis from different visual methods can help reduce the shortfall of individual approaches. This triangulation is essential to revealing rich and complex relationships between children and their everyday built and social environments.
