The document summarizes the OpenStreetMap community's response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It describes how within days of the earthquake, OSM mappers began collecting and uploading map data of Haiti, including tracing high-resolution satellite imagery. It discusses how the OSM data was then used by humanitarian organizations for tasks like locating camps, distributing aid, and routing. Over time, the quality and completeness of the OSM Haiti map improved greatly through mass collaboration. The document highlights the importance of open data and tools for effective disaster response.
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OpenStreetMap Response to Haiti earthquake
1. Mapping of Haiti
OpenStreetMap Community’s Response to January
2010 Earthquake
Shoaib Burq
shoaib@nomad-labs.com
twitter: sabman
1
2. @sabman
#haitiosm
Post Questions on Twitter
with Slide Numbers
2
3. MapKibera project to
introduce OSM and help
audience understand
the significance of
collaborative tools and
passionate
communities.
Introduction to OpenStreetMap (OSM)
3
60. day 7Original-Nachricht --------
--------
Datum: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:48:05 -0800
Von: Christiaan Adams <csad...@google.com>
Hi folks,
I've been asked to let you know that you CAN trace this
imagery in OSM:
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/imagery.html
-Christiaan
---------------------------------
Christiaan Adams
Google Earth Outreach
Google Crisis Response
csad...@google.com <mailto:csad...@google.com>
---------------------------------
50 R
61. day 7
“you can trace this imagery in
OSM”
Google Inc.
50 R
62. day 8
Raphaël Jacquot sxpert at sxpert.org
Thu Jan 21 08:00:22 GMT 2010
Rejoice !
WMS:
http://hypercube.telascience.org/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/geo/
haiti/mapfiles/4326.map&layers=
JOSM:
http://hypercube.telascience.org/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/geo/
haiti/mapfiles/
4326.map&layers=google-01-17-4326&request=GetMap&ve
rsion=1.0.0&styles=&format=image/jpeg&service=WMS&
51 R
63. day 8 1 day after permission from google
“Rejoice!”
Post-Disaster Imagery Services setup for
Interoperability with OSM Tracing Tools
51 R
74. High Resolution
Imagery
Commercial Providers Allowed OSM to Trace
Images: http://haiticrisismap.org/
IMAGERY PROVIDERS
Google, NOAA, World Bank (ImageCAT GFDRR),
DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, SpotImage, CIA
58 R
75. No. of Users Size (MB)
700
525
350
175
0
12/30/2009 1/16/2010 1/19/2010 1/22/2010 1/25/2010 1/28/2010
59 R
85. day 1
Road data courtesy of
OpenStreetMap
68 B
86. Distributing Food & Water
“NEED to map any spontaneous
camps appearing in the imagery”
Mapping requirement mentioned by United Nations
Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(UNOCHA)
69 B
87. Distributing Food & Water
selecting the tags
earthquake:damage: spontaneous_camp
tourism: camp_site
refugee: yes
70 B
102. http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-
February/048054.html
“to move quickly in country destroyed
and unknown ... was able to use OSM
maps on my GPS...”
“3 rescued .. 5000 ... treated”
Columbian Mission in Haiti
82 B
103. "Hello guys, I just wanted to let you know that your
work on improving the Haiti maps is really
appreciated here. A few days ago I installed a version
on my Garmin Oregon GPS and the result is
impressive. It has already saved me and my
driver from getting lost twice, and the
alternative would have been long
delays. In the coming days I will try to update
our Red Cross relief GPS receivers with your
map."
Kjeld Jensen, Red Cross (IFRC)
83 B
104. "Hello guys, I just wanted to let you know that your
work on improving the Haiti maps is really
appreciated here. A few days ago I installed a version
on my Garmin Oregon GPS and the result is
impressive. It has already saved me and my
driver from getting lost twice, and the
alternative would have been long
delays. In the coming days I will try to update
our Red Cross relief GPS receivers with your
map."
