Sponsored by New Light Technologies, 14 professional mappers participated in a Mapathon on behalf of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) at the GIS-Pro & CalGIS 2018 conference in Palm Springs. The team volunteered their evenings and expertise to assist first responders in their work during natural disasters, working through a portfolio of humanitarian projects.
Some of the mappers that night worked through aerial imagery over Tanzania, performing infrastructure mapping of roads and buildings in support of the Tanzania Development Trust. Elsewhere in the same country — the Manyara region — participants made maps to facilitate non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in their outreach work protecting girls at risk in areas with very high incidence of Female Genital Mutilation, extreme poverty, early marriage, and gender-based violence. Other mappers added buildings over satellite footage north of Kochi, India, in support of severe flooding throughout the Kerala region.
HOT oversees the Missing Maps project, whose goal is to map the most vulnerable places in the world — whether vulnerable to natural dangers like extreme weather and disease, or man-made crises such as poverty and political conflict. Users can access OpenStreetMap free of charge and pore over aerial footage, adding geocoded point, line, and polygon data representing the geographic makeup of an area. The goal is to pre-emptively map priority countries so that, before disaster strikes, response teams have access to current, usable map products that aid the delivery of medical aid and resources.
The night was a success. GIS professionals were able to meet and network, and to use their skills and expertise in helping some of the most vulnerable people across the globe — showing, once again, how GIS can be leveraged to make a better world.
About New Light Technologies
New Light Technologies (NLT) is a Washington, DC-based firm with 25+ years of experience delivering:
- Geospatial systems and enterprise GIS
- Cloud-native data platforms
- AI/ML and advanced analytics
- DevSecOps and cybersecurity solutions
NLT supports federal, state, and international organizations in operationalizing data for mission impact.