News — 16 January, 2018

Help Support 3 Local OpenStreetMap Communities Dealing With Disaster!

2018 has taken no time off from disasters and HOT is supporting three local OpenStreetMap communities with their response to events in their countries, read more to find out how you can help...

Zambia Cholera Outbreak

2018 has taken no time off from disasters. In fact, as far back as October, OSM Zambia has been preparing map data for a quickly spreading outbreak of Cholera. Things looked to be getting better as 2017 drew to a close but then, in December, the rate of spread began to spike and cases started to appear further and further from the epicenter. In the first few days of January, Trudy Hope of OSM Zambia and HOT Voting Member contacted the Activation Coordinators for assistance. Although establishing communication with local aid organizations was still in process, we decided to go ahead and support the local community's efforts with remote mapping. Since then, just under 15,000 buildings have been contributed by almost 200 mappers, mostly local OSM users and HOT disaster mappers.

OSM Zambia asks for more assistance remote mapping the remaining areas ahead of field work beginning this week. Follow this search on the HOT Tasking Manager to find mapping projects: https://tasks.hotosm.org/contribute?difficulty=ALL&campaign=Zambia%20Cholera%20Outbreak%202018

Acari, Peru Earthquake

On 14 January at 4:18am local time, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the region near Acari, Peru. Within hours HOT coordinators were actively seeking contacts with local OSM groups. As soon as communication was established and impacted areas defined, mapping projects were published. The local team is now up on their feet defining and creating additional projects as needed.

Follow them on twitter for the latest updates: https://twitter.com/osmpe or search the HOT Tasking Manager: https://tasks.hotosm.org/contribute?difficulty=ALL&campaign=Disaster%20Response&text=Peru

(*note* most of the Peru mapping is intermediate to advanced difficulty and not suitable for beginner mappers)

So far 21 advanced OSM mappers have contributed several thousand buildings in the impacted cities.

Mayon Volcano, Philippines

While in the middle of coordinating support for Peru, Activation Coordinator and local Philippine mapper, Maning Sambale, informed the Activation Working Group that they were launching a project in preparation of the Mayon Volcano eruption.

Currently there is only one project, but stay tuned to the HOT Tasking Manager in case more are needed: https://tasks.hotosm.org/contribute?difficulty=ALL&text=mayon

Mapping has just begun with a handful of local mappers that could use your help!