Kjeld Jensen, Red Cross (IFRC)
84 B
105. Long Distance, High Speed Wifi Setup in Haiti
http://www.inveneo.org/?q=haiti-wifi-network
85 B
118. Organisations Monitoring
Ushahidi Feeds
Red Cross FEMA
Plan International US Coast Guard Task Force
Charity Water World Food Program
US State Department US Southern Command
International Medical Corps (SOUTHCOM)
AIDG OFDA
USAID UNDP
96 B
119. Coordinating Data
Collection
prioritise mapping:
crisiscamps, mailing list, ushaidi, trace matrix
open collaborative tools for quality:
openstreetbugs, keep right!, trace matrix
97 B
120. CrisisCommons, CrisisCamps
& CrisisMappers
Forum for Tech and Humanitarian Volunteers to
Coordinate the Response
Build Usable Products in a matter of Hours
98 B
134. Using OSM to Develop an
Earthquake Exposure Database
& Build Community Resilience
112 G
135. Reveshty 2009
•Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
•Number of Floors
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use
•Area of Parcel
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials
113 G
136. •Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
•Number of Floors
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use
•Area of Parcel
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials
114 Reveshty 2009
G
137. •Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
•Number of Floors
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use Keys:Landuse
•Area of Parcel
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials
114 Reveshty 2009
G
138. •Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
Derive from
•Number of Floors Keys:Landuse
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use Keys:Landuse
•Area of Parcel
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials
114 Reveshty 2009
G
139. •Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
Derive from
•Number of Floors Keys:Landuse
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use Keys:Landuse
•Area of Parcel Calculated
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials
114 Reveshty 2009
G
140. •Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
Derive from
•Number of Floors Keys:Landuse
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use Keys:Landuse
•Area of Parcel Calculated
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials Calculated
114 Reveshty 2009
G
141. Look for tags under:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Keys
•Material Type
•Age of Building
•Quality of Building
Derive from
•Number of Floors Keys:Landuse
•Rate of occupancy
•Land use Keys:Landuse
•Area of Parcel Calculated
•Position of building in the block
•Facade materials Calculated
114 Reveshty 2009
G
156. Acknowledgements
Written Feedback Verbal Feedback
• Dr Ole Nielsen (GA/AIFDR) • Maruf Rahman (GA)
• Mikel Maron (OSM Foundation) • Dr Jane Sexton (GA)
• Dr Stuart Gill (World Bank) • Matty Jakab (GA)
• Dr Kashif Rasul • Dr Kriton Glenn (GA)
128
Hi I am Shoaib Burq, an OpenStreetMap enthusiast and contributor.
I would like to begin by thanking you all for being here and for this opportunity to share this compelling story that needs to be understood (especially in light of the recent launch of Project Darwin) and where applicable the lessons from this story need to be applied not only within GA but the whole of Government.
This talk is going to give you an overview of how the open street map (osm) community organised themselves across the planet to create maps that helped the first responders on the ground in Haiti do their job more effectively and in turn save lives.
A bit about my experience with OSM: I have been involved with OSM since 2007. In 2008 I attended my first mapping party in San Francisco. Since then I have been involved in the collection of osm data locally and have been organising mapping parties in Canberra. I have also provided input into the Web 2.0 Public Sphere briefing paper that was submitted to the Gov 2.0 taskforce. I am also a founding member of the Aust-NZ Chapter of Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo).
I also serve as a volunteer and coordinator on a GIS core that helps emergency agencies during state and national emergencies. In this capacity back in Feb 2009 we worked with Victoria police assisting them in mapping the initial impact of the Black Saturday Fires and subsequently create maps and applications to collect data from first responders with their search for missing persons.
I notice there are a few people from outside GA here today. I would like to welcome you all to our Wednesday seminar series. Normally talks start with an introduction and end with questions. This is a slightly inverted talk. It will start with a place for people to ask me questions. So if you have a questions during the presentation please please post them on twitter - if you have access. If you have questions and don&#x2019;t have access to twitter write it down and give it to me afterwards if it has not been answered during the presentation.
