Chapter 5
Healthsites.io: The Global Healthsites
Mapping Project
René Saameli, Dikolela Kalubi, Mark Herringer, Tim Sutton
and Eric de Roodenbeke
5.1 Introduction
The world is facing an increasing number of complex natural or man-made humanitarian crises. In order to respond to these growing challenges, humanitarian actors are
deploying more and more innovative technologies and approaches to support relief
aid (Haselkorn and Walton 2009). Geo-information are an example where humanitarian practices have dramatically evolved in the recent years with the emergence
of the phenomena called by Goodchild (2007) Volunteered Geographic Information
(VGI), or more generally by Burns (2014) “digital humanitarianism”. Indeed, the
democratization of access to Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite imagery
and web mapping platforms, such as OpenStreetMap (OSM), and more recently
mobile phone data collection tools have enabled large numbers of remote and on
the ground individuals to produce geographical information to support humanitarian action. This technological evolution has offered greater opportunities of use for
humanitarian actors. It has enabled the collection and sharing of large amount of data
in short period of time at a fraction of the costs of the traditional data collection and
R. Saameli (B) · D. Kalubi
International Committee of the Red-Cross, Lausanne, Switzerland
e-mail: rsaameli@icrc.org
D. Kalubi
e-mail: dikolela.kalubi@epfl.ch; dkalubi@icrc.org
M. Herringer · T. Sutton
Healthsites.io, London, UK
e-mail: mark@healthsites.io
T. Sutton
e-mail: tim@kartoza.com
E. de Roodenbeke
International Hospital Federation, Bernex, Switzerland
e-mail: ederoodenbeke@ihf-fih.org
© The Author(s) 2018
S. Hostettler et al. (eds.), Technologies for Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91068-0_5
53
Healthsites.io: The Global Healthsites
Mapping Project
René Saameli, Dikolela Kalubi, Mark Herringer, Tim Sutton
and Eric de Roodenbeke
5.1 Introduction
The world is facing an increasing number of complex natural or man-made humanitarian crises. In order to respond to these growing challenges, humanitarian actors are
deploying more and more innovative technologies and approaches to support relief
aid (Haselkorn and Walton 2009). Geo-information are an example where humanitarian practices have dramatically evolved in the recent years with the emergence
of the phenomena called by Goodchild (2007) Volunteered Geographic Information
(VGI), or more generally by Burns (2014) “digital humanitarianism”. Indeed, the
democratization of access to Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite imagery
and web mapping platforms, such as OpenStreetMap (OSM), and more recently
mobile phone data collection tools have enabled large numbers of remote and on
the ground individuals to produce geographical information to support humanitarian action. This technological evolution has offered greater opportunities of use for
humanitarian actors. It has enabled the collection and sharing of large amount of data
in short period of time at a fraction of the costs of the traditional data collection and
R. Saameli (B) · D. Kalubi
International Committee of the Red-Cross, Lausanne, Switzerland
e-mail: rsaameli@icrc.org
D. Kalubi
e-mail: dikolela.kalubi@epfl.ch; dkalubi@icrc.org
M. Herringer · T. Sutton
Healthsites.io, London, UK
e-mail: mark@healthsites.io
T. Sutton
e-mail: tim@kartoza.com
E. de Roodenbeke
International Hospital Federation, Bernex, Switzerland
e-mail: ederoodenbeke@ihf-fih.org
© The Author(s) 2018
S. Hostettler et al. (eds.), Technologies for Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91068-0_5
53