As we celebrate World Humanitarian Day, a handful of MapAction members reflect on why they continue to use their skills for the good of humanitarian relief.
Tiago Canelas
Maps resonate deeply with people. They see their stories in them, and that sense of ownership is empowering. In times of crisis, people seek hope and control over their future.
Tiago Canelas.
For many years, I’ve worked in global health, developing spatial models and insights to improve lives in low and middle-income countries. One thing became clear along the way: maps resonate deeply with people. They see their stories in them, and that sense of ownership is empowering. In times of crisis, people seek hope and control over their future. That’s why I joined MapAction, to make a broader impact by using the power of maps to give those most in need a voice and a path to a brighter future.
Jiri Klic
Throughout history people of every generation have faced their own challenges, and I genuinely believe that the UN SDGs are the greatest and most important challenge of our lifetime.
My motivation to get involved with the humanitarian sector is deeply rooted in my passion for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout history people of every generation have faced their own challenges, and I genuinely believe that the UN SDGs are the greatest and most important challenge of our lifetime. That being said, I have been inspired to join MapAction by my great friend and former colleague Cate Seale, who is also one of the MapAction members. Hopefully, my transparency on the subject of personal approach will serve as an inspiration to others.
Lavern Ryan
I will never forget how I felt at that moment. The moment that I had just received confirmation that I was being deployed to support the relief efforts for Hurricane Beryl. There were so many emotions that overpowered me.
I chose to become a Map Action volunteer because I wanted to do more. I wanted to be in a better position to offer assistance and use my skills in geospatial technologies to better contribute to humanitarian efforts during a disaster. In 2017, when Hurricane Irma and Maria hit the neighbouring Caribbean Islands, I felt helpless and hopeless. This time around however, I was better prepared and well placed to say yes without hesitation. Brighten the corner, where you are is a song by Ina D. Ogdon that I identify with and live by. MapAction has afforded me the opportunity to help my Caribbean brothers and sisters in the best way I know how. I am grateful also to my family and friends who have supported me along this journey.
I will never forget how I felt at that moment. The moment that I had just received confirmation that I was being deployed to support the relief efforts for Hurricane Beryl. There were so many emotions that overpowered me. I was happy yet at the same time sad. I was excited, yet at the same time overwhelmed. I was anxious, yet I was calm.
I had not long returned home to Montserrat on the heels of completing MapAction’s Annual Disaster Simulation Exercise in the UK: MapEx. I felt prepared and ready. As a Caribbean-based MapAction Volunteer, I previously remotely deployed where I responded to the 2021 Volcanic eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This deployment however was different. I was being deployed in the field.
Lavern at MapEx2024. Photo: MapAction
As a Caribbean resident, I have grown accustomed to getting prepared for the hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through to November 30. Hurricane Beryl was the earliest-forming Category 5 hurricane on record! Beginning with the letter “B”, as its name implies, it was the second named storm for the year, but still the first hurricane for 2024. When Hurricane Beryl made landfall on July 1st, the damage and casualties were widespread. Hurricane Beryl caused catastrophic damage on Grenada’s northern islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique and on several of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ southern islands, such as Union Island and Canouan.
Uncertain of exactly which island I would be deployed to, I travelled from Montserrat to Barbados to report to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). MapAction and CDEMA have a strong working relationship, collaboration and partnership. My other two (2) fellow MapAction Team Members went ahead to St. Vincent to offer support there. I boarded the Barbados Coast Guard Vessel, along with a team from the United Nations Disaster and Coordination (UNDAC) team and several Defense Force groups from neighbouring islands. We set sail for Carriacou. The pictures on social media did not encapsulate the magnitude of devastation which caught my eyes on Carriacou. Everything was totally devastated! I tried to imagine what the residents of this island endured during the passage of the storm.
Damage to buildings in Carriacou caused by Hurricane Beryl. Photo: Lavern Ryan
The days that followed saw me working closely with the team at the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA). I assisted in producing maps such as: Humanitarian Relief Effort, Active Emergency Shelter Population and Pop-Up Shelters, Logistic structures and Structural Damage Assessment on Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Indigo Brownhall
This is what motivates me: the drive to support disasters and humanitarian events straight after, using GIS and mapping to get aid to those who need it most – while supporting coordination and bringing the power of a map to a response.
Indigo Brownhall (left) in Eswatini for MapAction.
In 2019, I was lucky enough to visit and study the Upper Bhote Koshi River on the border between China and Nepal, staring at a landslide that had removed an entire village off the side of the mountain, destroyed the only access road, and resulted in displacement and casualties of many residents. Standing there, I could only hope that the research that I was conducting would support the development of the area’s future environmental resilience. This experience caused me to reflect on the impact that support work in the immediate aftermath of an event could have on communities’ short and long-term outcomes.
This inspired my ever-strengthening interest and love for the role of geospatial and earth in both sustainability, natural disasters and the wider humanitarian sector. But most importantly, how as an industry we can support communities both in the short and long term.
MapAction aims to provide this and I truly believe that every single staff member and volunteer has this in mind. This is what motivates me: the drive to support disasters and humanitarian events straight after, using GIS and mapping to get aid to those who need it most – while supporting coordination and bringing the power of a map to a response.
Elena Field
I decided to get involved as I have always wanted to use the skills I had to help people. MapAction is a fantastic organisation with dedicated people who share that drive to help others.
MapAction member Elena Field.
My main driver is learning new things and putting that learning into practice to help other people. The training MapAction run throughout the year and the simulation exercises all feed into an atmosphere of constant improvement in how we can help others better.
For me the most impactful experience I’ve had so far has to be watching a debrief in the Hurricane Beryl response where the lead responders used maps we produced to guide their decision making. It really felt then that the all the training and simulation exercises had paid off seeing our work helping people in real time.
Since 2022, MapAction, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and the University of Georgia, Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) have been working on strengthening data quality for what are referred to as Common Operational Datasets (COD): ‘best available’ shared datasets that ensure consistency and simplify the discovery and exchange of key data among humanitarian organisations.
Bad data equals more human suffering. Each time a disaster or a health epidemic strikes, data is at the heart of the first response. Yet public data is often full of gaps. If a population census is old, inaccurate or non-existent, people fall off the map. If a certain area is contested and the admin boundaries are disputed, people pay the price. Data is crucial to estimate people’s vulnerability and wellbeing in an emergency.
Why data quality is important
People overlooked due to data gaps will struggle to gain access to emergency services such as food, water, housing, health or parachute financial aid packages. Emergency service providers need good data and data management tools to make the best decisions under extreme pressure.
People overlooked due to data gaps will struggle to gain access to emergency services such as food, water, housing, health or parachute financial aid packages.
Poor data quality can undermine the effectiveness of evidence-based decision-making in the humanitarian sector. The path to improvement starts with identifying the challenges.
Meet MapAction Head of Data Science Daniel Soares.
Humanitarian data highway stakeholders convene
In April 2024, MapAction hosted a panel with other organisations working to build ‘the humanitarian data highway’ to address the challenges on data quality. The panel was hosted at Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) in Geneva, Switzerland, and featured panellists from OCHA’s Centre for Humanitarian Data, Flowminder, ACAPS, Impact, CartONG, Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT) and Start Network.
Meet MapAction Head of Data Science Daniel Soares.
The panel, titled ‘Data quality challenges and their impact on the humanitarian response cycle‘, explored data quality for emergency response, preparedness and anticipatory action. All phases of a data project were covered, from data collection to visualisation and accessibility but also the specifics of working with open data and quality frameworks. The panellists also noted that limited resources for COD-related maintenance projects make it hard to fill this gap.
Data analytics ecosystem
More data is needed; although not all data is good data. If we don’t compile and process data by age or gender we’ll fail to understand the specific needs of women and mothers; miscalculating the trajectory of a storm or its geographic boundaries could mean communities remain displaced, stranded and exposed. If we can’t automate the proximity of communities to vital services and support mechanisms our partners cannot maximise the impact of emergency aid delivery. These are just some of many considerations that affect the quality of data, and ultimately, the quality of disaster response reduction efforts.
If we don’t compile and process data by age or gender we’ll fail to understand the specific needs of women and mothers; miscalculating the trajectory of a storm or its geographic boundaries could mean communities remain displaced, stranded and exposed. If we can’t automate the proximity of communities to vital services and support mechanisms our partners cannot maximise the impact of emergency aid delivery.
Within this context, MapAction has been working together with OCHA and the University of Georgia Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) on data quality analysis for the Common Operational Datasets (COD) for Administrative Boundaries (COD-AB).
Common Operational Datasets, or COD, are authoritative reference datasets needed to support operations and decision-making for all actors in a humanitarian response. COD are ‘best available’ datasets that ensure consistency and simplify the discovery and exchange of key data. The data is typically geo-spatially linked using a coordinate system (especially administrative boundaries) and has unique geographic identification codes (P-codes).
These data sets are often derived from data collected by local authorities and international partners to ensure quality, but most vitally, local ownership. COD can be collected on administrative boundaries, population and more.
LEARN MORE: Still confused as to what a COD is? This brief song should help!
After a first discussion with OCHA and ITOS partners in 2022, a preliminary methodology proposal has been developed by MapAction to assess the geospatial quality forCommon Operational Data-Administrative Boundaries (COD-AB). COD-AB sets can become outdated or less effective if they are not regularly updated. A country’s administrative boundaries can be redrawn more than a dozen times in a tumultuous year; an outdated data set becomes a means of exclusion.
COD-AB sets can become outdated or less effective if they are not regularly updated. A country’s administrative boundaries can be redrawn more than a dozen times a tumultuous year; an outdated data set becomes a means of exclusion.
With this partnership with OCHA and ITOS we aim to create a quantitative assessment mechanism that enables the prioritisation of work to update or enhance existing COD-AB data sets. The expected output is a quality index for each COD-AB data set based on tests for features (geographical, metadata, etc). A diverse team of MapAction volunteers has been formed to tackle this project, with GIS, data engineering, data science and software volunteers.
How does this partnership work?
ITOS analyses and enhances the quality of COD-AB countries proposed by OCHA. The recent discussions have raised, in particular, the need for support on a prioritisation queue. This queue would combine a geospatial quality index and risk index per country in order to help OCHA to select priority countries and ITOS to focus their high level analysis on the most important countries.
Blossoming InnovationHub
As a fledgling branch of any organisation, our InnovationHub is growing wings and beginning to expand its focus areas. The number of partnerships with other organisations working on similar goals is growing.
As climate scientists continue to predict that natural disasters will increase in severity in the coming years, our goal is to make sure no one is left behind and falls off the map. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” wrote Arthur C. Clarke. Only by pushing the boundaries and committing resources can we come up with ‘magic’ models and frameworks to combat the climate emergency and mitigate seasonal hazards and conflicts. Our InnovationHub marks our sustainable commitment to that cause.
MapAction would like to acknowledge the generous contribution that Max Malynowsky is making to the COD Quality project. Max has dedicated years to contributing to administrative boundaries in the humanitarian sector. His multiple projects, hosted at fieldmaps.io, include significant work towards making it easier to access global boundary data sets, including COD-AB.
Background: About MapAction and building the ‘humanitarian data highway’
There are dozens of agencies and organisations working in what is known as the ‘humanitarian data analytics’ sector: essentially the delivery of data sets, information management systems and in MapAction’s case, geospatial data and expertise, as well as anticipatory action risk models, applied to disaster reduction. They range from large UN agencies to small local civil society organisations. The International Organization for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix alone brings together 7,000 data collectors and over 600 technical experts serving in over 80 countries.
Since MapAction’s inception in 2002, the organisation has mapped for people in crises in more than 150 emergencies. We have created 1000s of maps used by emergency service providers.
In 2022, MapAction launched an InnovationHub: to tackle some of the biggest challenges confronting data scientists, data analysts and humanitarian responders working with data in emergency relief. We still don’t have all the answers, but we believe that the InnovationHub will find solutions by posing the right questions. Our work is increasingly in anticipatory action: supporting countries to co-build risk models, with the right data, to help mitigate future hazards.
In May 2024, MapAction, together with USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the Ecuadorian Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) and the Decentralised Autonomous Government (GAD) of Manta, held a workshop in Manta – a coastal city in western Ecuador – to pilot an urban risk model based on the INFORM RISK INDEX methodology. The model provides disaster response managers and anticipatory action planners with a tool to understand the risk before, during and after disasters for specific urban communities. The workshop participants were civil society organisations working in the disaster risk reduction sector in Manta.
Left: Head of Geospatial Services Gemma Davies. Right: Geospatial Coordinator Charlotte Moss. Image: MapAction.
International Girls in ICT Day, celebrated every April, aims to celebrate female leadership in ICT. “Women are nearly absent from software development, engineering, technology research, academia as well as at the highest levels of policy making. They also tend to leave science and technology jobs at higher rates than men,” states the commemorative day’s UN website. MapAction is nevertheless home to dozens of women staff and volunteers who are software developers, academics, data scientists or geospatial engineers to mention but a few specialisations. We spoke with two: Head of Geospatial Services Gemma Davies and Geospatial Coordinator Charlotte Moss about their passion for geospatial technology and maps.
GEMMA DAVIES, HEAD OF GEOSPATIAL SERVICES
Q: What made you want to get into working with geospatial information systems?
Gemma: I’ve always loved logical problem solving and when I was first introduced to GIS at university I realised GIS was the perfect way to apply my logical analytical skills to the geography I was interested in.
Q: What is your official job title at MapAction?
Gemma: Head of Geospatial Services.
Q: What have you been working on recently?
Gemma: Most recently I have been working on improvements to our GIS training offer that will help equip people working in organisations like national disaster management agencies to make use of GIS in their work.
Q:What’s next on the horizon?
Gemma: In addition to training development, next on the horizon includes working with our innovation and technology team to automate consistent sourcing and processing of the datasets we most frequently use for emergency response.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
Gemma: The job is really varied and you get to apply GIS very practically in a way that may positively impact people’s lives.
GIS is a powerful tool that aids understanding of the world around us and enhances decision-making. Channelling this power in a way that uses the tools to benefit potentially at-risk populations is so important.
Q: Why does GIS4Good matter?
Gemma: GIS is a powerful tool that aids understanding of the world around us and enhances decision making. Channelling this power in a way that uses the tools to benefit potentially at-risk populations is so important.
Three things you love about maps.
Gemma: They provide a virtual insight into places you are yet to explore; they bring information to life in new ways and they can help inform important decision-making.
READ ALSO: She survived a volcanic eruption and helped rebuild her island afterwards. Meet Lavern Ryan, a MapAction volunteer and GIS aficionado.
CHARLOTTE MOSS: GEOSPATIAL COORDINATOR
Q: What made you want to get into working with geospatial information systems?
Charlotte: I have always loved maps. As a child I used to spend hours drawing treasure maps. Now I get to solve actual geospatial problems using GIS software rather than pencils!
Q: What is your official job title at MapAction?
Charlotte: I work as a Geospatial Coordinator at MapAction.
As a child I used to spend hours drawing treasure maps. Now I get to solve actual geospatial problems using GIS software rather than pencils!
Q: What have you been working on recently?
Charlotte: I work on MapAction’s health programme. We are currently working on an initiative with UNICEF and CartONG to help ministries in six West and Central African countries use geospatial techniques to assist them in providing vaccination and birth registration services.
Charlotte: I’m off to Côte d’Ivoire to discuss the needs of the teams there working on the project.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
Charlotte: I get to travel and meet people from all over the world. Maps are always a fascinating way of communicating.
Q: Why does GIS4Good matter?
Charlotte: I have developed my GIS skills in other areas of work and it feels great to be able to give back what I have learnt to humanitarian projects.
Three things you love about maps.
Charlotte: The details, the number of ways you can conceptualise a problem and the colours.
In 2022, MapAction, at the request of longtime partner UN OCHA, provided GIS and data support and training to The Gambian National Disaster Management Agency. Watch the video below to find out why the mission mattered and what the impact was.
This work is made possible with funds from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.