Let me begin by introducing what OpenStreetMap is... but I will do so by beginning at a somewhat unexpected place. Namely Imperial British East Africa.
the stamp has the Sultan of Zanzibar Said bin Barghash on it... Until 1886, the Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the east African coast by 1890 ...
thanks to some creative diplomacy on part of the colonial powers... this was limited to a 10 mile stretch of land. Sp British East Africa like most colonial presence in Africa began with trade concessions...
Here is a map showing the demarcation of the boundary between German and British East Africa. Through out World War I while most of the world was focused on the European front there was a bloody war going on in East Africa with the Germans and the British trying to control the valuable coastal towns and the trade routes to Africa&#x2019;s resource rich interior (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mahiwa)
In this war front the British recruited indigenous Nubians (present day Sudan and Egypt) into a regiment known as the &#x201C;King's African Rifles&#x201D; (KARs). The soldiers in this photograph are most likely of Nubian background - it mentions the Sudanese connection. After World War One the British wanted to reward the Nubians for their loyalty and contribution to allies victory in Africa. So as a favour they gave them land about 7 km south-west of the centre of Nairobi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Four_soldiers_of_King_Edward_VII%27s_African_Rifles_by_Sir_(John)_Benjamin_Stone.jpg
to settle on. This settlement came to be called Kibra - meaning jungle.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Kenya-relief-map-towns.jpg
At this time Nairobi was a small but rapidly growing railway depot. This photograph is of the railway from Mombasa which wound its way into the African interior.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kurve_bei_Mombasa.jpg
Interestingly this map from 1902 doesn&#x2019;t even mention Nairobi
http://www.worldwar1gallery.com/colonies/africa/10362-8.html
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/photolib/maps/Map%20of%20British%20East%20Africa%201906.jpg
Nairobi at that time had had its indigenous population of nomadic Massai displaced. [NEXT SLIDE]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_105-DOA0556,_Deutsch-Ostafrika,_Massaikrieger.jpg
But despite their good intentions the British actually never gave the Nubian soldiers the deeds to the land. And so from the earliest of maps ... this is a map from the early 70&#x2019;s showing Nairobi and we can see Kibra or Kibera (at is later came to be called) [NEXT] ... as a series of huts ...
Map Source http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html
... Kibera as a series of huts ...
Map Source http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html
Fast forward to today, Kibera is one of the largest slums in the world. The 2nd largest in Africa. It is built upon human refuse, has no sanitation, it's estimated that 1/5th of Kenya's 2.2million HIV population live in Kibera. It is estimated to have 1.2 million people living in it - from diverse ethnic, tribal and religious backgrounds - largely due to urbanisation.
Yet for a region that houses one-third of Nairobi&#x2019;s population it has oddly been excluded from Nairobi&#x2019;s official urban planning processes.
The Kenyan government &#x201C;officially&#x201D; owns all the land upon which Kibera stands, though it continues to not officially acknowledge the settlement; Hence the basic services, schools, clinics, running water or lavatories are not publicly provided, and what services do exist are privately owned.
In order to have a meaningful conversation about the myriad of problems the people of Kibera faces it would be very helpful to have detailed knowledge of where everything in Kibera is. So what about a map? You would think that a part of the city which houses roughly 1/3rd of its population would be visible on Google Maps - right?
image source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nairobi
Wrong ... this is google maps tiles accessed on March 6th 2010. And it doesn&#x2019;t look like a place housing over a million people - does it?
This map was created over a period of 2 weeks in Nov 2009 by the residents of Kibera using paper and low cost handheld GPS units. The project was initiated with the help of volunteers from the openstreetmap community from the USA
I have included this map because it has a Scale bar
And the map data is free and open. No one has to pay for the data. It is openly accessible in a large number of common electronic formats.
