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YouthMappers UFRJ highlights main achievements

Posted by Raquel Dezidério Souto on 4 February 2025 in English. Last updated on 9 February 2025.

– Em Português

YouthMappers UFRJ Trajectory

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The YouthMappers UFRJ is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Raquel Dezidério Souto (in post doctoral internship), and Prof. Dr. Manoel Fernandes, both from the Laboratory of Cartography, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (GeoCart-UFRJ, Brazil), and was set up to prepare new mappers and develop collaborative mapping research with OpenStreetMap and related programs, involving the community, with members from inside and outside UFRJ, residing in Brazil and in other countries.

The initiative is part of the international YouthMappers network, a project founded by professors from the Universities of Arizona and Texas, with sponsor and support of the USAID (USA). There are currently more than 400 groups in public universities around the world.

The theme chosen to begin the development of mapping activities in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) is Disaster disaster reduction (DRR), with the risk areas in the state of Rio de Janeiro as areas of interest. Other themes, such as mapping trees, evaluation of housing conditions in areas of special social interest or developing web applications, are being considered by us and our partners, who are still at the development stage.

In this way, the YouthMappers UFRJ chapter aims to develop research using collaborative data and secondary official data, as a means of providing informational support for the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), contributing to decision-making and other purposes. And to contribute to the development of other YouthMappers chapters in the state of Rio de Janeiro and other states in Brazil.


🗺 The first collaborative mapping project: infrastructure for DRR in risk areas in the municipality of Maricá, RJ, Brazil

foto areas risco Maricá RJ Map of the areas of interest (AOI) of the infrastructure mapping project for disaster risk reduction in Maricá, RJ Brazil. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Areas delimited by Prof. Dr. Alessandra de Freitas (POLI-UFRJ).

Our initial collaborative project is focused on mapping infrastructure for disaster risk reduction (DRR) in the municipality of Maricá (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). The municipality has been suffering from episodes of flooding, landslides and coastal erosion, due to irregular occupation, spreading to areas that are unsuitable for housing, as well as an increase in the frequency and intensity of disastrous events in the region.

The project adopts collaborative techniques such as mapping with OpenStreetMap and interactive mapping with uMap, a French project that provides a platform for developing interactive web maps, free of charge and hosted in the cloud. It also makes its source code available. No annual fees, no requests for add-ons, no IP tracking… using uMap!


In a short time… significant results


MapRoulette screenshot MapRoulette screenshot. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

To provide technical support to the YouthMappers UFRJ chapter, the Virtual Institute for Sustainable Development - IVIDES.orgⓇ is preparing educational material on mapping with OpenStreetMap, carrying out training sessions, creating collaborative mapping projects, which allows the control of mapping activities, e.g., impeding more than one mapper editing the same area. This arrangement makes it possible to organize the tasks, and therefore the mapping project as a whole, and to preserve the data, which is not corrupted. In addition, the data can be validated, from the same project made available, and with the configuration of access levels, according with the mapper experience - beginner, intermediate, advanced mappers, avoiding mistakes commonly made by beginners.


💻 Mapping with OSM training course

foto mapa curso Captura do mapa do osm.org com Brasil ao centro. Dados © contribuidores(as) do OpenStreetMap.

A complete Mapping with OpenStreetMap training course was published in August 2023, having become a continuous flow course (entry at any time of the year), and having reached 384 participants (data 01/31/2025), residing in Brazil and other countries. The course remains online, as a self-learning platform, with certificates being issued every six months, based on an evaluation of the results of the participants.


💻 Thematic mapping workshops with OSM

captura osm.org mostrando cobertura vegetal osm.org screenshot, showing landcover features. Dados © contribuidores(as) do OpenStreetMap.

In 2024, thematic mapping workshops with OpenStreetMap were held online, covering the mapping of points of interest (POI), hydrography, landcover, features related to DRR, as well as importing official data into OSM.

Added to the participants of the thematic mapping workshops and the public of the individual workshops held with local groups at various public and private universities in Brazil and in other countries (Mexico and Mozambique), and nearly 700 certificates were issued by IVIDES.orgⓇ!

To find out how to schedule a one-day workshop at your organization, please,contact ivides@ivides.org.


🦒 Participation in the State of the Map 2024

presentation SotM 2024 first slide presentation First slide of the lightning talk, realized in the SotM 2024, Nairobi (Kenya), by Dra. Raquel Dezidério Souto.

The interactive map project, developed with OSM, uMap and WordPress, for mapping the infrastructure for DRR in the municipality of Maricá, RJ, Brazil, was presented during the State of the Map 2024, the main global conference of the OpenStreetMap community, held in Nairobi, Kenya, in this edition.


Scientific seminar for supporting Rio Grande do Sul

post seminario © IVIDES.org

In 2024, the IVIDES.orgⓇ conducted a collaborative mapping campaign for the Taquari-Antas River Basin Region (RS), as part of Brazil’s efforts to produce data to support disaster response.

In order to disseminate scientific results, in September 2024, the Institute promoted the Scientific Seminar for Rio Grande do Sul, in partnership with the chapters YouthMappers UFRJ, UERGS and Unipampa; and technical and gift support from Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB).

On the event page, you’ll find the PDF and video files of the lectures with professors from three public universities in the State of Rio Grande do Sul - UERGS, UFRGS and FURG. Or directly on Wikimedia. Also, some Web maps were generated very quickly with uMap, in order to support humanitarian and government actions during the disaster and the post disaster activities.


20 Years of OpenStreetMap!

logo 20 years osm © OpenStreetMap

The IVIDES.orgⓇ held an event to celebrate 20 years of OpenStreetMap, in partnership with the HUB YouthMappers Rio de Janeiro and with the support of Tom Tom, for the distribution of gifts. As part of the Agenda, five workshops on collaborative mapping with OpenStreetMap were promoted, with different thematics, with partnership of the universities: Unipar (Paraná), Unipampa (Rio Grande do Sul), COPPE-UFRJ (Rio de Janeiro) and UFF Campos (inauguration of the UFF chapter in Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ).


🌍 Connect to this initiative!

To find out more about our work, visit the YouthMappers UFRJ project portal.

– With information from the coordination of YouthMappers UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, February 1st, 2025. Translated with Deepl (free version) and with human validation.
IVIDES.orgⓇ is a registered trademark. ivides@ivides.org | https://ivides.org/


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