This weekend a total of sixteen new specialist data volunteers will be welcomed into MapAction’s volunteer cohort. It is the largest ever single intake by the expanding UK-based humanitarian mapping and information-troubleshooting charity.
MapAction staff and volunteers at an induction course for new volunteers this weekend. Photo: MapAction.
The new volunteers come from a panoply of sectors: healthcare, energy and higher education, to mention but a few. They will support MapAction’s work in emergency response, anticipatory action and health programmes, as well as developing data tools for training and innovation.
“Our volunteers are not just skilled professionals; they are also compassionate and selfless people who generously commit their time, expertise, and energy to supporting disaster-affected communities around the world,” says Marina Kobzeva, director of programmes and partnerships at MapAction. “Their expertise in mapping and data analysis plays a crucial role in informing humanitarian response efforts during emergencies, enabling aid agencies to deliver assistance more effectively and efficiently. Their impact however extends far beyond the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Our volunteers are also deeply committed to building resilience and empowering communities to better prepare for future crises,” adds Marina.
MapAction volunteers are often data specialists who want to make the crossover to humanitarian work.
“I wanted to join MapAction because I wanted to actively be part of humanitarian solutions to disasters,” says software developer Elena Jung, who works for Octopus Energy.
Elena is one of six women who joins in this recruitment window, together with Monika Patel, who works with Ordnance Survey.
“Throughout my career, I’ve successfully worked with and led many teams internationally and nationally delivering operational goals and products; gaining invaluable experience in data analysis, disaster/incident response, GIS and much more,” says Monika, who now brings this experience to support MapAction’s work.
Data scientist Harry Matchette-Downes works in healthcare but has also worked as “a freelance cartographer and geospatial data scientist, using skills learnt during my physics degree and seismology PhD. I’ve always enjoyed field mapping, and I want to do good, so that’s why I joined MapAction,” says Harry. Land surveyor and GIS professor at University College London (UCL) Pippa Cowles says she was inspired to join by two of her students who are currently also MapAction volunteers.
New volunteers talk with MapAction staff on Friday March 15th, 2024. Photo: MapAction
The MapAction Induction Course, spread over a March weekend each year, is the beginning of a six-month training programme that culminates in November: it prepares new volunteers to be deployable to the sites of major disasters or as support GIS or data officers in humanitarian contexts. The training covers tech and humanitarian protocols and includes several simulation exercises.
She survived a volcanic eruption and helped rebuild her island afterwards. Meet Lavern Ryan, a MapAction volunteer and GIS aficionado.
Lavern Ryan in Cottesmore, UK, for HEAT training. Photo: Lavern Ryan
‘Be the change that you want to see in the world’ is a quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi but on International Women’s Day 2024, MapAction volunteer Lavern Ryan says it captures her thoughts. “I would like to encourage women and girls worldwide to do just the same. Whatever one sets their mind to, it can be accomplished with strength, determination and prayer,” she adds.
Lavern is the living proof of her own words; her story reads like a triumph of willpower over circumstances. In 1995, Lavern was displaced from her home island of Montserrat due to a volcanic eruption.
Displaced by volcano
“I remember it like it was yesterday although it was 28 years ago,” Lavern recalled recently in a podcast with GeoMob. Lavern went on to recollect how many people on the Caribbean island of Montserrat tried to head north amidst the “chaos and panic” to get away from the erupting Soufriere Hills volcano. The current population of Montserrat is approximately 5000 people.
Lavern first moved to Antigua, the closest island to Montserrat, but found misfortune to have travelled with her. In September 1995, the Category 4 Hurricane Luis struck Antigua, meaning Lavern had now experienced two major natural disasters within three months. Lavern was 13 at the time. She went on to complete her secondary school education in Antigua and then a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science in Trinidad and Tobago. She later also studied at Edinburgh University and the University of Dundee in Scotland.
GIS to the rescue
When Lavern did return to Montserrat a few years later, the southern part of the island – still inaccessible today – was covered in pyroclastic flows. Her newfound skills in GIS and remote sensing were serendipitous however, “to identify where the best places were to occupy the northern part of the island.” Timely work as the volcano has continued to erupt since 1995, making half of the island uninhabitable.
Since 2002, Lavern has been the GIS Manager for the Government of Montserrat. She works closely with the Island’s disaster management authorities and cares for a broad portfolio: from leading hydrographic surveys and conducting aerial drone mapping to training the next generation of enthusiastic humanitarian mappers on the island.
“I really admire Lavern’s attitude to her life and work,” says MapAction’s Alan Mills, who has worked with Lavern for many years. “She not only juggles all her government duties on Montserrat with her priorities to her family and friends, she still has time to advocate across her community, kids and adults alike, of the importance of maps and geoinformation in everyone’s lives and apply all those skills with energy to spare.”
So what has Lavern’s work entailed most recently? “The capturing and processing of drone aerial images in Montserrat was an important aspect which helped with the successful implementation of enumeration for the 2024 Montserrat population and housing census,” Lavern told the MapAction communications team.
Despite having more than 20 years GIS experience under her belt, Lavern continues to refresh and broaden her skillset. During a recent visit to the UK, Lavern attended courses, training and talks at key institutes.
At the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton, Lavern had the opportunity to meet with other UK Overseas Territory delegates and engaged in discussions on hydrographic action plans, governance and marine spatial planning. There was also a focus on the need to upskill her use of software to conduct hydrographic surveys as part of Montserrat’s commitment to the International Convention on Safety of Lives At Sea (SOLAS). “This helps us to fulfil our international safety obligations,” says Lavern, the technical lead for conducting hydrographic surveys on the island of Montserrat.
“I also visited the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) offices in Peterborough,” adds Lavern. “My focus there was to wrap up a project we were working on with respect to storm surge modelling.”
Lavern also managed to squeeze in a refresher security course, a prerequisite for all MapAction volunteers who deploy. Lavern began to volunteer with MapAction in 2019 and has been involved in several remote responses to natural disasters in the Caribbean since 2020. She expects to be involved in more this year, often together with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). After all, the Caribbean has its own season, she told GeoMob: “Hurricane Season,” from June to November each year. Her skillset will forever be needed.
MapAction has delivered 15 workshops to disaster managers in Central Asia in the last five years in partnership with the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR). Widespread use of GIS and humanitarian information management tools means local disaster managers are evermore prepared for present and future hazards.
Disaster managers attend a training event with CESDRR and MapAction in June 2023. Photos: A Wilkie.
When a fire broke out in a “large” warehouse last year in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest urban center, Dusyembaev Bagdat, the officer on duty at the time in the Department of Emergency Situations for the city, didn’t panic.
“I drew a map of the scene using QGIS, indicating the distance from the nearest fire station to the place of the fire,” says Bagdat, 34, recalling how he was able to deploy the mapping skills he had acquired during MapAction co-led workshops with the regional Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR). Maps like these help decision-makers fast track solutions in crises situations; those decisions can then dramatically reduce human suffering, economic losses and environmental or social risks.
Bagdat had previously attended two MapAction workshops on mapping for emergencies: one in the Kazakh capital Astana in 2022 and another in the former capital Almaty in 2023. These professional development seminars were part of more than half a decade of cooperation between MapAction and CESDRR.
In 2016, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan established the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR), headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The organisation’s objective is to “ensure effective mechanisms to decrease the risk of emergencies, to mitigate the consequences, to organise a joint response.” In order to further strengthen regional cooperation, CESDRR established the Central Asian regional high-level dialogue platform for DRR — the Regional Forum-Meeting of the Heads of Emergency Authorities of Central Asian countries, adding Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to the framework. In 2018, MapAction and CESDRR signed an agreement to work together.
The agreement envisaged, among other clauses, an “exchange of technical information, including samples and standards,” as well as “technical assistance,” and support in “professional development” for representatives from member states.
Since then, MapAction has continued to provide support “in GIS and mapping in emergencies.” Nearly six years and more than a dozen key encounters later, the impact is multifold.
MapAction volunteer Lukasz Gorowiec with Central Asian disaster managers at a CESDRR/MapAction training event in June 2023 in Almaty.
“Real outcomes of our work”
“Today we see real outcomes of our work” says Bakhtiyar Ospanov, a senior expert with CESDRR. “We have been cooperating with MapAction since 2018 and during this period of time we have conducted 15 training courses, trained 320 officers of emergency authorities of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,” Ospanov told MapAction. Nearly a dozen MapAction staff members and volunteers have been involved in organising seminars on humanitarian information management and mapping for/in emergencies during the 60-month+ engagement.
The impact is mushrooming. Many of the disaster managers seconded by their organisations in the past to learn GIS tools and practices for humanitarian response have since become trainers in their own right, passing on what they learned to colleagues. This domino effect has created a cohort of GIS-savvy disaster managers in the region.
They face no shortage of challenges. “Central Asia is an extremely disaster-prone region, suffering annually from the consequences of natural disasters. In addition to earthquakes, the region is constantly threatened by landslides, floods, mudflows, droughts, avalanches and extreme air temperatures,” noted Minister of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic Major General Azhikeev Boobek at a regional summit in late 2023. In Kazakhstan alone, on average “3,000-4,000 emergency situations happen annually with 3,000-5,000 thousand victims” states UNICEF in a recent report on disaster resilience. Fires continue to be a major hazard in the Kazakh Steppe, a large area of natural grassland.
Fighting fires with GIS
Mapping solutions is key. “There is a group of officers who improved their skills and knowledge at MapAction’s last training in Almaty (June 2023) and who are about to become national trainers,” CESDRR’s Bakhtiyar Ospanov, who works alongside six other staff members at CESDRR’s HQ, told MapAction by email.
Bagdat, who helped map a solution to extinguish the fire at the warehouse in Almaty, is one of them. He now trains other members of his team of 10 who all work in the disaster management department for Kazakhstan’s largest city, and former capital, Almaty. Some of the maps created support search and rescue operations. Others can help identify a solution in a dangerous situation.
Bakhtiyar from CESDRR shared with MapAction three sample maps, made to strengthen disaster preparedness, created by reps from member states who attended MapAction’s humanitarian mapping seminars in recent years.
A map produced during a workshop in Almaty in 2023.
One envisages key scenarios in the event of an earthquake striking Almaty; another shows the location of the rescue helicopters of the Kazakhstan Air Rescue Service, by province/oblast. Yet another envisages a potential situation in the area around the Kapchagay Reservoir – just north of Almaty – should its dam be damaged/broken.
Maps for such emergencies – even if only simulated – always seek to mitigate risks.
Domino GIS effect
“What is very important is that after the training our specialists are able to share their knowledge and teach new employees,” Zaginaev Vitalii, 36, a former division head in the hazard monitoring and forecasting department at the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, tells MapAction. “I shared the knowledge gained (ed: from MapAction workshops) with my colleagues. Now they also know how to work on this program (Ed: QGIS – free mapping software). We use this program in the case of large fires or emergencies where there are victims or casualties. Also, during various search and rescue or emergency rescue operations, we use the QGIS program for a visual concept of the location of an emergency or incident,” Vitalii, who is now applying his experience in the academic sector, told MapAction.
Less than a decade old, CESDRR still has big plans. While the intergovernmental organisation does not do emergency response per se and essentially “is a bridge between Central Asian national disaster agencies and the international community,” as per Bakhtiyar, the team is equipped with drones and operators as well as UAVs “and can be involved in transboundary or resonant disaster rescue.”
Looking ahead, Bakhtiyar from CESDRR says a shared digital atlas of hazards is on the horizon for CESDRR members, inviting MapAction to take a key partner role for that future initiative. Long may the partnership live.
“We look forward to continuing to build the strong relationship we have with CESDRR to further strengthen disaster preparedness in the Central Asian region through the provision of more GIS and humanitarian IM support,” says MapAction’s CEO Colin Rogers.
There is work to be done still. “In Central Asia, there is no unified geographic information system that includes a digital atlas of natural and man-made transboundary hazards and reflects basic data on existing risks,” says Ospanov.
“The development of a unified geographic information system reflecting interactive maps of the Central Asian countries and applying information on existing risks in the form of blocks (layers) on them will make it possible to provide the subjects of emergency situations with reliable information about potential sources of emergency situations and the causes of their occurrence, ensuring control over the state of sources of emergency situations, early forecasting of possible emergency situations and their management,” says Ospanov.
Bakhtiyar’s comments point to an increasing emphasis on anticipatory action. A fire extinguisher puts out fires; a fire alarm helps prevent them. Preparedness is key.
Renee Babb, GIS specialist with the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) – a longterm MapAction partner – and Lavern Ryan, a GIS specialist with the government of Montserrat and also a MapAction volunteer, talk with MapAction’s Alan Mills MBE on the GeoMob podcast about CDEMA and MapAction’s decade-long relationship.
Find out why they say there is a fifth season in the Caribbean: “Hurricane Season.”
MapAction urges world leaders and stakeholders gathered at COP28 to promote data-driven solutions to improve the lives of people on the front lines of climate change. (A version of this article was first published before CoP27 in Egypt in 2022. It was updated for CoP28 in November 2023. )
In recent years we have seen a large increase in the number of natural disasters worldwide. Regular climate-related disasters are exacerbating water and food insecurity.
How emergency relief stakeholders and governments coordinate their responses to the climate emergency can impact the recovery of affected communities. That is why good data is key to preparedness and mitigation, especially in locations with limited resources.
Ice and snow on the Hindu Kush mountain range, which runs along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, is melting and causing devastating floods in both countries. Photo: MapAction
As the changing climate ravages and displaces some of the world’s poorest communities, good data use will not prevent such climate-driven occurrences. It can only soften the effects by helping the affected communities, and stakeholders, to be prepared and to coordinate relief strategies. Good use of data in decision-making at key moments can reduce the human cost of the climate emergency.
“Data, often visualised through maps, can help identify who the most vulnerable people are, where they are, and highlight need,” said Nick Moody, MapAction’s chair of trustees, before CoP27 in 2022. “At CoP27 there was a recognition that while this information is critical during a crisis, it can have an even greater effect if used in advance. MapAction has a huge role to play in helping others to build resilience through data.”
Why MapAction?
Since MapAction’s inception over 20 years ago, the charity has provided data and specialist technical geospatial and data volunteers in more than 140 crises, many climate-related, worldwide. Our team has supported responses alongside UN, regional and national agencies as well as INGOs and local civil society organisations, providing relief to some of the most vulnerable climate-exposed people worldwide.
Our 70+ volunteers come from across the ever-growing range of sectors using data and geospatial technology, bringing a huge diversity of technical expertise. MapAction gives them the training, operational experience and support needed to operate effectively in humanitarian situations.
Working in collaboration with many emergency relief partners, our teams create unique situation maps, data visualisations, data sets and other products that help coordinate disaster relief using the best available information in the most insightful ways. The improved decisions they enable can help mitigate, for example, the impact of droughts, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, famines and health crises, to save lives and protect communities. In 2023 alone, MapAction has provided data products, volunteer mapping teams or experts to support emergency response, anticipatory action programmes or capacity building in a dozen countries in five continents.
While MapAction’s initial expertise was in support of emergency response, our work is increasingly moving into early warning and preparedness. Anthropogenic climate change has been proven to alter both the likelihood and the severity of extreme weather events around the world, and the growing frequency of these can be predicted, if not precisely then generally. Being ready to spot the indicators, triggering early support for anticipatory action can be life-saving. Predictive analytics can allow us to define the mechanisms that trigger these actions by analysing current and historical data and developing models, as long as the data is reliable.
“It is more important than ever to be able to respond effectively to such events, but also to be able to anticipate them, in order to more effectively mitigate their impact,” Daniele Castellana, former lead Data Scientist at MapAction, commented before CoP27. “Through our collaborations with the Centre for Humanitarian Data and the Start Network, MapAction has been working on this flourishing component of humanitarian aid.” MapAction launched its own InnovationHub in 2022.
Early action is one of the most effective ways to address the ever-growing climate impacts. That is why MapAction has partnered with the START Network, a coalition that focuses on humanitarian action through innovation, fast funding and early action; Insurance Development Forum is also a partner in this work. START Network brings together 55 international non-governmental organisations and 7,000 partners worldwide. MapAction is also working with INFORM to support updating forecast and risk models with select national disaster management agencies worldwide.