Link to the image above:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=googlemap&mt1=mapnik&lon=36.78969&lat=-1.31299&zoom=16
And why is this so important? As I said any conversation about tackling the myriad of challenges facing the communities of Kibera cannot happen without knowledge of what is on the ground. With the creation of this map the Residents and Business owners of Kibera can now at the very least have some information to back their claim as long time residents on the land and have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of Kibera&#x2019;s residents.
With that detour to demonstrate the use of OSM by communities to do participatory mapping let me ask for a show of hand of who here hadn&#x2019;t heard of OSM until today?
OSM is based on the philosophy that if you create a map of your street and I create a map of my street we all have a better map. Just to put it in context OSM allows anyone of you in this theatre to zoom into their neighbourhood and find that dangerous pothole that only they know about (so intimately) and add it to the map database. OSM doesn&#x2019;t discriminate between someone living in Canberra and Kibera. If you know what wikipedia is - then its like wikipedia for maps.
Wikipedia is an online Encyclopaedia that anyone can edit and that anyone is free to use as they please. And like wikipedia anyone can create, update, edit and use the map data from OpenStreetMaps.
So how did these edits happen? Simply by using the online or offline editing tools provided by openstreetmap. Here is the editor being used to trace outlines of buildings
The growth of OSM since its inception 5 years ago has been phenomenal. Today it has over 200,000 registered users. the data is also increasing exponentially with over 400 million nodes
The growth of OSM since its inception 5 years ago has been phenomenal. Today it has over 200,000 registered users. the data is also increasing exponentially with over 400 million nodes
just a quick background on the geological setting of Haiti
http://www.gsapubs.org/site/misc/Haiti.xhtml
Haiti and the Island of Hispaniola have the northern boundary of the Caribbean and North American Plates running through it.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Tectonic_plates_Caribbean.png/800px-Tectonic_plates_Caribbean.png
The earthquake occurred on a fault system between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates which forms a strike-slip fault
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Tectonic_plates_Caribbean.png/800px-Tectonic_plates_Caribbean.png
The quake occurred in the vicinity of the northern boundary where the Caribbean tectonic plate shifts eastwards by about 20 mm per year relative to the North American plate. The strike-slip fault system in the region has two branches in Haiti, the Septentrional fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault in the south;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gon%C3%A2ve_microplate.png
both its location and focal mechanism suggest that the January 2010 quake was caused by rupture of the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault, which had been locked solid for 250 years, gathering stress. The stress would ultimately have been relieved either by a large earthquake or a series of smaller ones. The rupture of this Mw 7.0 earthquake was roughly 65 kilometres (40 mi) long with mean slip of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft). Preliminary analysis of the slip distribution found amplitudes of up to about 4 metres (13 ft) using ground motion records from all over the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haiti_Erdbeben_120110_en.png
So how did this technology come into play during the Haiti earthquake? It was used in many ways so I will answer that question by breaking my presentation down into 3 sections ...
These 3 general sections reflect the 3 phases of the mapping effort after the earthquake.
1. RED: 1 to 3 days after the quake when the most of OpenStreetMap edits and tracing was being carried out.
2. BLUE: Period when applications and data products were being developed and being used to respond to the emergency. Response refers to activities that occur during and immediately following a disaster. They are designed to provide emergency assistance to victims of the event and reduce the likelihood of secondary damage.
3. GREEN: What&#x2019;s happening with the data, what are the lessons, how can we do it better in the future? What mitigation activities can OSM help with? What preparedness tools are available to local emergency authorities?
These 3 general sections reflect the 3 phases of the mapping effort after the earthquake.
1. RED: 1 to 3 days after the quake when the most of OpenStreetMap edits and tracing was being carried out.
2. BLUE: Period when applications and data products were being developed and being used to respond to the emergency. Response refers to activities that occur during and immediately following a disaster. They are designed to provide emergency assistance to victims of the event and reduce the likelihood of secondary damage.
