by Mary Jo Blackwood, American Red Cross Public Affairs Volunteer
According to the American Red Cross, each year, disasters around the world kill nearly 100,000 and affect or displace 200 million people. Many of the places where these disasters occur are literally ‘missing’ from any map and first responders lack the information to make valuable decisions regarding relief efforts. When aid organizations don’t know where people live, where they shop, where they cross borders, they can’t help them effectively or plan preventative programming to ward off disaster. So in 2014 the American Red Cross joined a consortium called the Missing Maps partnership to address these gaps.
Missing Maps is an open, collaborative project (think Wikipedia for maps) in which anyone can help to map areas where humanitarian organizations are trying to meet the needs of vulnerable people. When it started, the project aim was to strategically map the world’s vulnerable communities. Founding members included the American Red Cross, British Red Cross, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and Doctors Without Borders. Since then, the Missing Maps partnership has grown to include new partners like Map Action and the university focused Youth Mappers organization. In 2020, the German Red Cross and Crowd2Map Tanzania joined.
Why Are Maps Missing for Many Communities?
Some communities are missing from maps because they aren’t a high priority for those who serve them. Another reason is that they have changed, due to natural disaster. For example, after the earthquakes in Haiti in 2010, almost a quarter-million people moved to the hillsides outside Port-au-Prince, forming a new, before non-existent community.
Documenting communities helps ensure people in those communities will be identified during future impacts on those areas. Mapping is never finished because communities move. Structures and population density change; and natural disasters happen.
How Does Mapping Work? Mapping happens in three stages:
Stage One: Remote mapping: Volunteers trace satellite imagery into OpenStreetMap to create a base map, often at events called Mapathons. These events are happening all over the world – in public libraries, college campuses, and the workplace. The Mapathons result in the creation of, a basic, digital map. To date, over 100,000 volunteers for the have put 47 million buildings on the map!
Stage Two: Local mapping: Community volunteers on the ground add additional details and clarification. After creating a base map, community members or those with local knowledge fill in the map. Local communities decide what is important for them and mapping begins by gridding out a community and assigning squares. Mappers collect their data differently depending on the needs and capacity of the community, either by mobile phones or in some communities on paper.
tage Three: The data is used for a variety of purposes. One good example is the International Red Cross Measles Initiative. Launched in February 2001, the Measles Initiative is a long-term commitment to prevent deaths by vaccinating children in partnership with local ministries of health, the United Nations Foundation, WHO, and UNICEF. When it comes to finding children who need measles vaccination, these maps help guide local volunteers so no children are missed. Because measles vaccination rates need to hit 95 percent for herd immunity to protect the most vulnerable, mappers all over the world prepared this data to assist with the vaccination of 8 million children in only one week!
Sophia Conti, Director of Development for the American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming, has helped their Tiffany Circle members hold Mapathons to identify areas that need to be mapped and to identify structures on those maps. “The first year, we mapped in the Congo. This year, we mapped a city in Indonesia to help them prepare for their next disaster. If we know where people are, we can help them better.”
One of the participants explains what is so engaging about mapping. Marge Harper is Chair of the Tiffany Circle for the Colorado Wyoming Regions and first heard about mapping at a Tiffany summit in South Carolina almost three years ago, introducing mapping as a fun way to socialize and contribute. “Most of us can’t physically go to Africa or lift the equipment required for disaster relief. But we can contribute by doing mapping, either at a Mapathon event or at home. All we need is a computer and enough bandwidth for all the participants.”
She explained how interesting is it to look closely at a quadrant on satellite imagery and see villages, foot paths and structures. “These remote places often don’t have street addresses so mapping is extremely important for service delivery. We outline what we think are the structures and then someone on the ground verifies the information. We are able to give people physically there maps they have never had before so they can help us determine if a structure is a house, a school, a clinic or whatever.”
The uses of the information are varied. Mapping can be used to demonstrate home location and density for planning a well project. She says the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation uses mapping to plan their immunization programs.
Mapping is so important to the Red Cross movement that they have a full-time staff position at National headquarters. Rachel Levine has been the Missing Maps Program Coordinator for four years. Under her direction, the American Red Cross holds over 300 mapping events a year involving 12,000 volunteers. But the scope doesn’t end there. She says many times, participants at Red Cross Mapathons take the concept to their church or their employer and then they host their own Mapathons to keep the effect going.
Says Levine, “We can do mapping through the Red Cross and work with partners in other organizations that are critical to our mission. Mapping or participating in Mapathons is an excellent way to give back and contribute during the Covid crisis. Communities will change drastically in the next year or so. There will be different business configurations, traffic patterns and population density.”
She says the Guinea Red Cross is involved in a mapping project for multi-year pandemic preparedness in Guinea, working with health ministries to populate OpenStreetMap and educate decision makers on the value of the mapping information and why it has to be kept up to date.
In addition to using OpenStreetMap and Google Maps, going forward, technology now allows disaster organizations to use drone images to document new communities and the scope of recovery efforts after natural disasters. The flying drone imagery produces maps to keep track of shelters built with Red Cross support. Everything is shared back with the community and the wider world using OpenDroneMap. Some images are turned into maps used to verify evacuation routes, respond to disasters and ensure that every household is cared for during an emergency.
Levine cites another example of the value of mapping. “In Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, over 6,000 people helped us produce the most comprehensive maps of the island in the three weeks after landfall. We were able to identify the mapped places with no connectivity and set up charging and Wi-Fi stations for people to contact their loved ones.”
She explains another pressing relevance of mapping. When pandemics occur, contract tracing is an important step in stopping its spread. The Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Program (CP3) is organized by the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) and has spent the last 2 years working directly with 8 National Societies to build out their maps and assist with data gathering.
Missing Maps is working beyond expectations. When the partnership was initially formed, the goal was to map the communities of 20 million people. They hit that landmark in 18 months. The next goal was to map 200 million people. That goal was hit in November 2019, a year early, thanks to volunteer mappers! The new goal is to validate all that data, continue to support communities as they keep that data up to date; and to keep mapping!
Mapping is something I could do. How do I get started?
A Mapathon is a great opportunity for volunteers to digitally connect and map the most vulnerable places. Up-to-date maps are important for the success of many humanitarian organizations around the world in responding to disasters. Through Missing Maps, you can volunteer your time to help create these maps, and have a real impact on the delivery of healthcare in the field.
You can get started by following the “How-To” steps in a recent Red Cross blog. Because mapping is free and open source, you can add to maps in a variety of ways, using GPS and street maps, satellite imaging, or just by being physically on the ground. And remember, things change. We are never done with mapping. Disasters, urban expansion, and many other factors can alter the layout of previously mapped areas.