MapAction has made concrete commitments to actively seek solutions to reduce the impact of climate change. In October 2021, we signed the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organisations. The charter was developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and guided by a 19-person strong Advisory Committee which included representatives of local, national and international NGOs, UN agencies and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, as well as academics, researchers and experts in the humanitarian, development, climate and environmental fields.
Signing that charter commits us to being a part of the solution and helping people adapt to a changing climate and environment. It will also help strengthen our own resolve and efforts to be environmentally sustainable. Most of all, it recognises that our efforts must be a collective endeavour – no organisation can tackle this alone.
Together with a growing range of partners, looking to engage ever more locally, we are using geospatial data, data visualization and data science to start laying the groundwork for climate resilience. The objective is to improve preventive actions and strategies in humanitarian response.
Because what we map today we can mitigate tomorrow and in the future. That is why the science of how we source, analyze, shape, share and deploy data must be at the heart of all current and future discussions on adapting to climate change.
For more info on MapAction’s work, please drop by our website.
Since its inception MapAction has worked on leveraging technical expertise and geospatial technologies to transform humanitarian decision-making. In 2022, the ‘Data Science Lab’ became an even more integral part of MapAction’s work, adding new staff, resources and projects.
By Daniel Soares, Head of Data Science, MapAction
The first tentative steps to establish a data science unit at MapAction began in 2020 with one staff data scientist and another volunteer working in partnership with OCHA Centre for Humanitarian Data. The team continued to grow and on a summer night in 2022, the Data Science Lab was officially born. Eighteen months later the team has grown: we now have two staff members and six data science volunteers. Four more are set to join in 2024. This is, of course, without counting our many GIS volunteers with advanced data skills working as data scientists or similar roles in their prestigious day jobs.
Carola Martens, data science volunteer, taking part in an earthquake simulation to test her deployment capabilities together with geospatial volunteersFiona Hardie and Claudia Offner. Photo: Daniel Soares
Data projects supporting disaster response
“At the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (World Bank), I specialise in developing tools for assessing the impacts of natural disasters in various settings. Having joined MapAction I’ve found that it complements this work as it offers me the opportunity to apply my expertise in a different context, where I can contribute both to long-term planning and to direct emergency response.”
Nadia Leonova, MapAction data science volunteer
In the last 18 months our volunteers have done some impressive work, not only on tool development, but on missions leading workshops, as well as supporting our GIS team with disaster response. Below are some examples of tools and projects we’ve been working on.
Rapid flood mapping
The goal of our rapid flood mapping from satellite imagery is to create a tool that is able to estimate flood extents during emergencies using radar satellite imagery. The tool was created by two of our data science volunteers, with Cate Seale developing a Python package that contains all the necessary methods whilst Piet Gerrits worked on equipping the tool with a simple graphical interface. The approach is based on a UN SPIDER tutorial, built using Google Earth Engine. The entire code is naturally open-source and available on GitHUB (GitHub – mapaction/flood-mapping-tool).
Former volunteer and current MapAction Head of Data Science Daniel Soares (left) during the MapAction response to the 2022 Kinshasa floods (DRC) together with an UNDAC team member and a local expert. Photo: MapAction.
In 2021, MapAction engaged in a collaboration with HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology): the final goal of this work is to produce tools and workflows that can constitute a resource for MapAction’s deployed or remote team members during emergency response. Our first joint project focused on assessing OpenStreetMap data quality. We’re now working to integrate these quality checks into our internal data pipeline.
As part of the same collaboration with HeiGIT, we’re currently developing a Proximity Tool in order to automate road network analysis and identify remote communities and those potentially cut off during an emergency. This tool can also be used for health accessibility analysis (assessing populations not covered by health facilities within a given road distance).
First prototype of the MapAction Proximity Tool developed in collaboration with HeiGIT’s open route service.
Anticipatory action
MapAction substantially increased its anticipatory action focus in 2023. Our new anticipatory action programme kicked-off in July with GFFO funding new work on several projects geared at enhancing geospatial information management for anticipatory action decision makers. This programme will mainly focus on three areas: enabling adoption by partners through stakeholder landscaping and information management projects (ongoing work with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation); implementation of subnational risk models and working around building sustainability and localisation with partners.
The Data Science Lab is actively mainstreaming anticipatory action into its pipeline for the future. We have already started working on building an INFORM Subnational Risk Index for the Kingdom of Eswatini while scoping support for other countries. Our target is to work on four new INFORM subnational models, while updating eight more, over the next two years. We are also currently scoping and planning new projects in partnership with the UN’s Centre for Humanitarian Data around data solutions for anticipatory action. Stay tuned for more details in 2024.
Data science member Piet Gerrits and MapAction Data Visualiser Rob Baker attend an INFORM Subnational Risk training in Italy together with MapAction geospatial volunteer Leon Baruah in September 2023 ( all MapAction members are in blue t-shirts).
Want to be part of the team?
Our 2023 volunteer recruitment process is now closed but a new one will open in 2024 with opportunities for data scientists, data visualisers, data engineers, software developers and geospatial specialists.
From Mexico to South Sudan, Malawi and worldwide, MapAction and CartONG have worked together for nearly a decade to bring geospatial solutions to the humanitarian aid and international development sector. Our underlying core shared values help us support NGOs and aid actors for more impactful assistance.
Image: CartONG.
What happens if information barriers aren’t broken down for humanitarian agencies in emergencies? Food gets sent to the wrong people, search and rescue teams are misinformed, temporary settlements are set up in misguided places. Lives are lost or ruined because the right data was missing.
Breaking down information barriers
At MapAction and CartONG we embrace and live by the same values embedded in a single idea: the application of geospatial technology to improve the quality and impact of humanitarian assistance and development projects. Every map, mapathon, training event, data analysis tool or geospatial element of disaster preparedness we co-strive to create can be the key to getting aid to a stricken community or to understanding and preparing for the worst effects of a drought, flood or health emergency. These shared core values and resources have led to a beautiful cross-channel partnership between UK-based MapAction and France-based CartONG. A partnership that aims to improve the impact of aid actions by providing decision-makers and vulnerable communities with the right data to understand and mitigate any crisis.
Decade-long partnership
Our partnership has already lasted nearly a decade. As part of the Covid-19 response, MapAction seconded staff to help CartONG with the surge of activities in its partnership with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Having already worked together for several years on various projects, including as part of the H2H Network, a peer-to-peer humanitarian network, MapAction and CartONG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work more closely together in 2020.
CartONG and MapAction have since worked together on a number of different projects. In Mexico, together with UNICEF and the Mexican government, MapAction and CartONG supported the creation of a dashboard aiming to display and monitor real-time information on key education indicators on elementary schools at the national level in order to map COVID-19 affectations before the start of the new school year in 2020. It was created to display and monitor real-time information on key education indicators for all elementary schools. This relied on over 200,000 individual schools uploading their data on a daily basis, and was the first time that this information would be collected and displayed at a national level.
Screenshot from a dashboard on the Mexico project. Image: Screenshot/UNICEF.
In South Sudan, MapAction and CartONG, together with other partners, worked to identify the data challenges that might slow down ‘final mile’ vaccine delivery in a challenging data environment. One outcome of this work was the Integrated Humanitarian Data Package, that aimed to give quick and easy access to key geographic data that underpins the planning and delivery of vaccination programmes. This pilot health project highlighted the vital role that geospatial technology can play in creating effective healthcare solutions. High quality mapping and data analysis is key to understanding how many people need vaccinating, where they are, and how and where the vaccines can be safely stored and delivered.
In 2023, CartONG and MapAction again used the IHDP to map the outbreak of cholera in Malawi. We are also both partners on the ‘UNICEF Geospatial Hotline’, where interested UN departments can request specific geospatial services from our organisations.
As we look ahead, we know the crises we try to mitigate will become evermore complex and challenging; the funding landscape evermore volatile. That is why our partnership continues to grow and why the alliances we are building with organisations like H2H, UNICEF and Start Network are so vital. We will soon also be announcing a new and exciting joint-project linked to health in West Africa. More on that soon.
We both remain committed to continue to deliver capacity building events and projects worldwide to strengthen disaster preparedness and improve the impact of humanitarian assistance.
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MapAction is looking to fill six new volunteer positions with candidates who have the right skills to support work in the following fields: geospatial, development of geospatial training content, data science, data visualisation, software development and data engineering. Help MapAction and the humanitarian sector mitigate climate change and health emergencies through innovative use of software, geospatial technology and training, visualisations and data solutions.
Every day we hear news of how climate change is having devastating consequences for communities worldwide. As the effects become more clear and prominent – floods, droughts, hurricanes and natural disasters – it is easy to feel helpless before the mitigation task at hand.
At MapAction we are working to strengthen early warning systems, anticipatory humanitarian action, so that communities exposed to climate change and health emergencies can be more prepared and resilient.
Frontline communities affected by a health or climate emergency depend on humanitarian agencies getting decisions right. These decisions, in turn, depend on good use of data.
At MapAction, we are always looking for innovators who can bring their skills and experience to create data solutions that can support saving lives in humanitarian disasters. That is why we are inviting a software developer who can unlock information management barriers with innovative data solutions, a data engineer who can unlock devops challenges and review data and code hygiene issues, as well as a data scientist who can design innovative data-delivery breakthroughs for humanitarian agencies and partners. The geospatial volunteers will help us to continue to place the benefits of mapping and geospatial analysis at the service of humanitarians.
Data scientist and data visualiser
The data scientist performs statistical analysis of geospatial data and helps us create data visualisations and dashboards. They review literature, collaborate with partners and help design and provide internal and external training. The data visualiser, on the other hand, will maintain the highest standards for visual communication, produce and test reports and dashboards, as well as charts and infographics. Each of these roles will work closely with the others.
Each role, however, is designed to streamline the work MapAction does: delivering a more efficient and data-driven humanitarian operations field, to support decision-makers in getting it right, so that lives are not needlessly lost or negatively affected. For a data engineer this might mean running a prototype environment to review how MapAction integrates software projects alongside mapping/data projects. It might mean cleaning script redevelopment – code hygiene – or deploying source controlled python scripts into a project workspace. For a data scientist, it might mean working with a software engineer or a specific disaster model or a tool to support early warning or relief decisions. Data and software engineers will also review coding standards and guidelines.
Geospatial specialists
For a geospatial volunteer, it might be one map that opens up a huge aid solution or unlocks critical early funding for a CSO or humanitarian resilience network. In 2023 alone, our geospatial volunteers have responded to major crises alongside the UN in Turkiye, Libya, Kosovo and Peru. As a geospatial training content developer, you might engage in any number of activities: from providing support to CSOs in Southeast Asia or Southern Africa, to working with regional partners like the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) or developing simulation for specific disasters, such as hurricanes.
Many of these roles will entail opportunities to travel and work with some of the world’s leading humanitarian organisations: from the UN, WHO or WFP, to regional disaster response coordinators in four continents.
Working closely with MapAction’s inhouse tech and geospatial departments – which include software engineers and data scientists – as well as the UN’s Centre for Humanitarian Data in the Hague and other global partners, whoever fills these roles will get the opportunity to develop software, maps, training programmes, visualisations and data solutions that will broadly impact the humanitarian sector, as well as regional and national disaster relief agencies. These will pave the way for long-term impact and resilience. Working closely with national disaster agencies through the Start Network and INFORM, our innovation and tech team review national disaster models and preparedness worldwide, with a frontrow seat to enact sustainable change.
It is an opportunity for people with the right tech skills to see how the wider humanitarian system operates from the inside and where data and geospatial solutions play a role: a front row seat to understand global trends and pressures driving world events and their consequences on people
Volunteers also provide vital support to UN agencies and other partners in emergency operations centres worldwide, both in-person and remotely. MapAction has been involved in more than 140 emergency responses worldwide in the last 20 years.
More than 4,000 dead and 10,000 people missing in floods in eastern Libya caused by Storm Daniel, according to UN OCHA. Estimates of the number of deaths vary, according to different sources: they range from about 4,000 to double or triple that amount, according to the International Medical Corps
Two dams collapsed on Sunday September 10th due to torrential rains and flooded the city of Derna, 300 kilometres east of Benghazi
250,000 people affected
100,000 people food insecure
MapAction humanitarian mappers were working alongside UN teams in Cairo and Tunis to support the response
MapAction’s Libya flood-related maps repository outlined which roads were passable, accumulated rainfall, and affected areas in the governorate of Derna, among other key data points
$19 billion is the estimated infrastructure damage caused by the floods in Derna
Read about our ongoing Humanitarian Response Appeal here
An image of the devastation caused by floods in Derna. Photo: UN OCHA.
October 3. 08:50 UTC: OCHA delivers comprehensive assessment of Libya floods, supported by MapAction
The latest update from UN OCHA, MapAction’s UN partner on the Libya flood response, outlines some key data points and highlights the devastation and damage caused by Storm Daniel.
250,000: people affected
40,000: people displaced
63%: Partially or non-functional hospitals or health facilities
September 28. 11:35 UTC: “This was a complex mission.” MapAction team leader
“This was a complex mission that required a lot of snap decisions and flexibility, but that’s what we do. We’ve managed to work alongside our UNDAC and NGO partners to determine how people are affected, where they are, and what they need with nearly 600 key informants providing information on their areas,” said MapAction volunteer and Libya response team-leader Chris Jarvis.
September 28. 11:20 UTC: “…mighty MapAction volunteers.” We second that ode to our volunteers! Nice and humbling to receive such positive feedback from partners.
September 28. 08:00 UTC: MapAction mappers return to UK after supporting UN response to floods in Libya
Our team of humanitarian mappers has now reverted their attention to previous projects, having worked on the response to the floods in Libya alongside the UN for the last two weeks. We will be bringing you some of their final thoughts today.
September 26. 18:25 UTC: 50%+ of all health facilities in Libyan regions affected by floods damaged or non-functional
More than half of the assessed health facilities in Al-Marj, Derna and parts of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar are reported either partially or totally non-functional due to #StormDaniel.
September 26. 10:30 UTC: Devastating images from Derna
Damage caused by the floods in Derna. Photos: Courtesy of UNDAC
Emergency relief efforts continue in #Derna and other flood-ravaged areas of #Libya.@UN and partners are ➡️ setting up field hospitals ➡️ distributing core relief items & food ➡️ chlorinating water reservoirs ➡️ providing psychosocial support
Thank you very much Tonbridge Rotary Club. If you’d also like to support our work, you can make a donation below. Or read about our Humanitarian Emergency Response appeal here.
September 25. 09:00 UTC: Nearly 20,000 children displaced by floods, UNICEF estimates
Of the 43,000 people displaced by the floods, UNICEF estimates that at least 17,000 may be children, states an update from UN OCHA from the weekend.
“WHO conducted a rapid assessment of 78 health facilities in affected areas, including Al-Marj district, Derna city and part of Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar. More than half of the facilities were reported either partially or totally non-functional due to shortage of medical supplies, medicines, equipment or staff, damaged buildings and limited accessibility,” states the same update.
“UNICEF shipped 65 metric tons of life-saving medical supplies and water, sanitation and hygiene items, child protection supplies and delivered emergency medical kits to primary care services to support 15,000 people for three months and hygiene kits for almost 1,000 people and 500 clothing kits. Mobile psychosocial support teams are being set up with social welfare authorities and two NGO partners.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is distributing blankets, plastic tarpaulins and kitchen equipment to 6,200 displaced families in Derna and Benghazi.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed food rations to more than 9,000 people. This includes dry rations to cover their food needs for 15 days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) shipped 28 tons of medical supplies and donated ambulances and medical kits. In addition, a WHO team met with the health authorities in Derna today and agreed to prioritize mental health support to help people cope with the distress they experienced during this catastrophe.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has delivered non-food items to nearly 3,000 migrants and displaced persons. The agency also delivered medicines and supplies for 5,000 people in Derna and 4,000 families in Benghazi.”