3. GREEN: What&#x2019;s happening with the data, what are the lessons, how can we do it better in the future? What mitigation activities can OSM help with? What preparedness tools are available to local emergency authorities?
These 3 general sections reflect the 3 phases of the mapping effort after the earthquake.
1. RED: 1 to 3 days after the quake when the most of OpenStreetMap edits and tracing was being carried out.
2. BLUE: Period when applications and data products were being developed and being used to respond to the emergency. Response refers to activities that occur during and immediately following a disaster. They are designed to provide emergency assistance to victims of the event and reduce the likelihood of secondary damage.
3. GREEN: What&#x2019;s happening with the data, what are the lessons, how can we do it better in the future? What mitigation activities can OSM help with? What preparedness tools are available to local emergency authorities?
In this section I will describe how the mapping was carried out in the 3 days after the earthquake... and how it was coordinated
The earthquake occurred at 21:53 UTC / 16:53 Local (-5 GMT) just 15 km SW of Port-au-Prince
We see the first email on the OSM mailing list within 6 hours ...
This included a link to the Wiki section started by Mikel Maron and a request by Mikel to start contributing map data.
The wiki section was under the OpenStreetMap&#x2019;s wiki and became the main source of documenting various aspects of the mapping effort.
This is the map of the region surrounding Port au Prince the day before the earthquake
This is a video showing the timeline of edits in this region ... each flash you see is an edit being made the blue shapes are the appearance of make-shift camps of people who had lost their homes to the earthquake...
This is the map of the region just 2 days after the earthquake...
haiti.osm. 2009 01 14 18:09:00
This is another view of the mapping in progress showing a larger region surrounding port au prince
An here is another one which shows the whole of the Island of Hispaniola
Less than 12 hours after the initial setup of the Wiki page for OSM to collect data - this email request arrived ... asking if a dedicated server could be setup for distributing the data in a format that can be used by first responders.
most common being ESRI Shapefiles - remember Shapefile format spec are public hence its universal appeal.
With in 12 hours a response... simply pointing to the URL [NEXT SLIDE]
URL of download server...
Here is the download server page and it has the shapefiles and garmin base maps and it refreshes this data every 5 mins
Here is the download server page and it has the shapefiles and garmin base maps and it refreshes this data every 5 mins
Here is the download server page and it has the shapefiles and garmin base maps and it refreshes this data every 5 mins
Here is the download server page and it has the shapefiles and garmin base maps and it refreshes this data every 5 mins
Here is the download server page and it has the shapefiles and garmin base maps and it refreshes this data every 5 mins
Here is the download server page and it has the shapefiles and garmin base maps and it refreshes this data every 5 mins
Google made all the imagery they had as well as any other high resolution post-earthquake imagery available for download from their servers. They also gave EXPLICIT permission to trace over this imagery by the OSM community. ...
Google made all the imagery they had as well as any other high resolution post-earthquake imagery available for download from their servers. They also gave EXPLICIT permission to trace over this imagery by the OSM community. ...
this was followed by a quick set up of a service that allowed digitizing of that imagery over the internet...
this was followed by a quick set up of a service that allowed digitizing of that imagery over the internet...
this was followed by a quick set up of a service that allowed digitizing of that imagery over the internet...
Here is the kind of imagery we are talking about... 15cm resolution high enough to distinguish damaged buildings
So how did these edits happen? Simply by using the online or offline editing tools provided by openstreetmap. Here is the editor being used to trace the buildings and in this instance tag a refugee camp.
With so much data being gathered the community needed some why of organising the post-disaster imagery, especially as they had promised to acknowledge the source the map data traced from the imagery as being from its correct provider
The wiki also gave the ability to all parts of the world to get involved... here are the instructions on how to overlay and trace the imagery in Japanese
Chris Schmidt setup http://haiticrisismap.org/ which aggregated all the imagery and created web services that allowed users to add them to OSM tracing and editing tools ...
So just to reiterate the largest number of post-disaster updates started to happen when imagery became available to OSM community.
