15 Putting 200 Million People “on the Map”: Evolving Methods …
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15.4 Applications and Potential Development Impacts
Missing Maps’ intent is to enable local communities and humanitarian organizations
to collect useful geospatial information. Accordingly, the field mapping methods
described above use low-cost devices (basic smartphones), rely on applications that
are easy to learn, and use free and open-source software. All of the technical tools
mentioned in the previous section are freely available for public use. This includes
tools developed by others (iD editor,
5 JOSM,
6 OpenDataKit,
7 Field Papers
8 ) and
those developed by the American Red Cross (OpenMapKit, POSM). Various training materials exist for the former, and instructional materials were to be created for
the latter. Source code can also be found on the American Red Cross’ GitHub
9 page.
In addition, Missing Maps partner organizations have published materials to support individuals interested in hosting a mapathon,
10 and the team regularly provides
support to individuals who contact them with questions.
Missing Maps’ field mapping methods and tools can be leveraged by the humanitarian/development community for a variety of situations. For example, an organization could use OpenMapKit specifically to create a basemap of the area in which
it is working, to monitor the state of water points and sanitation facilities, to assess
damaged buildings and roads after a natural disaster, to create a database of school
locations and addresses, etc. POSM can be used by small mapping teams to map
large areas with variable connectivity; it can bridge connected and disconnected
environments and provide an offline backup for intermittent Internet connectivity.
15.5 Challenges and Research Directions
By engaging remote mappers and local volunteers to map 60 million people in three
years, the Missing Maps project and its partner organizations have made significant
contributions to tools and methods for mapping vulnerable communities. Based on
its experiences, the American Red Cross has highlighted certain challenges and areas
for future growth.
For remote mapping, an important challenge is developing new ways to keep
volunteers engaged between disasters. High numbers of volunteers express interest
in remote tracing after a major disaster. However, remotely training a large pool of
extremely diverse volunteers requires time, proper tools, and coordination. A disaster
setting is not the ideal time to start the process. Instead, it is imperative to have a large
body of well-coordinated volunteers that are ready to assist when a disaster occurs.
5 Available at http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?editor=id.
6 For more information: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM.
7 For more information: https://opendatakit.org.
8 For more information: http://fieldpapers.org.
9 https://github.com/AmericanRedCross.
10 For more information: http://www.missingmaps.org/mapathons.
183
15.4 Applications and Potential Development Impacts
Missing Maps’ intent is to enable local communities and humanitarian organizations
to collect useful geospatial information. Accordingly, the field mapping methods
described above use low-cost devices (basic smartphones), rely on applications that
are easy to learn, and use free and open-source software. All of the technical tools
mentioned in the previous section are freely available for public use. This includes
tools developed by others (iD editor,
5 JOSM,
6 OpenDataKit,
7 Field Papers
8 ) and
those developed by the American Red Cross (OpenMapKit, POSM). Various training materials exist for the former, and instructional materials were to be created for
the latter. Source code can also be found on the American Red Cross’ GitHub
9 page.
In addition, Missing Maps partner organizations have published materials to support individuals interested in hosting a mapathon,
10 and the team regularly provides
support to individuals who contact them with questions.
Missing Maps’ field mapping methods and tools can be leveraged by the humanitarian/development community for a variety of situations. For example, an organization could use OpenMapKit specifically to create a basemap of the area in which
it is working, to monitor the state of water points and sanitation facilities, to assess
damaged buildings and roads after a natural disaster, to create a database of school
locations and addresses, etc. POSM can be used by small mapping teams to map
large areas with variable connectivity; it can bridge connected and disconnected
environments and provide an offline backup for intermittent Internet connectivity.
15.5 Challenges and Research Directions
By engaging remote mappers and local volunteers to map 60 million people in three
years, the Missing Maps project and its partner organizations have made significant
contributions to tools and methods for mapping vulnerable communities. Based on
its experiences, the American Red Cross has highlighted certain challenges and areas
for future growth.
For remote mapping, an important challenge is developing new ways to keep
volunteers engaged between disasters. High numbers of volunteers express interest
in remote tracing after a major disaster. However, remotely training a large pool of
extremely diverse volunteers requires time, proper tools, and coordination. A disaster
setting is not the ideal time to start the process. Instead, it is imperative to have a large
body of well-coordinated volunteers that are ready to assist when a disaster occurs.
5 Available at http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?editor=id.
6 For more information: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM.
7 For more information: https://opendatakit.org.
8 For more information: http://fieldpapers.org.
9 https://github.com/AmericanRedCross.
10 For more information: http://www.missingmaps.org/mapathons.