September 22. 15:00 UTC: The focus of the MapAction Libya flood response team’s maps has shifted towards creating Assessment Area Units. These maps help decision-makers get a better picture of who is worst affected and where, and therefore how to prioritise the delivery of aid. It helps decision-makers get the granularity required for responding to those in need, rather than just providing a blanket response. Assessment needs to be localised enough to make sense.
“It’s similar to what you’d do during an aerial survey where you break up the area,” says MapAction team leader Chris Jarvis, recalling an aerial survey exercise in Mozambique during the response to Cyclone Idai in 2019 that led to this map. Learn more about that aerial survey in this ICRC video.
September 22: 14:55 UTC. In case you missed the news, MapAction staff and volunteers were in the beautiful Italian town of Ispra for training with INFORM. INFORM is “a multi-stakeholder forum for developing shared, quantitative analysis relevant to humanitarian crises and disasters” that is “developing a suite of quantitative, analytical products to support decision-making on humanitarian crises and disasters.”
MapAction humanitarian mapping volunteer Chris Jarvis adds to the MapWall. Photo: Alice Goudie.
September 21. 12:10 UTC.
MapAction team leader Chris Jarvis discusses the latest maps with Roberto Colombo Llimona, Assessment and Analysis Cell Coordinator with UNDAC.
September 21. 10:55 UTC. UPDATE FROM MAPACTION TEAM LEADER CHRIS JARVIS ON THE LIBYA FLOOD RESPONSE TEAM
Chris Jarvis, Libya flood response team leader for MapAction, explains how the response is moving out of the search and rescue phase and into the assessment phase. “This is where we try and get more information about what are the needs of the different people,” says Chris. Designing surveys and putting questions together for those affected is a key part of this information-gathering phase. Listen below to the full explanation.
Just in: According to the latest IOM update, an estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in #northeastern Libya. Lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna to eastern and western municipalities. Read more: https://t.co/TDWQONaIpapic.twitter.com/zuxE6j8VbU
September 21. 10:50 UTC: $19 billion estimated in infrastructure damage
Significant infrastructure damage estimated at $19 billion affected 2,217 buildings, including 284 educational and 128 health facilities in and around the city of Derna, according to an update from NGO Data Friendly Space published on Relief Web.
“Immediate needs are in health, food, water, shelter, with vulnerable groups such as children and displaced persons requiring specialised assistance,” adds the update.
🔴About 4,000 people confirmed dead. We fear the actual toll is much higher 🔴Nearly 40,000 people displaced 🔴Risk of disease outbreaks due to contaminated water
September 20. 13:55 UTC: “So far, around 1,500 people in Derna and Benghazi have been assisted with core relief items including blankets, plastic tarpaulins, kitchen sets, hygiene kits and clothes,” reads a statement published yesterday from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). An airlift from UNHCR’s warehouse in Dubai was scheduled to arrive on 19th September in Benghazi with relief items to assist 10,000 people, adds the update on the UN’s Relief Web service.
September 20. 13:25 UTC: Partners from iMMAP, Atlas Logistique and the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) office, peruse the recently-established MapAction MapWall. MapAction mapping volunteer Alice Goudie offers a guided tour.
MapAction volunteer Alice Goudie talks partners through the MapWall. Photo: Chris Jarvis.
September 20. 13:15 UTC: Where MapAction humanitarian mappers go, a MapWall soon follows. Below is Chris Jarvis, team leader for the Libya response, setting one up at a UN emergency operations room in Cairo.
MapAction volunteeer Chris Jarvis sets up a MapWall. Photo: Alice Goudie.
September 20. 10:30 UTC: This map by MapAction’s team of Libya-focused humanitarian mapping volunteers working with the UN shows all the dams in eastern Libya, including the two collapsed dams that caused the major floods in the city of Derna. Those floods have killed at least 4,000 people.
September 20. 09:40 UTC: Chris Jarvis (below in the MapAction t-shirt), team leader at MapAction for the Libya response, tells us in the video below why MapAction’s work matters and how it makes a difference in such emergencies.
September 19. 16:15 UTC: MapAction’s work is not only about being on the frontlines of emergencies. Each mission is also supported by a remote team. In the image below, the remote support team for Libya, formed of Sam Gandhi (left) and Darren Connaghan, touch base with Alice Goudie and Chris Jarvis, who are in Cairo working alongside the UN.
September 19. 10.10 UTC: MapAction’s team of mappers are in Cairo working alongside UN personnel to map some of the key incoming data from Derna. This helps support the vital decision-making process in the temporary emergency operations room.
MapAction volunteer Alice Goudie works on maps at a UN emergency operations room in Cairo. Alice also volunteered during the Turkiye earthquake response. Alice works for Emu-Analytics. Photo: Chris Jarvis.
MapAction’s cohort of 70+ volunteers, all experts in GIS and data management, undergo extensive humanitarian training with MapAction all-year round before being deployed to any crisis or natural disaster. Every year, the majority of our volunteers, old and new, come together for a disaster simulation event too. This year’s was a simulation for a volcanic eruption, held on the Isle of Cumbrae in Scotland.
⚠️ Following extreme rainfall and flash flooding in northeast #Libya, we have created a dedicated page with datasets shared by @hotosm, @UNOCHA, @mapaction, @UNOSAT, @GoogleAI and others.
September 18. 16:35 UTC: UNDAC Team Leader Nabil Chemil tours Derna and outlines some of the challenges: location of bodies, preventing disease outbreaks and provision of clean water are all priorities. MapAction teams have worked with Nabil before, including during the earthquake response in Turkiye, and will be supporting the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) office’s work in the continued response to the devastating floods in eastern Libya.
September 18. 16:10 UTC: Many of the maps our remote team are publishing help paint a clearer picture of what humanitarian responders face to administer aid, create shelters or reach survivors. The map below outlines how the floods caused by Storm Daniel made many roads in the city of Derna unpassable.
NEWS: Today, @POTUS announced $10M in additional humanitarian aid from @USAID to help the Libyan people affected by #StormDaniel's devastating #flooding. This assistance will provide food, shelter, water, healthcare, hygiene & more to communities in need. #LibyaFloodspic.twitter.com/KgYs1bIeAe
— USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (@USAIDSavesLives) September 18, 2023
September 18. 16:00 UTC: There has been some confusion regarding the total death toll caused by the floods in Libya, as reported by this article. The latest figures, from the UN’s Relief Web service, state that 3,958 people have been killed and 9000 are missing in the floods.
The same source suggests that, according to the latest data from IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, more than 40,000 people have been displaced across northeastern Libya. UNICEF says 300,000 children exposed to Storm Daniel now face increased risk of diarrhoea and cholera, dehydration and malnutrition, as well as increased risks of violence and exploitation. Read more here.
🆘#Libya floods: Entire neighbourhoods in the city of Derna have disappeared after the devastation from #StormDaniel.
WFP and our partners have been on the ground distributing emergency food to impacted families. https://t.co/Pyqnf7aWFn
September 15. 12:00 UTC: The floods in Libya caused two dams to burst, apparently sweeping away whole parts of the eastern Libyan city of Derna. The UN Resident Coordinator requested MapAction’s help; an alert then went out among MapAction’s deployable team of disaster mappers, to see who was immediately available. A team was placed on standby. Security assessments completed. Specialist insurance, visas and tickets acquired. MapAction expects to send disaster mapping personnel to Libya to work alongside the UN as soon as logistically possible.
It has been a devastating week in North Africa. The fatal floods in Derna, Libya, caused by Storm Daniel, and the earthquake in Morocco, have seen MapAction publish more than a dozen maps of the affected disaster areas. More than 7,000 people have been confirmed dead in the Maghreb region of Africa due to both natural disasters in the last week.
As of Thursday a spokesperson for the Libyan Red Crescent placed the death toll at more than 11,300, reports the Associated Press. More than 10,000 people are also reported missing. Those figures have since been disputed and updated. (See above)
A remote team of MapAction mappers continues to work in support of Morocco, which was struck by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake on the night of Friday September 8th. According to the latest update (7pm, Wednesday September 13th) from the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, that earthquake, the epicentre of which was in a hard-to-reach region between Agadir and Marrakech, has already claimed 2946 lives. MapAction alerted its volunteer cohort, began to publish maps for humanitarian responders and has a team on standby to deploy.
Unexpected disasters like the ones in Libya and Morocco this week are the reason MapAction works all-year-round to build resilience to disasters locally. This summer alone we have held disaster preparedness and resilience-building events in Nepal, Senegal, Philippines, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Madagascar.
It is also why we are working to make countries and regions vulnerable to such disasters more resilient, through better use of data.
MapAction works on disaster preparedness 24/7, all-year-round. From the team that cancelled Christmas to rush to DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) in response to flooding, to those helping local communities to become better prepared for disasters, those delivering training, or advocating for better use of data for humanitarian response. We do the technical work that ultimately helps others save more lives. If you like the work we do and would like to support that work, or think you know somebody who would, please get in touch. MapAction doesn’t have the funds it needs, and the demands of responding to natural disasters are only getting greater. Read more in our appeal here.
A MapAction team of experienced humanitarian data volunteers is always on standby. Photo: MapAction.
MapAction teams began responding to the devastating 6,8 magnitude earthquake in Morocco as news began to break on the morning of Saturday September 9th. The latest bulletin from the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior puts the death toll at above 2800, with thousands more injured.
Every time a major natural disaster like this occurs, at MapAction we activate our internal emergency protocol and put out an alert among our cohort of 70+ expert data and geospatial volunteers. Based on availability, we build a team of ‘disaster landscape mappers’ on standby and ready to deploy to the field.
We currently have a team on standby to travel to Morocco if and when necessary and we have received a request for support from the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination office (UNDAC). Our remote team of mappers have begun to carefully select data points and package them into a set of useful maps, which are being shared with UNDAC.
The maps each paint their own picture: affected regions, provinces and prefectures, population density or elevation. Others highlight the shake intensity in different areas. We will continue to offer remote support and create maps that we know decision-makers will benefit from, drawing on our experience from 12 previous earthquake responses in the last 20 years.
MapAction works on disaster preparedness 24/7, all-year-round. From the team that cancelled Christmas to rush to DRC in response to flooding, to those helping local communities to become better prepared for disasters, those delivering training, or advocating for better use of data for humanitarian response. We do the technical work that ultimately helps others save more lives. If you like the work we do and would like to support that work, or think you know somebody who would, please get in touch. MapAction doesn’t have the funds it needs, and the demands of responding to natural disasters are only getting greater. Read more in our appeal here.
With El Nino set to bring a particularly challenging period for humanitarians, MapAction members have been busy all summer working on disaster preparedness around the world.
Participants at a MapAction-led GIS course in Senegal in August 2023. Photo: Ant Scott
If you missed our recent announcement, we are delighted to be able to introduce Colin Rogers, MapAction’s new CEO. Read more about Colin here and his decades of experience in the health and humanitarian sectors.
In June, a team from MapAction completed a series of workshops with national and regional disaster managers from Central Asia, with local partner the Centre for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR).
“In total, from 2019 to 2023, the Center, together with MapAction, conducted 14 trainings on the use of GIS technologies, while more than 309 employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Uzbekistan were trained.” Read more in CESDRR’s own words here.
MapAction’s Lukasz Gorowiec withdisaster response personnel during a workshop in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in June 2023 with the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR). Image: Alistair Wilkie.
In late July, another team from MapAction completed a QGIS workshop for national disaster managers in Nepal, with the Start Network. QGIS is an open source geographic information system. The Start Network comprises approximately 80 non-governmental organisations across five continents, ranging from large international organisations to local and national NGOs. Its mission is to “create a new era of humanitarian action that will save even more lives.”
A group photo after a MapAction-led disaster preparedness event in Nepal in July 2023. Photo: Matt Sims.
Another event, this time for local NGOs in Bangladesh, again via the Start Network, explored early action and fast and effective response to disasters.
“Geospatial data, data visualisation and information management are critical to anticipatory action and we are demonstrating and hosting training sessions on how they can be used to enhance the coordination of disaster risk nationally,” commented longtime member Anthony Giles.
The disaster preparedness event in Bangladesh was kindly supported by the Insurance Development Forum, the Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO) and the Start Network.
MapAction member Fiona Hardie at a workshop with disaster preparedness stakeholders in Bangladesh. This event was also part of MapAction’s work with Start Network. Photo: MapAction.
Over the past 3 weeks, besides in Bangladesh, MapAction teams have also run introductory GIS courses in Madagascar and Senegal to around 60 delegates, Start Network members and staff. A further course will take place in the Philippines this month. Besides the courses, MapAction teams reviewed tools in use for tasks such as hazard management and vulnerability assessment at local and national disaster preparedness agencies, with a view to providing further technical assistance in the future.
MapAction’s Ant Scott conducts a GIS course in Senegal. Photo: MapAction.
In other news, MapAction’s Head of Programme Development, Alan Mills MBE flew to New York to speak as a panellist at the Thirteenth Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM).
Alan reiterated to member states the key role that geospatial services can play in humanitarian disaster reduction and mitigation.
“Given the increasing humanitarian demands around the globe, whether from meteorological events and climate change impacts, seismic shocks, food insecurity or displacement, the implementation of the UN-IGIF (United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework/UN-IGIF) and application of the guidelines set out in the Strategic Framework of Disasters provides geospatial resource efficiencies in helping to build resilience and support the most vulnerable in our communities,” Alan told the session. Read Alan’s speech here.
MapAction’s Alan Mills MBE at the UN. Image: Screenshot.
MapAction works on disaster preparedness 24/7, all-year-round. From the team that cancelled Christmas to rush to DRC in response to flooding, to those helping local communities to become better prepared for disasters, those delivering training, or advocating for better use of data for humanitarian response. We do the technical work that ultimately helps others save more lives. If you like the work we do and would like to support that work, or think you know somebody who would, please get in touch. MapAction doesn’t have the funds it needs, and the demands of climate change are only getting greater. Read more in our appeal here or donate here.
MapAction’s Head of Programme Development spoke at the UNGGIM this week, promoting the efficiencies that can be gained by effective use of geospatial services to meet the priorities of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in understanding risk and vulnerability, governance, financing and especially in early warning and preparedness to respond in emergencies. The UNGGIM is the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management.
MapAction’s Alan Mills adresses UNGGIM meeting. Aug 2023
The full text of Alan’s statement is as follows.
“I make this statement on behalf of the Not for Profit Organization, MapAction. MapAction notes the report of the Working Group on Geospatial Information and Services on Disaster and thanks the group for its efforts over the intersessional period.”
“We remind the Expert Committee that the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, adopted by 187 member states of the United Nations has seven years remaining to deliver its targets. The Sendai Framework relies on information management and mapping across its remit, to understand disaster risk and resilience, to aid the strengthening of disaster risk governance, support investment in DRR and enhance preparedness for effective disaster response.”
“Given the increasing humanitarian demands around the globe, whether from meteorological events and climate change impacts, seismic shocks, food insecurity or displacement, the implementation of the UN-IGIF and application of the guidelines set out in the Strategic Framework of Disasters provides geospatial resource efficiencies in helping to build resilience and support the most vulnerable in our communities.”
“As resilience building is a priority for all your citizens MapAction urges more Member State delegations to actively participate in the working group in disasters, shape its workplan to be robust to address these priorities and demonstrate active implementation of IGIF and the SFD in support of disaster risk reduction.”
“Partners not just from the existing UN geospatial network, the academic network and the private sector network but also geospatial civil society organizations, including MapAction, who have no network presence within this Expert Committee, and non-geospatial practitioners in resilience building and emergency response all stand by to be consulted, provide context, technical innovation and resource to deliver on this remit once direction is given.”
Alan was also a Panellist in the UNGGIM Side Meeting – ‘Authoritative Data in an Evolving Geospatial Landscape‘, promoting the specific data needs of responders to humanitarian crises. MapAction has been a regular attendee at UNGGIM for several years, in our Official Observer Role. Over this time we have contributed to moving the agenda forwards significantly in terms of improved geospatial data availability for humanitarian purposes.
Volunteer Ant Scott talks to the GeoMob podcast about volunteering at MapAction.