And again here is the Day before the earthquake Port au Prince looked like this and
On the 5th of February this is what it looked like...
Now the shocking thing for some, and important thing for others is to note that none of these mappers had initially ever set foot in Haiti... But rather
... the volunteers distributed across the world worked collaboratively using the internet to trace over the imagery.
Let me now get into how the data was used in the response
The data being created was no ordinary data... it was specifically targeted to suit disaster response. It was tailor made for helping responders with the information they would need in order to save as many lives as possible in the first few days after the earthquake.
After street maps had been completed, visible earthquake damage was mapped. These are some of the most common tags that were used.
This is the earliest damage map created by the UN and it uses [NEXT SLIDE]...
It acknowledges OpenStreetMap for road data
It acknowledges OpenStreetMap for road data
As the word got around that a community of developers and geospatial volunteers were mapping Haiti specific requests would get routed to the community ... like this one UNOCHA asking that any makeshift camps be mapped. So how did the community go about doing this sort of job?
First they quickly selected the vocabulary for the features they were going to map. In most cases they would try to find existing tags that would allow them to save time on configuring the tiles renderer to show the new symbology... so here we see the new tage for spontanious_camp but also an existing OSM tag &#x201C;tourism&#x201D;
so here is a a camp site
same camp with the imagery in the background
And here is the camp rendered as image tiles
the blue camp symbols are the ones tagged with camp_site...
Here we have a map from UNOCHA, who requested the data originally, showing a map summarising the location of distribution points for water
and distribution points for Food. in order to decide where to place the distribution sites and what resources to allocate the them you need to know the location and size of the camps. These could be approximated from the initial map created by OSM. Unfortunately size was never allocated initially and will be something that we will look at as part of the future work with the Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team (HOT).
Another important use of this data is in way finding and routing... OSM data is routable ... its not like a shapefile where no topological relationships are represented but rather its made up of nodes and edges connecting them...
So OSM data allows you to tag a road or a segment of a road as &#x201C;impassable&#x201D;... this data can then be used by routing engines such as this one... [NEXT SLIDE]
based on the Open Geospatial Consortium&#x2019;s (OGC&#x2019;s) specification
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/48917406
http://data.giub.uni-bonn.de/openrouteservice/
http://openls.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/osm-haiti/
http://129.206.229.146/openrouteservice/?lat=18.517514&lon=-72.295874&zoom=18&layers=B000FTF
Here I am routing from a Camp to a hospital and due to the road block we can&#x2019;t go right... so the routing service recognising that the barrier exists routes us around.
This is me attempting the same route in Google Maps
One member of the Columbian Mission in Haiti emailed the OSM list telling them how they were able to use the map to allow them to find their way around Haiti.
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-February/048054.html
One member of the Columbian Mission in Haiti emailed the OSM list telling them how they were able to use the map to allow them to find their way around Haiti.
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-February/048054.html
One member of the Columbian Mission in Haiti emailed the OSM list telling them how they were able to use the map to allow them to find their way around Haiti.
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-February/048054.html
Here is another one from the member of the Red Cross team on the ground. Allowing them to find their way around haiti in their vehicle.
http://mytrail.dk/download/KjeldJensenCV.pdf
Here is another one from the member of the Red Cross team on the ground. Allowing them to find their way around haiti in their vehicle.
http://mytrail.dk/download/KjeldJensenCV.pdf
This company allowed 11 agencies to setup a high speed network. They allowed staff to use skype to make phone calls even before phone networks were up.
During the setup of the Long Distance Wifi network they had to have line of sight. During their planning of the network the needed GPS locations and they used OpenStreetMap data for this.
Here I will quickly show some of the applications that were developed for field teams in a time span of a few days...
