Dr Kate McLean-MacKenzie, a designer and researcher at the University of Kent, said she first became intrigued by the sense of smell 15 years ago.

“I realised that there was an enormous gap in the fact that we communicate what we see – and we can record that and we can share it via Instagram and photography and sketching – and we can record and share sounds digitally. But any way of recording and communicating smell was largely missing,” she said.

As a result, McLean-MacKenzie began mapping “smellscapes” in different locations, including many of the world’s cities.

— Read more in Nosy researcher’s quest to map the world’s ‘smellscapes’ at The Guardian.

Pamplona’s autumn smellscape reflects the city population’s fixation with food. Glasgow’s winter smellscape is of building and construction, the scents of regeneration underpinned by greasy food particles hanging in the omnipresent dreich, with a highly specific smell of the clockwork orange subway system – damp, metallic sponge is a descriptor, but really it is just the smell of the subway that starts as you descend the inner stairs to the platform.

— Kate McLean, on mapping the world’s scents. Read more at The sweet smell of Amsterdam … and it’s not just cannabis, say odour mappers at The Guardian.

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Public Radio International goes on a "smell walk" in Boston with Kate McLean. The segment is about 5 minutes long. You can find McLean's website at Sensory Maps.