Ant Scott (centre) at MapAction’s emergency response simulation event on the Isle of Cumbrae in May 2023. Photo: MapAction.
Below is an edited excerpt of a podcast produced by GeoMob and featuring long-time MapAction volunteer Ant Scott talking about MapAction’s work. Listen to the full podcast here.
Without a consistent approach to sex-and-age-disaggregated-data (SADD) in local, national and international data collection, the specific needs of women and girls – as well as men and boys – will continue to be misunderstood or overlooked by international development agents and disaster relief operators. The same is true for understanding the needs of the LGBT community in a disaster.
Women and children, and in some cases men and boys, should not be more likely to die or be injured in a natural disaster. Yet a brief review of the literature on the disproportionate effects disasters place on different genders reveals that boys, girls, men and women can all be overlooked in humanitarian response for different reasons.
Previous studies have shown that key challenges in health, provision of shelter, food security and women’s safety – to mention but a few examples – cannot be solved with a one-profile-fits-all approach to data collection and analysis. Otherwise certain groups remain marginalised and the support they need does not reach them.
Needs differ, even in a disaster
MapAction, a humanitarian mapping charity that maps disaster landscapes, needs the right data to make the right maps to support decision-makers. Decisions based on SADD can be critical, yet hard to source. To get a better understanding of the need for more SADD in humanitarian response, MapAction interviewed representatives from 10 stakeholder organisations and reviewed dozens of specialist academic reviews on SADD in humanitarian data collection and response.
The knowhow MapAction has accumulated from 140+ emergency responses feeds into the long-term innovation and MEAL strategy.
The process revealed that sometimes something as simple as stigma can be the key factor in misunderstanding gender-specific needs in a disaster. During the cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2011, for example, SADD revealed that more men were dying and fewer men were attending clinics than women. This led to the discovery that men needed more education on the symptoms and highlighted where men had been hiding their symptoms because they confused them with HIV, which had associated stigma, notes a case study in the EU’s Gender-Age Toolkit.
Another report by UN Women also found that people who identify as LGBT suffer more before and after a disaster. “The authors found that the discrimination, violence and isolation LGBT people face before, during and after emergencies weakens their ability to live resilient and dignified lives, survive and recover. And humanitarian and disaster response organizations do not appear to be systematically dealing with the problem, they say,” states UN Women in a summary of the report The Only Way Up that looked at cases in Myanmar, the Philippines and Vanuatu.
An interesting case study from Eritrea showed that adolescent demobilised male fighters were experiencing severe malnutrition because they did not know how to cook and had nobody to cook for them. While cases such as these highlight male margination, it is women and girls who continue to experience the most disproportionate impact because of unresolved gender parity issues, especially in societies with stronger patriarchal attitudes. “Gender equality is growing more distant. UN Women puts it 300 years away,” António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, told the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2023.
Women most affected
In Pakistan, for example, a 2009 review of World Food Programme (WFP) food ration recipients identified 95% of registered men were collecting rations, but only 55% of women. This triggered further investigation that led to understanding the access constraints affecting women, states a multi-stakeholder report from 2011.
Another example showed that female victims of natural disasters in Pakistan refused to be transported by male helicopter pilots because of potential stigma and fear of repercussions from male relatives. Stakeholders from major INGOs interviewed by MapAction for this study also cited striking other examples of gender imbalance in aid provision from Tanzania, Somalia and Sri Lanka. Understanding the role gender plays in each territory and context is vital.
Globally natural disasters kill more women than men and often at a younger age, observed a World Health Organization (WHO) study. Gender and age both matter in terms of who dies, who is injured and whose lives are impacted in what ways during and after the crisis, note Mazurana and Proctor in the The Routledge Companion to Humanitarian Action.
Data challenge
That is why sex-and-age-disaggregated data (SADD) is key. SADD highlights how people are affected differently depending on their age and gender, notes a 2021 report by the office of the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Disaggregated data is key for example when modelling differences in development, mortality and disease risk, allowing for more targeting of specific at risk groups, states an earlier study on gender, data and international crisis response. Disaggregated data is also vital for understanding vulnerabilities, needs and barriers to access during a humanitarian response.
Number of people trained in disaster management by MapAction over the course of two decades.
Culture and politics play a role
Yet often SADD is sadly not available. “It is commonly argued that ‘paying attention to gender issues may not be timely or practical on the ground,’ i.e. the so-called ‘tyranny of the urgent,’” notes a study by the Swedish development agency Sida, while emphasising the role that SADD can play for “effective relief and lifesaving assistance.”
Beyond the will to collect such data, there are logistical and technical challenges. SADD can be complex to interpret and better formatting and presentation are needed to improve adoption for programming decisions. Others have noted that where SADD is collected, there are reports of inconsistent collection, inconsistent data management and inconsistent analysis and use. There are also challenges associated with data sharing, with a lack of coordination and data quality concerns. Data collected locally are also sometimes not shared or aggregated at a national level in a way that loses the SADD which was collected.
More SADD, please!
We believe the brief and non-exhaustive list of recommendations and resources below will help strengthen our own and our partners’ role in pushing for the availability and mainstreaming of more SADD for humanitarian response.
The more people who are asking how gender is being considered during assessments, or requesting SADD, the more likely it is to begin to be more systematically considered. This should include sharing of knowledge and best practices with partners and in the humanitarian ecosystem;
Identify community groups and agencies that may be key to helping inform and include a gender perspective;
Training and awareness raising. It is not just after a disaster occurs that SADD matters, it is also important in anticipatory action. Integrating protection, gender and inclusion considerations into anticipatory action interventions is a crucial step in tackling the intersecting vulnerabilities that affect the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It also helps to ensure that any assistance provided does not exacerbate these vulnerabilities.
In early April 2023, a MapAction team led by Luis F. P. Velasquez deployed to Lima, the capital of Peru, to help map the response to deadly floods at the request of the local office of the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC), a longtime MapAction partner.
MapAction volunteer Andy Kervell discusses a MapAction MapWall with a UN OCHA officer in Lima, Peru. Photo: MapAction.
The government of Peru had declared a state of emergency in three northern coastal states and across 54% of the country, following heavy rains since December last year.
As roads and key transport hubs were blocked, schools forced to close and vulnerable people left stranded in large swathes of northern Peru, humanitarian respondents had to find ways to navigate the emergency and plan humanitarian support operations in an environment with limited data.
The MapAction team was supported remotely by Tom Huger, with volunteers Becky Kervell and Andy Kervell joining the mission a week later to support UNDAC’s efforts to map the aid response.
“There’s no way we could have produced such quality visualisation of the issues without MapAction’s team”, said a member of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a key user of MapAction’s map products in Peru. “We would have had to rely on very simplified versions of maps, with a very limited update capacity,” added OCHA’s Peru flood response team member.
Portrait of an emergency
MapAction’s maps paint a clearer picture of the emergency for key managers and agencies involved in decision-making in any crisis. Besides the actual mapping, MapAction’s knowhow from over 140 emergency responses worldwide in the last 20 years acts as a radar for the most relevant data to map in a crisis scenario.
Feedback from partners suggests that MapAction’s intervention in Peru was timely and effective. “It would have been difficult to select the best, most relevant data that should be best presented in a map format,” without MapAction, added OCHA’s team member.
MapAction volunteer Andy Kervell, who also deployed, was happy to be able to visit old colleagues in Lima having previously worked on reconstruction efforts remotely as part of his day job with Arup* following previous floods in Peru.
A pack of MapAction maps related to the floods rest on a table before a team meeting with humanitarian partners at UN and government agencies.
“It really was about the opportunity to contribute to the response for communities affected by this event which I have previous involvement with from my day job with Arup,” said Andy Kervell, who spent two weeks mapping for UNDAC together with fellow geospatial humanitarian mapper, and partner, MapAction volunteer Becky Kervell.
“Clear way to identify most impacted areas”
Maps help everyone in an emergency response scenario get a better sense of a given humanitarian priority and co-produce the best possible relief decisions, whether it be in terms of shelter, resource allocation or getting aid to where it is most needed.
“It [MapAction’s maps] provided a clear way to identify most impacted areas – areas where there would be more people with humanitarian needs – in order to organise the response. This would have been done in people’s heads otherwise and not as effectively,” said a UN OCHA officer who worked on the flood response.
Volunteer Andy Kervell, one of circa 80 volunteers at MapAction, highlights how a map can also help decision-makers assess a specific crisis challenge with a given data set. This map of shelters in Piura, for example, highlighted that there was quite a difference in the number of people in shelters compared to those affected. This suggested that it was likely that families were staying within the community. Emergency responses require such key insights.
“MapAction’s work helped increase the understanding of the humanitarian situation using the limited data available, as well as contributing together with other partners through other information products, in the shaping of a common and clear situational picture,” Antonio E. Miranda Melgar, information management officer at UN OCHA and a member of the Peru flood response in 2023, told MapAction.
The impact was tangible, adds Melgar: “This has helped the effective delivery of humanitarian aid by several humanitarian actors and decision makers.”
Team Leader Luis F. P. Velasquez added that MapAction’s presence helped to shape the humanitarian response. “MapAction’s work played an important role in advocacy, as well as helping in the effective delivery of humanitarian aid by strengthening decision-making processes through the use of data,” said Velasquez.
An emergency ‘map wall’. MapAction’s maps help inform specific decisions about allocation of key resources in humanitarian situations.
Every year, MapAction brings together its staff, its cohort of volunteers, partners and other stakeholders to hold a three-day exercise to simulate an emergency response to a given disaster. The objective is to strengthen the whole organisation’s disaster preparedness; to ensure MapAction is as ready as it can be for the next emergency response.
This year’s scenario envisaged a volcanic eruption on the fictional island of Ranas in the fictional country of Scotia. The exercise actually took place on the Isle of Cumbrae, 45 minutes southwest of Glasgow.
Cloud of ash over the horizon? A view of Cumbrae, also known after the name of its main town Millport, in cloudy weather.
The scenario, partly designed around the local geography, accessibility and geological features, imagined that the local disaster relief network has requested MapAction’s presence, five days after the eruption, to map the disaster landscape and to help inform the decision-making process – to help save lives.
An infographic produced by a team and based on the fictional volcanic eruption.
Volunteers play themselves in the simulation but several MapAction staff members assume roles for the exercise, such as the governor of the affected region, an environmental officer, a hostile journalist etc.
MapAction volunteers meet with the governor (centre, role-played by MapAction’s Alan Mills) of the fictional province affected to understand more about how their humanitarian mapping skills can support the emergency response.
Senior staff members even go into costume to make roles more convincing.
MapAction CEO Liz Hughes (centre) and Head of Programmes Hellen Chabunya (left), both playing stakeholders in the hypothetical country and scenario, throw some curveballs at a volunteer from Team Bravo during the exercise. Photo: Alistair Wilkie.
The volunteers, many of whom work for leading GIS, AI, humanitarian or tech companies, have been split into five teams (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo), each with their own tasks and deadlines.
Team Charlie review their map wall on Saturday May 20th, Day 2 of the exercise. First mapping tasks focused on data related to population, context, logistics and shelter.
Volunteers are only given the basic context and details of the scenario the day they arrive to ensure the simulation feels as real as possible. In many emergency responses, a MapAction team will arrive in a rapidly unfolding and fluid situation in the affected country and will have to set-up and adapt fast to needs.
Members of Team Bravo discuss the minutiae of their map wall.
The simulation, dubbed Gilded Unicorn internally, is also an opportunity for partners to get a closer look at MapAction’s work and to share synergies.
Alex Pycroft, from the British Red Cross, attends a meeting in the simulated emergency operations centre.
The event was hosted by the Field Studies Council on the Isle of Cumbrae, off the west coast of Scotland.
MapAction staff, volunteers, partners and guests gather for a team photo at the disaster simulation exercise. The Field Studies Council site in Millport. The Field Studies Council has 24 sites across the UK which support its work to “help people learn about the environment so they can make informed choices about how best to protect it.” The volunteers sleep in tents yet many sleep very little and map well into the early hours of the night on Day 1 to get their map products finalized. Deployments are often the same, say many volunteers, with bursts of intense mapping to meet a specific requirement from a partner agency or an urgent task deadline. The event was made possible with funding from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA). BBC Scotland journalist Oliver Wright interviews MapAction volunteer Lavern Ryan from Montserrat.Team leaders meeting. Renée Babb, Global Information Systems (GIS) Specialist at the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), is a guest at the exercise. CDEMA is a long-time MapAction partner. A volunteer from Team Delta reviews details on the team’s map wall. Ekosuehi Iyahan, secretary general of the Insurance Development Forum, addressed MapAction’s staff and volunteers on the challenges of triggering early financing based on data for anticipatory action in the struggle against climate change. Renée Babb, GIS Specialist at the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), talks to MapAction humanitarian mappers about the 19-state pan-Caribbean disaster management agency. A close up of maps focused on the population displaced by the eruption on a map wall. It’s getting busy in the emergency operations room where teams Charlie, Delta and Echo are tirelessly working away to get the final maps produced. Next door, Team Alpha aren’t resting either. MapAction Chair of Trustees Nick Moody and CEO Liz Hughes in conversation at the FSC.
The tech team brought more than 400 kilograms of tech equipment in over 20 metal boxes to the event. Each ‘Deployment Kit’ contains a pre-prepped laptop and the gear necessary to set-up a temporary office at the site of any emergency response.
A map perches on top of a deployment kit. A simulated meeting with the governor of the affected region and other members of the fictional Albia Disaster Emergency Network. MapAction CEO Liz Hughes reviews a local map of the territory. Photo: Alistair Wilkie. Nick McWilliam from MapAction and Alex Pycroft from the British Red Cross talking by a map wall. Photo: Alistair Wilkie.Maps, maps, maps! Photo: Alistair Wilkie. Members of Team Alpha and Team Bravo check a few details on their map walls. The wonderful Caribbean contingent (plus Alan Mills) in attendance at the event.
On the final day, teams gathered to give each other feedback on how they handled specific requests while also offering each other tips and advice on specific maps.
This work was made possible with funds from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)
Dogs patrol volunteer tents after a bout of rain at a recent MapAction training weekend. Photo: Cate Seale.
MapAction is a hub of 80 data, geospatial and geography professionals who volunteer as humanitarian mappers for disaster relief. Our new Head of Communications Alex Macbeth shares his views below of a recent training weekend, providing an insight into how and why volunteers at MapAction do what they do.
The GPS points towards a small community hall in a village not far from Oxford. As I approach, a row of wet tents in a field catches my eye. A couple of covered gas canisters outside suggest there has been cooking. Inside the sparsely-adorned hall, about 50 people are sitting on plastic chairs or leaning on pop-up tables.
The breakfast snacks on a table are thrifty: bread, tea, a handful of digestives. Laptop bags and raincoats line the edges of the room, like landmarks parked between the rivers of cables and extension leads. A few well-behaved dogs are roaming around, although it isn’t clear what geospatial credentials any of them have. Laptops are out; all eyes are on the map on the projector.
A foremost expert among dogs on Geospatial Information Systems (GIS)? Photo: Luis Velasquez.
Lean and green event
I wasn’t sure what to expect at my first MapAction training weekend after recently joining the humanitarian mapping charity as head of communications. Many aid events I have attended or that I have been a part of in the last 10 years in the sector have often had the aesthetics of a high-society gala rather than a community feel. This was less Champagne Sunday, more lean and green.
MapAction, a charity that works alongside UN, regional and civil society disaster relief agencies to map disaster landscapes and strengthen disaster preparedness, holds regular training events for its cohort of nearly 80 volunteers. These events create a platform to simulate disasters and the response expected from MapAction. They also serve as a way for volunteers who have been on deployments or worked on projects to provide feedback to each other, their peers and to the broader team at MapAction. These circular procedures and reviews are fundamental to how MapAction assesses impact. The learnings from these events ultimately get fed back to our InnovationHub, where new tools, projects, approaches and solutions are developed.
New recruits
Early in 2023, MapAction added 12 new recruits to its volunteer cohort after a diligent and long interview and screening process. They come from an incredible range of fields and work for leading research institutes, businesses and other bodies, including the British Geological Survey, the British Antarctic Survey, Arup, Informed Solutions, the University of St Andrews and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to mention but a few.