Garmin GPS App in French. Note how the symbology allows identification of destroyed buildings and refugee camps and hospitals
Garmin GPS App in French
Gaia GPS iPhone app shows the location of destroyed buildings as well as refugee camps... this app was out on the 16th of January only 4 days after the earthquake
Remember also that it shows openstreetmap as the background and those are constantly being updated... thus it provides realtime data to responders on the ground
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gaia-gps-for-haitian-disaster-relief/id351031999?mt=8
It works offline allowing you to download and cache the map tiles to your device.
It allows
1) Recording of GPS tracks, waypoints, and geo-tagged photos
2) Import/export GPX tracks and photos
3) Guidance to waypoints and along tracks.
Another area where maps are critical is in managing reports of incidents. Here openstreetmap data provided the background information
With local cell service down and little chance of getting text messages out of Haiti, the Ushahidi team started by taking mapping information coming in from mainstream media outlets, and via Twitter (see hashtags #haiti and #haitiquake). They also created an email address where citizens could submit reports, or news of missing persons (haiti@ushahidi.com).
Finally, and most critically, they reached out to Haiti's largest cell provider, DigiCel, to create a text message short code where citizens in Haiti could send an SMS about their location, and their needs. DigiCel allowed Ushahidi to use the short code 4636 (INFO).
But the big question was this: how do you let Haitians know there's an SMS short code for reporting crisis information, when all around them is complete chaos? Well, via the old-fashioned wireless of course. "We had someone from inSTEDD, one of our NGO partners in Haiti, get in a four wheel drive with a list of 10 operational radio stations," said Josh Nesbit, of Frontline SMS, another group that is involved in the Ushahidi Haiti project.
"Our inSTEDD person went and had face-to-face conversations with DJs, and so the news of the short code was broadcast. We're also putting up posters with the short code, and working with the Red Cross to spread the word."
DigiCel's Kevin White told the BBC that "good cell service" has been restored to the Haitian capital, and that he hopes full coverage will be back by the end of this week. The company has also given all of its 2.1 million Haitian subscribers five US dollars worth of credit, so that they can use their phones to call and text.
http://news.discovery.com/tech/ushahidi-citizen-reporting-and-the-haitian-relief-effort.html
http://www.northcom.mil/ Northern Command officials visited Ushahidi Situation Room to commend them for their work and told them to continue doing their work
Here are some incident reports that were actioned
Ok so you must all be wondering how did the community coordinate such a large mapping effort right?
Crisis Commons is a forum that allows the volunteers who are interested in helping during a disaster by building useful application or assist in any way they can
... the volunteers distributed across the world worked collaboratively using the internet to trace over the imagery.
You must also be wondering that with so much editing going on and so much data being generated and at such a rate how do you keep tabs on the quality of the data? Again due to the open nature of the OSM platform volunteers were able to build tools around the exposed interface
Here is one such system showing places where users have marked dubious data... with comments on why it is suspect. With a single click you can go the editor and make a modification or a fix. You can also add comments and change the status of the issue to &#x201C;fixed&#x201D;
This is a system that allowed users to coordinate the editing and tracing of the imagery. The whole region is broken up into square blocks. It acts like a heat map with the intensity corresponding to the number of edits currently being made within a given square. So if there is a region that is heavily being edited you can concentrate on another region. Allowing mass collaboration
This is another more automated system that works out inconsistencies in the data based on logical rules. so for example if you have a region tagged as land use it should be a closed area. If its not this system will pick it up.
Similarly a system that allows you to find the stats on the different tags - think of tags like GIS layers. it allows direct links to the data for each of the tag types. This system is just for Haiti
Another system but for the whole of openstreetmap
This approach of allowing simple open interfaces to the data to harness the potential inputs from the public at large has been recognised by World Bank and
in their GeoNode hazard mapping platform for Spatial Data Infrastructures they have added specific support for developers
Now let discuss some of the ways OSM data can and is contributing to the future of Haiti.
