OpenStreetMap

Ruben Martin and I discuss recent highlights and what’s coming up in the humanitarian open mapping community.

What’s covered this week in brief?

Syria & Turkey earthquake response // Activations in Malawi and Ethiopia // International Women’s Day catch up // Bolivia YouthMappers // Mapping journeys to impact // Ruwa project completion // What’s coming up? // Mappy quote of the week

What’s happened this week?

Syria / Turkey earthquake response: The Turkey / Syria earthquake activation continues to progress — tasking manager projects are being finished off and and the validation is catching up. ~ 9,000 mappers have contributed over 2 million buildings and more than 83,000 km of roads so far. We also published this blog to try and provide insight into where the data is going and what it is being used for

There is also this brilliant testimony from Dr Mehmet on his use of OpenStreetMap data for public health programming in the tent cities where people displaced by the earthquake are housed.

Activations in Malawi and Ethiopia: Additionally, the OSM Malawi community has activated to support the data needs for responders following Cyclone Freddy in Malawi — you can support them with mapping, here. OSM Ethiopia are also still mapping in response to the drought and food crisis in Ethiopia, which is drastically affecting people in the region of Oromia — you can contribute here.

International Women’s Day: There was loads of stuff to catch up from from International Women’s Day this week, too… My recommendations…

Encourage you to watch and listen!

Bolivia YouthMappers: Really enjoying following the YouthMappers UMSA chapter from Bolivia. They seem to be on such a roll; developing connections and collaborations, flying drones and doing lots of mapping!

Mapping journeys to impact: Excited to see the insights start to emerge from Rubén’s conversations with people and organisations that have been using open map data for flood resilience, and advocacy for improved services and planning for communities in informal settlements. The goal is to try to expose the knowledge, tools and support that people trying to solve similar challenges need to give them the motivation and means to use open mapping and OpenStreetMap to take action.

Ruwa project completion: Lastly, the closing event of the Ruwa project, which focuses on open mapping and access to water in Niger, is taking place this week. There are trainings, sharebacks and lots more planned by the Open Mapping Hub — West and Northern Africa and their partners. More to come, soon!

What is coming up?

The OSM Africa mapathon is this month focusing on Namibia and hosted by our friends from the Shack Dwellers Federation and OSM Namibia.

There is also a Community Working Group webinar coming up in a couple of weeks, focusing on the women’s participation in OpenStreetMap research mentioned in last week’s weeknotes. Morte details to come!

Mappy quote of the week:

There are so many this week (the recordings and podcast above are full of them!), but this one is from my colleague, Nama (HOT’s regional director — Asia Pacific) and taken from his appearance on the geomob Turkey & Syria earthquake response podcast episode

“OpenStreetMap is a great project and disaster after disaster we continue to demonstrate that we can work together to produce something useful for people on the ground!”

Discussion

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