MapAction volunteers, old and new, brainstorming in a session at a recent training weekend outside Oxford, UK. Photo: Alan Mills.
Their skill sets for the job are proven but it is their life experiences that jump out. One is a former National Park ranger in Taiwan; another made maps for an Oscar-winning actor while yet another was himself a child actor on screen. They come from half a dozen countries, including Andorra.
As I drove to the training weekend through endless roundabouts on a particularly rainy Sunday morning, I kept asking myself: why do successful mapping and data professionals give up their time and drag themselves to or across England in late March to camp by a wet community hall for a weekend? The answer was obvious once inside the room.
United community
The shared sense of commitment to humanitarian values was overwhelming. Volunteers don’t bemoan the sacrifice. If there is a personal cost to the work they do with MapAction, they hide it well. Passion brings them time and time again. The sense of passion for being able to support and inform key relief decisions in humanitarian crises is something money cannot buy. That shared sense of community – that shared commitment – was tangible.
The training itself focused on the procedures for mapping in humanitarian situations: naming maps and admin boundary colour schemes, archiving data, different symbology (good to distinguish the humanitarian icon for bacteria from that for bottled water), as well as templates, toolbars and software used by MapAction. There was also a review of MapAction’s recent earthquake response in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic.
Many of the 50 or so volunteers in the room were ‘veterans’ of recent deployments: whether it be MapAction’s response to the earthquakes in Turkiye or the team that deployed to Democratic Republic of Congo at Christmas last year in response to floods. Some volunteers professed to having weaker cartography skills than others; others were evidently linguists or experienced project managers. It was easy to see how this combination of skill sets is needed to tailor the right response to a vast range of natural disasters in so many global territories.
Always ready
And that is really the point. No two disaster responses look the same. For MapAction to be committed to saving lives when disasters strike, this fundamentally generous network of professionals needs to constantly update its skills and training to be on standby to respond. Volunteers outnumber staff by 4 to 1 at MapAction. That prevalence of volunteer spirit is MapAction’s soul; the shared sense of purpose cannot be rivalled with other incentives.
After a brief editorial exercise and an attempt to sign up these awesome women and men to produce content, it was time to pack up and leave. Tables, chairs, cables and projectors were dismantled with clinical efficiency. I couldn’t see them but I suspected even the dogs were trained to do something, like update software or pack away tents.
All said and done, the volunteers returned to different parts of the UK or Europe. One was seen setting off for a major transport hub miles away by bike. With them all went a little more disaster preparedness into the world.
This work is made possible with funds from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA)
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaras Province in southeast Turkiye (formerly known as Turkey) on the morning of Monday February 6th. A second major earthquake struck soon after. Both earthquakes and the aftershocks collapsed buildings and killed tens of thousands of people in both southeast Turkiye and northwest Syrian Arab Republic.
Teams of volunteers from MapAction have joined the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) office’s emergency operations in Gaziantep in southeast Turkiye – at their request – less than 20 kilometres from the epicentre of last Monday’s largest of two earthquakes
The MapAction team are mapping various aspects – for UN relief agencies – of the earthquake landscape, such as population and shake intensity, forecasted temperatures and temporary camp locations. See a sample of Turkiye earthquake maps here.
MapAction launches an APPEAL to sustain the Turkiye deployment
Two more earthquakes, of magnitude 6.3 and 5.8 respectively, struck Hatay Province in Turkiye on February 20th
The total number of casualties confirmed dead in both countries is more than 52,000 (March 13). The Turkiye government says 48,448 have been confirmed dead (March 13) in the country formerly known as Turkey. More than 4,300 deaths and 7,600 injuries have been reported in north-west Syria, as of March 06, reports UN OCHA.
2.7 million people displaced in Turkiye (March 13)
Nearly 16,000 aftershocks have been felt in the region (March 13)
Listen on the BBC to why MapAction has launched an appeal and how the vital mapping work we do supports emergency operations (starts at 01:07)
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that a combined 23 million people are affected in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic
Government of Turkiye says 10 provinces are affected in its country
*This blog is not, at least regularly, updated between 6pm UTC and 8.30am UTC and on weekends.
March 15: 10:00 UTC. More than 9 million people have been affected by the earthquakes in Turkiye, according to the latest data and situation report from UN OCHA. Nearly 3 million people have been displaced: 3.5 million people have been provided with shelter or accommodation; 354 new formal tent settlements established. Nearly 50,000 people have died in Turkiye alone.
March 06: 14:00 UTC. A new team of MapAction volunteers has now deployed to Gaziantep to continue to support the word of UNDAC in response to the devastating earthquakes in southeast Turkiye. We hope to rotate more teams but the support we can provide continues to be limited by the funds we have as an organisation. Please support our emergency response appeal.
23 M people have been affected by earthquakes in #Turkiye & #Syria.
Feb 23: 15: 30 UTC. 42,310 people have now been confirmed dead in Turkiye, states the latest update from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye – the country’s disaster relief agency. Nearly half a million people have been evacuated from quake-hit zones, states the same update.
“What’s so shocking to me is the trauma of the event… the trauma will go on a long time.”@UNReliefChief Martin Griffiths highlights the devastating impact of the earthquakes on the people of #Türkiye and #Syria, and the growing needs.
Feb 22: 16:45 UTC. A new map from MapAction’s Turkiye earthquake response set shows the average forecasted temperatures over the coming four days near the epicentre of the two major earthquakes just over two weeks ago in southeast Turkiye. The winter cold is a huge challenge for displaced survivors and relief workers.
After yesterday’s earthquake in Hatay, #Türkiye, 6 people lost their lives, 294 were injured & 10 buildings collapsed.
Feb 22: 10:35 UTC. UN experts estimate that 1.5 million people have been made homeless by the earthquakes in southeast Turkiye. At least 500,000 new homes will need to be built, reports UN News.
Feb 21: 10:15 UTC. There have been more than 100 aftershocks in the last few hours alone in Turkiye, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye – the country’s disaster relief agency.
Feb 21: 10:15 UTC. More than 47,000 people have now been confirmed dead in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic since two large earthquakes struck southeast Turkiye on February 6th. That number is likely to rise as authorities continue to clear rubble and a clearer picture of the extent of the catastrophe emerges. A new 6.3 magnitude earthquake also struck Hatay Province yesterday.
Nearly 65,000 buildings have been damaged and 18 million people have been affected by the earthquakes, according to data from UN OCHA and the government of Turkiye.
Feb 21: 10:00 UTC. The latest 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Hatay Province near Turkiye’s southeastern coastline yesterday affects more than 1 million people, according to an estimate from one disaster relief agency.
Feb 21: 09:55 UTC. The drone footage below of the post-earthquake landscape in Malatya shows the extent to which the catastrophic earthquakes that struck nearby two weeks ago devastated the city.
Feb 21: 09:50 UTC. 41,156 people have now been confirmed dead in Turkiye following the two devastating earthquakes that struck Turkiye two weeks ago on February 6th, according to the latest press bulletin (February 17th) from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. Four more people are reported dead and hundreds injured in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic following two smaller yet substantial earthquakes in Hatay Province – southern Turkiye – yesterday, February 20th.
Feb20: 19:15 UTC. BREAKING: Two more powerful earthquakes have struck southeast Turkiye exactly two weeks after two larger quakes killed more than 45,000 people in Turkiye and Syria. Today’s 6.3 and 5.8 magnitude earthquakes struck Hatay Province in Turkiye, reports the Guardian. More details to follow
From my visit to #Kahramanmaras in #Türkiye. ⁰Our teams are working tirelessly with municipality kitchens to ensure people still reeling from this crisis can feed themselves and their families. pic.twitter.com/InPCooR3rd
When disasters strike, emergency responders are often first on the scene, treating the sick & evacuating the wounded.
Join us in thanking emergency responders in #Türkiye and #Syria for their tireless work saving lives following the devastating earthquakes. pic.twitter.com/kPn1NPGg2A
Feb 20: 12:00 UTC. MapAction teams working on emergency response are usually hybrid, with a mixture of frontline mappers working alongside the UN in-country and remote support provided by other members of our volunteer cohort. Chris Ewing (pictured below) is a MapAction volunteer and trustee who has been leading the MapAction remote earthquake response team for Syrian Arab Republic from his home in London.
Chris Ewing, MapAction remote leader for the earthquake response in Syrian Arab Republic.
Feb 20: 10:10 UTC. More than 38,000 people in Turkiye have now lost their lives in in the devastating earthquakes that struck the southeast of the country – formerly known as Turkey – on February 6th, according to the latest press bulletin (February 17th) from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye.
Feb 18: 11:15 UTC. New maps and decision support products are being published regularly. See many of them at https://maps.mapaction.org/. The map above is a Situation Overview of North West Syria, produced using the data available on Feb 17th. It shows which border crossings are open for aid flow, along with indicators of need shown by a combination of damaged house surveys and ‘access to basic services’ assessments. MapAction creates the maps but you can see from the list of Data Sources in the bottom left corner how much of a team effort this all is.
A collapsed building in Kahramanmaras.
Feb 16: 16:2 UTC. Dust is thick in the air in Kahramanmaras as Turkiye authorities begin to remove rubble.
A truck removes rubble from collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, southeast Turkiye.
A digger removes rubble in Kahramanmaras, southeast Turkiye, on February 16th.
Feb 16: 16:10 UTC. To carry on mapping the earthquake landscape and to strengthen the layers of data in the coming weeks and months, we urgently need funds to extend this mission. Please visit our appeal page if you, somebody you know or your company can help. Thank you.
MapAction has launched an appeal to cover the costs of this unexpected deployment.
Feb 16: 15:20 UTC. Survivors are still being pulled from the rubble by search and rescue teams 10 days after the earthquake, reports Al Arabiya.
Feb 16: 14:45 UTC. The MapAction team are working out of a container-turned-temporary-office in Gaziantep, mapping key data for UN relief agencies.
Mobile office.
Children are quick to cope but we must support them.
Before the earthquake @WFP was supporting thousands of children in Aleppo with daily school meals. Now, WFP is redirecting school meals programme to children & families residing in these schools & other temporary shelters. pic.twitter.com/yN639VkBjA
UN humanitarian efforts in #Syria continue in the wake of the devastating earthquake.@UNFPA has had to massively scale-up maternal health services and other support to women and girls.https://t.co/jYzTbgzJAQ
Feb 16: 12:10 UTC. Any emergency operation as large as the response to last week’s devastating earthquakes requires extensive logistics. The Turkiye government has stated that more than 249,000 search and rescue personnel from AFAD (the disaster management agency), other Turkish emergency services and international supporting agencies are on the ground. Many relief operators in southeast Turkiye, where our MapAction team is deployed alongside UN agency UNDAC, have set up temporary operational and logistics bases.
Tents for search and rescue personnel in Gaziantep, southeast Turkiye.
A view, from the MapAction temporary office in a container, of bottled water.
Feb 16: 10:05 UTC. RECAP. Nearly 40,000 people have lost their lives following two devatstating earthquakes that struck southeast Turkiye and northwest Syrian Arab Republic on Monday February 6th. MapAction mapping volunteers were requested at the emergency operations centre in Gaziantep, near the epicentre of the largest earthquake, by the office of the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) team. A team of three experienced humanitarian mappers travelled to Turkiye last week to support the mapping of the disaster landscape and to help process the huge volume of incoming data.
There are so many more things that will need mapping as the larger picture emerges from the earthquake landscape. From 11 previous earthquake relief efforts and 137 emergency responses in total, MapAction knows from experience that the following data points may turn out to be relevant (NB: this list is intended as a sample guideline and does not reflect the official priorities of any partners):
Medical locations and status/capacity/type.
Pharmacies
Helicopter landing zones – coordinates in degrees and decimal minutes
Needs Assessments
Vulnerable groups
Broadcast stations and ranges/ languages/status
Schools open/closed/damaged
EMT locations
Infrastructure damage – phone, power
Port damage
Protection
Border crossings and refugee camps
Each set of data points we can map gives relief agents a better understanding of the landscape they face and the decisions they have to make. More informed decisions means aid reaches those who need it most. In order to continue our current mission in response to the earthquake in Turkiye, we urgently need funds to rotate our teams and complete our work. Please donate to our APPEAL if you can. Thank you.
Feb 15: 16:20 UTC. Maps on the wall.
A team member guides a relief agent through the map wall at a UN emergency operations centre in Gaziantep.
Feb 15: 15:20 UTC. The Director-General of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared his thoughts on a visit to Syria.
I’ve never in my life seen the level of destruction as I did on the road from Aleppo to Damascus. Skeletons of houses. Almost no people in sight. Over a decade of war has taken an unimaginable toll. Syrians need our support now and in years to come to rebuild their lives. pic.twitter.com/Ym2zmDixdw
Feb 15: 14:35 Our team in southeast Turkiye, mapping the disaster landscape at the request of the office of the United Nations Disaster and Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) team, has reported back from a field trip with the sad images below of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras.
Collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, southeast Turkiye.
Feb 15: 14:05 UTC. 31,974 people have lost their lives in the earthquakes in Turkiye, according to the latest press bulletin from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from quake-hit areas in Turkiye, according to the same source.
We’ve stayed in #Syria through more than a decade of conflict.
We are committed to supporting Syrians across the country and will do our utmost to help communities recover from the #earthquake.
Feb 15: 09: 40 UTC. At least 8.8 million people in northwest Syrian Arab Republic have been affected by the earthquake, with the majority anticipated to need some form of humanitarian assistance, according to UN OCHA. “Public service provision – water, electricity, heating, and social services – which were already under strain before the earthquake, are under severe pressure, and people’s access to emergency healthcare is limited with hospitals overwhelmed. Lack of fuel and heavy machinery and equipment are also major issues, hampering efforts to quickly reach those most in need,” states the update.
UN cross-border aid is a lifeline.
11 trucks with @UNmigration aid just crossed to north-west #Syria through Bab Al-Salam.
100 maps printed (in less than 20 minutes) last-minute for a field team in Malatya.
Feb 14: 16:10 UTC. The map below put together by our team supporting the UN in Gaziantep shows temporary camp locations set up in response to the earthquake near Osmaniye, southeast Turkiye.
At least 900 refugee camps were estimated to be across the border from Turkiye in Syrian Arab Republic according to MapAction research in 2020. Many are in or near areas affected by the earthquakes in the northwest of the country. A team from our cohort of more than 65 volunteer data software engineers, geospatial analysts and disaster data pipeline specialists were involved in mapping refugee settlements in 2020, revealing some of the data challenges. “Camps vary enormously,” stated the MapAction report from 2020, “from just a few tents to up to 93 separate sites within a single camp, and from long-term, static settlements to temporary ones.”
Feb 14: 14:45 UTC. Setting up the emergency relief operations in southeast Turkiye is a fluid, ongoing and challenging task.
“An air bridge has been built for the deployment of personnel and equipment. A total of 4097 sorties have been made with 170 helicopters and 76 aircraft from The Air, Land and Naval Forces, the Gendarmerie, the Coast Guard, the Turkish Police, the Ministry of Health and The Directorate General of Forestry,” clarifies the latest update from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye.
A total of 26 ships, 24 ships by the Naval Forces, and two ships by the Coast Guard Command were employed to deliver personnel and materials to the affected area, adds AFAD’s press update.
.@UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams have been deployed to #Türkiye and #Syria to support with search-and-rescue and aid operations.
They are also helping humanitarian organizations set up relief efforts for communities affected by the earthquakes. #UNDACpic.twitter.com/UiWhEZEz0I
Feb 14: 12:05 UTC. RECAP: A team consisting of three humanitarian mapping volunteers from MapAction has travelled to the emergency operations centre in Gaziantep, southeast Turkiye, at the request of the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) office. Working out of a temporary operations centre less than 20-kilometres from the largest of February 6th’s two earthquakes – which have already claimed more than 36,000 lives – the MapAction team has already created more than a dozen key maps for emergency relief field agents. These include maps documenting:
There are so many more things that will need mapping as the larger picture emerges from the earthquake landscape. From 11 previous earthquake relief efforts and 137 emergency responses in total, MapAction knows from experience that the following data points may turn out to be relevant (NB: this list is intended as a sample guideline and does not reflect the official priorities of any partners):
Medical locations and status/capacity/type.