Currently camps have popped up in an ad-hoc manner. With the rainy season approaching the need to ensure there is no risk of flooding.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tent_city_in_Port-au-Prince_2010-01-21.jpg
Here is a map from the JRC report on camps at risk of flood. Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps at risk of flooding in Haiti are being identified and relocated using OpenStreetMap http://bit.ly/cs4Mbf (see page 6)
Let me now briefly get into what is needed if we use the osm workflow in vulnerability assessment and building community resilience.
An important aspect of preparedness for an earthquake is evaluating the building stock particularly in terms of structural vulnerability. If properties do not meet construction standards, occupants are at risk of injury or death arising from the building collapsing in the event of a major earthquake. One of the reasons for the high level of destruction was the poor building quality particularly of residential properties.
Most Earthquake vulnerability models are based in parameters that classify the dwellings and structures of those dwellings in urban settings. You will notice a number of tags are already available in OpenStreetMap to help with conducting the kind of analysis needed for Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment. But what about the missing tags? As demonstrated in this presentation the model of OSM is very supportive of mass collaboration for creating spatial data.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Keys
Most Earthquake vulnerability models are based in parameters that classify the dwellings and structures of those dwellings in urban settings. You will notice a number of tags are already available in OpenStreetMap to help with conducting the kind of analysis needed for Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment. But what about the missing tags? As demonstrated in this presentation the model of OSM is very supportive of mass collaboration for creating spatial data.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Keys
Most Earthquake vulnerability models are based in parameters that classify the dwellings and structures of those dwellings in urban settings. You will notice a number of tags are already available in OpenStreetMap to help with conducting the kind of analysis needed for Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment. But what about the missing tags? As demonstrated in this presentation the model of OSM is very supportive of mass collaboration for creating spatial data.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Keys
Most Earthquake vulnerability models are based in parameters that classify the dwellings and structures of those dwellings in urban settings. You will notice a number of tags are already available in OpenStreetMap to help with conducting the kind of analysis needed for Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment. But what about the missing tags? As demonstrated in this presentation the model of OSM is very supportive of mass collaboration for creating spatial data.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Keys
Most Earthquake vulnerability models are based in parameters that classify the dwellings and structures of those dwellings in urban settings. You will notice a number of tags are already available in OpenStreetMap to help with conducting the kind of analysis needed for Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment. But what about the missing tags? As demonstrated in this presentation the model of OSM is very supportive of mass collaboration for creating spatial data.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Keys
So how could we use that ability to map what we need
Let me introduce some of the clever tools that help in collecting data... one of them that acknowledges the value of paper is Walking Papers.
Walking paper is based on the ability to encode the information about the orientation of the map into the paper. In other words the paper knows its location on the earth.
This is done using the qrcode and the 3 other symbols on the map and an algorithm based in computer vision called Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT)
After taking it out into the field and adding annotations about the kind of information we are after...
The map is scanned and uploaded to openstreetmap to be overlayed in the editor for adding annotations from the scribbles on the map
Only other ingredient is passionate mappers - give them some training on what to look for in the case of construction classes and off you go! This is perfect for a schools based project
http://www.flickr.com/photos/junipermarie/4097408553/in/set-72157622599141117/
HOT was started as an online community of mappers interested in applying their knowledge of OSM in a humanitarian role.
Sunday 2 members of the HOT community were deployed to Haiti. Their task: ensure the reconstruction teams know that OSM data is available and where applicable utilised in the reconstruction of Haiti. Working with the Haiti National Mapping Agency (http://www.cnigs.ht/) to develop a comprehensive road network dataset
It is important to also note that OSM doesn&#x2019;t just contain Street Data ... It has some data that projects such as CIPMA are interested in... this for example is a poster of the power grid for the whole of Germany
So let me end by stating that one of the biggest challenges facing our SDI projects and their usefulness in improving spatial decision making is ...
lack of participation and well thought out access to data. And it is important to learn from the OSM experience of providing spatial data to our customers in flexible easy to access way is extremely important ... but not just provide that data but also letting them contribute. This is being recognised across the world and evident from projects like Geo Node.... and WHY is this important?