Pharmacies
Helicopter landing zones – coordinates in degrees and decimal minutes
Needs Assessments
Vulnerable groups
Broadcast stations and ranges/ languages/status
Schools open/closed/damaged
EMT locations
Infrastructure damage – phone, power
Port damage
Protection
Border crossings and refugee camps
Each set of data points we can map gives relief agents a better understanding of the landscape they face and the decisions they have to make. More informed decisions means aid reaches those who need it most. In order to continue our current mission in response to the earthquake in Turkiye, we urgently need funds to rotate our teams and complete our work. Please donate to our APPEAL if you can. Thank you.
Feb 14: 11:40 UTC. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has stated that the earthquakes that struck Turkiye last week constitute “one of the worst disasters this century.” The latest combined casualty estimate from Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic exceeds 36,000, although the actual number of those who lost their lives in this tragic event is likely to be far higher, warn relief operators.
Feb 14: 10:35 UTC. The video below, by our team on the ground in Gaziantep, maps all earthquakes and aftershocks since February 5th in Turkiye, highlighting that after shocks are still hitting the area.
Data from USGS
Size of circle = magnitude of shock
Colour = depth from surface (darker red is closer to surface)
Points are displayed over a 12hr period
A map of the earthquakes and aftershocks since February 5th in Turkiye. Map: MapAction.
Feb 13: 15:50 UTC. The casualty rate continues to rise and is now nearing 40,000 in both affected countries. “We learn geology the morning after the earthquake,” said the US writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. We will only really understand the destruction these earthquakes have wreaked in the coming weeks or months as the larger picture becomes clearer. MapAction’s humanitarian mappers process the incoming data and create maps along key themes for relief agents, helping to shape that picture and create a better understanding.
Feb 13: 14:45 UTC. More than 4,300 deaths and 7,600 injuries have been reported in north-west Syria, as of 12 February, reports UN OCHA in it latest update. “52 trucks loaded with aid provided by five UN agencies so far crossed to north-west Syria, over a period of four days since the earthquakes,” states the update.
Since the earthquake, @UN agencies have sent over 50 trucks of much-needed aid to north-west #Syria, but much more is needed.
Feb 13: 14:15 UTC. 31,643 people have now been confirmed dead in Turkiye by Turkish authorities, according to the latest update from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. Nearly 160,000 people have been evacuated from quake-hit areas in Turkiye. Approximately 240,000 search and rescue workers from around the world are involved in the emergency response to last Monday’s two major earthquakes (and 2,700+ aftershocks).
A week after deadly earthquakes hit #Türkiye and #Syria, the @UN & humanitarian partners continue to respond.
10 more aid trucks crossed into north-west #Syria today.
While the full extent of the damage is still unknown, we will continue to get aid to those in need. pic.twitter.com/XQ5ccVt2dz
Feb 13: 11:00 UTC. While a lot of our work is currently focused on the response to the earthquakes that have devastated southeast Turkiye and northwest Syrian Arab Republic, MapAction is also working on other projects. Follow the link to see some of our latest mapping work on the Cholera outbreak in Malawi.
🌟 From #Ukraine to the #HornOfAfrica, data availability for priority humanitarian operations is at its highest levels in four years thanks to information sharing among partners.
Feb 13: 10:10 UTC. “Today we are doing a lot of work on establishing where the emergency shelters have been set up.” MapAction’s Alice Goudie spoke to BBC Good Morning Scotland (starts at 01:36:35) today from the emergency operations centre in Gaziantep about the kind of data MapAction’s humanitarian mappers are mapping for emergency relief field agents.
A MapAction map of temporary camp locations in the earthquake-hit areas in southeast Turkiye (accurate as of 11/02/2023).
Feb 13: 09:40 UTC. Good and well-arranged data can save lives. MapAction has prepared packs with 12 key maps for emergency respondents working on relief efforts in southeast Turkiye. These include maps of:
The MapAction map shows average forecasted temperatures for quake-hit areas in Turkiye in the coming days, with lows of -23C expected.
Printing maps for emergency relief operators to better navigate the earthquake landscape.
Feb 13: 09:20 UTC. More than 22,000 people have been confirmed dead in Turkiye following last Monday’s devastating earthquakes and approximately 2,000 aftershocks, according to the latest press bulletin from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. 80,278 individuals have been rescued from debris in Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis and Malatya and Elazığ and more than105,000 people have been evacuated from quake-hit areas, according to the same source.
Feb 12: 12:45 UTC. Temperatures are set to drop to as low as -23C in the next four days in some of the earthquake-hit areas in southeast Turkiye near the border with Syrian Arab Republic. This map from MapAction charts the highs and lows for average daily forecasted temperatures in the next 96 hours.
Feb 11: 16:05 UTC. Much of MapAction’s work in such an emergency response focuses on finding the gaps in data. “Data and maps may be updated following aftershocks or to add additional analysis layers, including for example assessed landslide risk zones, vulnerable infrastructure (e.g. dams), or population baselines,” state MapAction’s guidelines on earthquake response. One example of a challenge for data responders will be to triangulate satellite imagery on physical damage and population density with baseline source information from the ground. Some things are not clearly viewed or verified from space.
❤️❤️❤️ – my old company used to give everyone £1k to give to charity a year. After much research, I settled on @mapaction as an org where that £££ would be invested into a huge scale of impact. The work that they do is so important in making sure aid gets to where it needs to go. https://t.co/uQ8H1cvOoZ
Feb 11: 16:00 UTC. Media outlets are reporting that the combined death toll in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic has surpassed 25,000, although that number is likely to rise according to frontline workers. “I think it is difficult to estimate precisely as we need to get under the rubble but I’m sure it will double or more,” Martin Griffiths, a UN emergency relief coordinator in Adana, told Sky News.
Feb 11: 16:00 UTC. Nearly 19,000 people have been confirmed dead in Turkiye and more than 75,000 have been injured, according to the latest press bulletin from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. More than 80,000 people have been evacuated from quake-hit areas in Turkiye.
Feb 11: 15:50 UTC. MapAction’s team of humanitarian mapping volunteers are busy working on incoming data with UN partners at an emergency operations centre in Gaziantep, less than 20 kilometres away from last Monday’s largest of two earthquakes.
Mapping aid solutions.
Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the tragic events in Turkey and Syria.
You can read more about our earthquake appeal here.
Feb 10: 18:00 UTC. “For this earthquake to occur in a war-shattered region is nothing short of a catastrophe,” remarked the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) talking from Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic.
Feb 10: 18:00 UTC. More than 17,000 have been confirmed dead and 70,000 injured in Turkiye by the government, according to the latest press bulletin from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. More than 30,000 people have been evacuated from earthquake-hit areas, according to the same source.
Feb 10: 17:45 UTC. If you haven’t yet seen our Turkiye/Syrian Arab Republic appeal, it’s perusable here. The nuts and bolts are that however much we try, we can’t predict unexpected disasters like the earthquakes that struck southeast Turkiye on Monday February 6th. But we do often get asked to bring to emergency response operations our 20 years of knowhow in creating maps of disaster landscapes for relief agents. We need emergency deployment funds to cover our work in this and future emergency responses, as well as our training and resilience work with local partners. Hear more about why it matters on the BBC (starts 01:07).
Feb 10: 17:45 UTC. “To give you an idea of the sheer scale of the Turkey earthquake, if we overlay the USGS ShakeMap onto the British Isles, the fault (red colours) would have ruptured from the Severn Estuary to the Humber Estuary. Much of England would have seen at least Intensity Level 7 shaking.” Seismologist Stephen Hicks.
To give you an idea of the sheer scale of the Turkey earthquake, if we overlay the USGS ShakeMap onto the British Isles, the fault (red colours) would have ruptured from the Severn Estuary to the Humber Estuary. Much of England would have seen at least Intensity Level 7 shaking. pic.twitter.com/Vy1nsR0X4K
Feb 9: 19:55 UTC. If you haven’t seen our Turkiye-Syrian Arab Republic appeal, it’s right here. However much we try, we can’t predict unexpected disasters. But we do often get asked to bring to emergency response operations our 20 years of knowhow in creating maps of disaster landscapes for relief agents. We need emergency deployment funds to cover our work in this and future emergency responses, as well as our training and resilience work with local partners. Hear more about why it matters on the BBC (starts 01:07).
Feb 9: 19:50 UTC. First UN aid convoy reaches Syria’s quake-hit northwest since disaster.
“According to UN aid coordinating office, OCHA, six trucks carrying “shelter items and non-food item kits, including blankets and hygiene kits” reached Bab al-Hawa on Thursday, the only UN Security Council border crossing authorized for aid delivery.” UN News.
Feb 9: 19:45 UTC. Dedication to the job. A MapAction volunteer working on emergency response in Turkiye below takes a break after a 60-hour transit and a long shift today in the temporary MapAction field office at the UN operations centre in Gaziantep.
Feb 9: 16:45 UTC. Nearly 8,000 have been rescued from the rubble of buildings as of today, including – reports the Independent – a two-year-old boy who had been trapped for three days.
Feb 9: 16:25 UTC. The geospatial department at MapAction is busy and continues to publish new maps every day of the affected regions. Today from our Turkiye map repository we have:
A map published yesterday (February 8th) by MapAction. The map shows population data and shake intensity in Turkiye in regions affected by Monday’s earthquakes.
Feb 9: 14: 45 UTC. MapAction’s team are setting up their gear at the UN’s emergency response centre in Gaziantep, southeast Turkiye, less than 20 kilometres from the epicentre of one of last Monday’s two major earthquakes that devastated the region. For anyone wondering, there are roughly 60 kilograms of tech gear in that mobile office.
There are approximately 60 kilograms of tech gear in that mobile office.
Feb 9: 14:15 UTC. MapAction arrives at the scene of any disaster relief effort with pre-prepped laptops, hardware and customised tech gear. We have learnt a thing or two from 136 previous emergency responses. Our frontline operators are always supported by a dedicated remote team, as well as an amazing community of between 65 and 80 volunteers from various sectors.
“MapAction is one of the few entities that can use data analysis to quickly inform strategic decisions when data is limited/dirty/unstructured,” says one information management and analysis expert at the UN.
Feb 9: 13:00 UTC. MapAction has launched an appeal in order to continue to support the vital response efforts to this unexpected disaster. Read more – or perhaps donate kindly – here.
Feb 9: 13:00 UTC. Nearly 13,000 people in Turkiye alone have been confirmed dead and more than 60,000 injured, according to the February 9th press bulletin from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye. More than 113,000 rescue workers are now working on the response in Turkiye, according to the same source. International media estimate the total combined number of people confirmed dead in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic to be between 16,000 and 17,000, although that number is likely to rise as search and rescue operators get a better view of the disaster landscape.
Feb 9: 12:55 UTC. MapAction’s Ian Davis spoke to the BBC today (01:07mins in) about our team’s deployment to Turkiye to support UNDAC’s emergency relief operations.
Feb 9: 12:50 UTC. The MapAction team in Turkiye getting ready to travel closer to the epicentre with UN partners.
Feb 9: 10:45 UTC. The MapAction team at work with UN partners in Adana.
Feb 8 15:00 UTC. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) filed an update yesterday evening regarding access to key areas in the affected earthquake zone.
“Local sources report that the road conditions to the border-crossing are impaired and therefore the cross-border response is temporarily disrupted . In particular, the road connecting Gaziantep to Hatay, the most affected district in Türkiye by number of deaths, is reportedly not accessible. Hatay is also home to UN Transshipment Hub where aid is monitored, verified, and loaded into trucks as part of a UN monitoring process before crossing to Syria. The UN and partners are currently exploring other routes and conducting feasibility assessments.
The first two days of the emergency have added enormous pressures to an already overstretched response in north-west Syria, compounded by snowy weather and electricity cut in many areas,” states yesterday evening’s update from the UN agency.
Feb 8: 14:05 UTC. More than 60,000 search and rescue workers from Turkiye and around the world are working on rescue operations in Turkiye, according to a press bulletin from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) at the Ministry of the Interior of Turkiye.
Ten Turkish provinces are affected by the earthquake, according to AFAD: Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis and Malatya. Many media outlets are now reporting more than 11,000 people confirmed dead in Turkiye and Syrian Arab Republic following two devastating earthquakes and many aftershocks on Monday February 6th.
Feb 8: 13:10 UTC. Teams of humanitarian data respondents from MapAction have been involved in more than 130 disaster relief operations in the last 20 years. Navigate this globe in 3D to find out where, when and how.
Accurate as of August 2022. The total is now in fact 137. Photo: MapAction.
Feb 8: 11:55 UTC. “The earthquakes are estimated to have directly impacted 23 million people,” states The Red Cross.
Feb 8: 10:00 UTC. MapAction’s team of three humanitarian mappers are in Turkiye. Their presence and support was requested by the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) team. Details on the mission below.
A MapAction team member with equipment, prepares to fly to Adana to join UNDAC’s emergency operations centre in Gaziantep. Photo: MapAction.
Feb 8: 08:45 UTC. Some images from our team on the ground in Turkiye as they prepare to fly from Istanbul to Adana, in the southeast of the country. The MapAction team of volunteers will then join UNDAC at their emergency operations centre in Gaziantep, less than 20 kilometres from the epicentre of Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Frosty temperatures complicate disaster relief efforts in Turkiye. Photo: MapAction
Feb 7: 22:50 UTC. The combined death toll from Turkiye and Syria nears 8,000 as disaster relief workers continue search and rescue operations.
Feb 7: 16: 30 UTC.MapAction announces deployment of team of three to support UN emergency operations centre on site, two more supporting remotely
Three experienced MapAction emergency mapping and geospatial responders will fly out of Heathrow & Manchester today to work alongside partners in relief efforts for the earthquakes that have already claimed nearly 5,000 lives in southern Turkey and northern Syria.
The team will deploy alongside staff from the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) office, initially working with search and rescue data. MapAction’s data and mapping work will also inform what data is used to assess primary needs throughout the emergency relief operations.
Ready to deploy: MapAction volunteers are travelling to Turkey to support UN relief operations in the areas affected by the devastating earthquakes. Photo: MapAction.
The team of three will be supported remotely by other MapAction volunteers, as well as MapAction’s tech, innovation and geospatial support staff, who have begun creating a repository of maps for response coordinators.
“Search and rescue teams require rapid detailed maps of collapsed site locations and search sector boundaries, as well as hospital locations and status, base of operations and other resources,” according to MapAction’s guidelines on mapping needs in search and rescue operations. The status of all key data points like roads, transport hubs, hospitals and urban landmarks will all need to be mapped. MapAction collates multiple secondary forms of data, such as roads and transport hubs or physical access constraints, to create, in real time, the most up-to-date maps possible for emergency respondents to make the right decisions in any situation, to ensure aid gets where it is needed, fast.
A MapAction volunteer’s kit for their deployment to Turkey. Photo: MapAction.
Experience with earthquakes
MapAction’s position in the ‘navigators seat’ of more than 130 major emergency responses worldwide has enabled it to constantly hone its capability, providing mapping, data and information tools to disaster relief agencies coordinating key emergency responses in 11 earthquakes in the last 18 years. From Haiti, to Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal and more, MapAction has accrued extensive know how in the way responses to earthquakes develop, as well as an understanding of the most urgent mapping and data needs for disaster agencies coordinateing them.
Feb 7: 07:30 UTC. Confirmed casualties surpass 5000.
Feb 6: 19:30 UTC. UN agencies and international media report that the total number of people confirmed dead has surpassed 3000.
Feb 6: 15:00 UTC. United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC) office officially requests MapAction’s support on mapping and data management at emergency operations centres in Turkiye.
Feb 6: 13:00 UTC. MapAction remote geospatial analysts and volunteers start publishing relevant maps for disaster relief agencies in Turkiye on the ground: Turkiye earthquake maps.
Feb 6: 10:24 UTC. A second 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in southeast Turkey.
Feb 6: 01:17 UTC. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Kahramanmaras Province in Turkiye, affecting millions of people and a vast area in southeast Turkiye and northwest Syrian Arab Republic.
MapAction’s team in training for disaster response.
At least 5000 people have been confirmed dead (updated: Feb 7, 09:30 GMT) after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, and subsequent aftershocks, struck southeast Turkiye (formerly known as Turkey) and northwest Syria on Monday February 6th. That seismic event was swiftly followed by a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the same region and dozens of aftershocks, according to UN agencies and mainstream media, including Al Jazeera and the Guardian.
Humanitarian mapping and data charity MapAction began working in the early hours of Monday Feb 6th, as team members saw early news of a devastating earthquake near the Turkish/Syria border. With remote work already underway on updating of key maps and data, MapAction has been planning with UN and other emergency response partners and its own standby team members.
The first earthquake struck Kahramanmaras Province in southeast Turkiye in the early hours of this morning, states an initial report from the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS). The same source estimates that 4.8 million people who live within 100 kilometres of the epicentre will be exposed to the disaster, many of whom live in temporary camps and are facing sub zero winter temperatures.
“It’s a very shallow earthquake beneath highly populated areas and in a region which the buildings just can’t stand this level of shaking,” Stephen Hicks, a computational seismologist from University College London (UCL), told Sky News of the largest quake, adding that this earthquake – the “worst kind” – had ripped through an area 400-kilometres wide in under two minutes. “When we talk about earthquakes this large, the epicentre is not a single point. It’s actually ruptured along a fault of about 400km,” explained Hicks.
The EU and UN jointly-run GDACS assessment team has declared the disaster level as red, the most severe for an earthquake. Many governments have already offered assistance. Disaster relief agencies have deployed teams to the area and MapAction is coordinating with partners on how to best support the emergency response.
MapAction: 11 earthquake responses
MapAction has been involved in providing mapping, data and information tools to disaster relief agencies coordinating key emergency responses in 11 earthquakes in the last 18 years: from Haiti, to Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal and several other countries, MapAction has accrued extensive knowhow in how responses to earthquakes develop, as well as an understanding of the most urgent mapping and data management needs for disaster relief agencies.
The initial response to such an earthquake focuses on search and rescue operations, as well as damage assessment. The two major earthquakes, and subsequent shocks (reported to be up to 40), have affected a very wide area, much of which lies within conflict zones.
“Search and rescue teams require rapid detailed maps of collapsed site locations and search sector boundaries, as well as hospital locations and status, base of operations and other resources,” note MapAction’s guidelines on mapping needs in search and rescue operations. The status of all key data points like roads, transport hubs, hospitals and urban landmarks will all need to be mapped.
Please stay tuned for updates and further information about MapAction’s response in the coming days.
Three members of MapAction, the humanitarian mapping agency, have had to cut short or postpone their Christmas plans as they drop everything to respond to the UN’s call for help in Kinshasa, DRC, to respond to deadly floods.
The MapAction DRC team on the ground. Photo: MapAction.
Experienced MapAction members Mark Gillick, Andrew Kesterton and Daniel Soares have deployed to DRC – initially for two weeks – to work alongside, and at the request of, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), a long-standing MapAction partner.
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo in southwest Africa, has experienced severe flooding caused by heavy rains. According to DRC authorities, at the time of writing, at least 169 people have died, nearly 39,000 households were flooded and at least 282 houses were destroyed, leaving many families homeless. Critical infrastructure has also been damaged or destroyed.
The United Nations Disaster Assessment & Coordination (UNDAC) team were asked to respond and they requested “long-standing partner” MapAction, the Oxfordshire-based humanitarian mapping charity, to support their initial emergency response coordination to the floods.
MapAction regularly sends teams to crisis-stricken areas alongside UN agencies to help ensure good data use and management in disaster response. Since 2002, MapAction has been part of approximately 130 similar emergency responses.
Our teams regularly deploy last-minute and spontaneously at the request of UN disaster relief agencies like UN OCHA and UNDAC. From the moment we receive a request for support, team members often deploy within 24 to 48 hours to the affected country to assist with management and analysis of data in response to any given emergency.
MapAction volunteers train year-wide to prepare to deploy and provide backend support. Photo: MapAction.
Getting good data into the hands of decision makers in the first days of any disaster relief response is vital. Access to high-quality data is fundamental in the chaotic aftermath of a humanitarian emergency, when data and maps are crucial to make rapid sense of the situation and plan the best response to save lives and minimise suffering.
In the early hours of a crisis, one of the first tasks facing our team is to produce standardised ‘core’ maps that will be used throughout the response. These provide contextual and reference information about, among other things, the local environment, population and infrastructure. Sometimes they are created under difficult on-the-ground conditions or with incomplete information. Once they are in place, they are used to create additional situation-specific maps by layering on top evolving information about the extent and impacts of the emergency and the humanitarian response.
Ready to deploy
In emergency response, every hour is critical. When floods strike, like the ones currently affecting DRC, and a UN agency requests our support, a call goes out instantly to MapAction volunteers to see who is available. Backroom support at MapAction will already have begun: tickets, visas, insurance and other logistics will be reviewed and finalised; software and hardware tested and customized for the situation. Equipment will be streamlined according to mission-aligned criteria, such as a country’s specific voltage, plug type and satellite phone coverage. Our geospatial department will begin to produce maps from the moment the news is reported. Dialogue between internal departments and with external partners will be continuous.
As the DRC-bound team works in-country alongside UN agencies, the wider MapAction team has already started collating and publishing key datasets for the affected area.
MapAction’s 2022 Annual General Meeting celebrated 20 years of humanitarian service. The event in early December also served as a platform to announce the organisation’s increasing pivot towards early warning work – to consolidate global resilience to the climate emergency, health epidemics and conflict.
20 years ago a small group of people started MapAction from humble beginnings in a village in Oxfordshire. The organisation has grown – via more than 130 deployments alongside international, regional and national relief agencies – to encompass a cohort of more than 60 volunteers and 20 staff with a global footprint of projects in five continents.
In 2022 alone, MapAction was involved in responses to disasters in Paraguay, Suriname, Madagascar, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, The Gambia and the Philippines (to mention but a few), responding to cyclones, floods, droughts, conflict and food security emergencies.
This year, MapAction volunteers and staff completed 59 projects. Our teams produced hundreds of maps and trained more than 100 professionals in GIS and data and information management worldwide. With the help of five major donors and many individual donations, we were able to work with 26 key partners globally. A majority of our cohort of volunteers attended 14 training events in the UK.
New dawn
Coming into 2022 we knew it would be an inflection point for the organisation, with different routes we could travel. Twenty years on from our beginnings, that seems appropriate.
We have had a front seat alongside emergency relief agencies in more than 130 disaster responses since we started providing maps, data analytics and IM services to humanitarian emergency relief coordinators. Thousands of maps later, we are using that experience to create new, and better, ways of working.
Grassroots resilience
Perhaps the most striking change compared to the humanitarian sector 20 years ago when MapAction was founded is the shift away from global relief agencies towards local and national leadership for response, anticipatory action and preparedness. We recognised a while back that we will not always be the ones providing the maps; others will do so. That is why we are increasingly focusing on a strategy of ‘global localisation’: supporting regional and grassroots response capacity.
MapAction works with regional and local disaster relief bodies and civil society organisations worldwide to strengthen resilience and preparedness vis-a-vis any disaster. In Asia, we work with the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre) – an intergovernmental organisation consisting of 10 southeast Asian nations – as well as the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) in Central Asia.
In the Caribbean, MapAction works with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). Equivalent projects are also underway to create partnerships and opportunities for knowledge exchange among humanitarian data analytics practitioners in Africa.
InnovationHub
We support organisations to streamline preparedness for any disaster through enhancing response with innovation and new ideas. That is why we are increasingly placing resources and energy into our InnovationHub, which identifies, prioritises and explores needs and opportunities in the humanitarian data analytics sector. Our ultimate goal is for no one to be left behind.
We see the potential of building communities of like-minded people to use geospatial and data analysis to help decision-making effectively. We wanted to globalise the wonderful data-crunching culture of MapAction, our own community of practice. Such communities can cross national boundaries working collaboratively and in solidarity to use data and tech to solve problems and answer questions
Looking to 2023
In 2023, we are already earmarked to work in Bangladesh, Burundi, Madagascar, Philippines and South Sudan on preparedness and anticipatory action, as well as on health microplanning. The calendar for next year in general is looking exciting.
In January, MapAction will lead ‘geo-surgery’ sessions as part of the State of the Map Tanzania conference. In April, our annual disaster simulation Gilded will bring together more than 50 data professionals on the Isle of Cumbrae off the west coast of Scotland. Our InnovationHub will continue to collaborate with the Predictive Analytics team at the UN Centre for Humanitarian Data to push the boundaries of innovation.
As the final days of the year loom, I can honestly say 2022 was everything we anticipated. We end the year having achieved what we set out to do, with perhaps the strongest team that we’ve ever had. We will carry this momentum into 2023, fully aware that very real challenges lie ahead of the horizon. One of the greatest challenges we will face will be to secure the resources that we need to achieve the impact that we strive for. I know that MapAction will continue to work to fill this funding gap with determination, innovation and conviction.
All that remains for me to say is to wish all of our donors, partners, volunteers, members, staff, friends and followers all the very best for the festive season. Merry Xmas!
MapAction continues to help create resilience for geospatial and data science practitioners in the Asia-Pacific region working on emergency response and anticipatory action. It is part of MapAction’s ‘global strategy of localisation’, a commitment to empower regional disaster relief bodies and civil society stakeholders to be more resilient and sustainable.
The East Asia and Pacific region alone includes 13 of the 30 countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to the World Bank. “Without concerted action, the region could see an additional 7.5 million people fall into poverty due to climate impacts by 2030,” warns the international financial institution.
In 2021, MapAction signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), a civil society partnership of 59 international and regional NGOs working in 18 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, to support that “concerted action”.
The ADRRN network, in its own words, “focuses on transforming Asia’s resilience, moving from the most vulnerable to the most resilient region’. Its influence and reach is considerably enhanced through collaboration with national-level networks, global networks, regional multilateral stakeholders and UN agencies.”
MapAction remains committed to strengthening the global humanitarian data science and geospatial sectors through partnerships with civil society networks like ADRRN. “Our joint agreement commits us to seeing how humanitarian information can help in planning and developing tools for anticipatory action and in better understanding the different contexts of emergencies, such as the difference between urban and rural settings,” says MapAction CEO Liz Hughes.
Our work so far with ADRRN has focused on improving Information Management (IM) for civil society organisations (CSOs) to have a better understanding of their existing resources, impact and plans. MapAction also supports CSOs to be interoperable with other humanitarian actors and mechanisms. This nourishes a bottom-up approach to building capacity and ability to do IM at local levels – that then regional and international agencies can support. The ultimate goal is for local stakeholders to be more resilient vis-a-vis any crisis.
MapAction continues to provide data and volunteers for emergencies in the region alongside major international relief agencies like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But working with civil society organisations at ADRRN has additional benefits. “Doing it through a network encourages spillover approaches and techniques from one agency to another,” says Alan Mills MBE, a MapAction team member on the project. “MapAction wants to learn peer-to-peer with these agencies who come with different world experiences and perspectives from our own.”
MapAction’s partnership with ADRRN is ongoing. As part of Regional Humanitarian Partnership Week in Bangkok (jointly organised by ADRRN, CWS, ICVA and OCHA) on December 14th, MapAction will lead a session to support how people use geospatial data in emergencies. The presentation and ‘geo-surgery’ Q&A for partners will cover ‘Using location data for preparedness and response work’. In a nutshell, tips and techniques for successful geospatial work.
Geo-surgery date
A screenshot of a 3W dashboard MapAction produced for CDP in the Philippines in December 2021 following Typhoon Rai.
The session will focus on some key geospatial and data challenges faced by data scientists and geospatial data engineers when confronted with any emergency, from mapping techniques, to location surveys and establishing baseline data for the ‘3Ws’: the who-what-where baseline information that is so vital to emergency service coordinators and providers to able to make informed decisions. The session led by MapAction will look at rapid mapping techniques using software like PowerPoint, Excel, Google Earth, ESRI ArcGis (mapping software) and QGIS (an open source geo data tool).
Another Q&A with stakeholders will explore the benefits of including location in assessments, using survey tools such as Kobo. The discussion will explore how good data sources, good formatting and interoperability can all represent quick wins for geodata specialists working in disaster relief.
In the last 16 months, MapAction data volunteers and staff have been working on projects in Sri Lanka and the Philippines geared at building preparedness. In Sri Lanka we work with Muslim Foundation for Culture and Development (MFCD) and in the Philippines with the Centre for Disaster Preparedness Foundation Inc (CDP). Both projects focus on mapping their programmes and partnerships (the who-what-where baseline of information and ‘3W Rapid Mapping’) through a standardised template. Essentially, creating a clear view to pierce through the whirlpool of data.
“Not only does this provide our partners with useful information about what everyone is doing but it also provides visibility amongst the full ADRRN network and with regional and global bodies such as OCHA. During a crisis response this is useful as this information can be fed straight into the humanitarian cluster system for the 3W work, so the local civil society organisations are getting better visibility in the response and with donors – and it also fosters better interoperability between all organisations,” says MapAction’s Matt Sims, who worked on both projects.
At MapAction we are committed to building on what we already know: use of data to mitigate the devastating effects of global threats such as climate change is at the heart of why we set-up our Innovation Hub in 2022. The emphasis on innovation in how we use, source, present and process data to mitigate natural disasters aligns with stakeholder policy.
“Frontier technologies and digital innovations not only reduce the cost of implementing the policy interventions, but also have game-changing impacts on scaling up transformative adaptation through enhanced risk analytics like impact forecasting and integrated multi-hazard risk assessment and early warning, surveillance, and strategic foresights,” notes the UN’s Economic and Social Commission For Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) Asia Pacific Disaster Report for 2022.
“Anticipatory action protects lives”
This is part of a prevailing global strategy to put data and innovation at the centre of mitigating the colossal impacts of the climate emergency, including through the promotion of disaster risk reduction and emerging anticipatory action strategies. “Anticipatory action protects lives, livelihoods, homes and entire communities. These early investments also prevent higher response costs down the road. This is at the core of my prevention agenda — to put better data, and more innovation, foresight and inclusion, into our work to address major risks,” affirmed UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ in a video message for a UN event on Anticipatory Action in September 2021.
MapAction’s work with ADRRN is part of a broader institutional strategy to engage and partner with regional and local disaster relief bodies and civil society organisations worldwide. Since 2018, MapAction has worked extensively with the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre), an intergovernmental organisation consisting of 10 southeast Asian nations.
MapAction also works with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in the Caribbean, as well as the Center for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) in Central Asia. Equivalent projects are also underway to create partnerships and opportunities for knowledge exchange in humanitarian data science in Africa.
MapAction is helping CSOs put together the building blocks for more coherent management of information between all pillars of humanitarian actors. One of the key goals of all our partnerships with local and civil society organisations is to ensure that they can efficiently contribute to that sharing of vital information on local action which often gets overlooked by global audiences. Our collaborative work with ADRRN and others in the Asia Pacific region is helping to create that solid foundation from which more innovative and interoperable solutions can emerge.
Ever watched a disaster unfold on the screen in front of you and wondered if your specialist technical skills could help? Could a a software or data engineer help in a drought response? Is there a role for a project manager or graphic designer in an earthquake?The answer is yes.
MapAction, the non-profit that provides decision-making support in humanitarian crises, has launched a recruitment drive for up to a dozen new volunteers including data science, data engineering, data visualisation, geospatial, software and project management professionals. MapAction’s broadest and most diverse volunteer recruitment campaign ever seeks those looking to give their skills, time and energy to help many of the world’s most vulnerable people (The roles are remote but you will need to be within easy reach of and allowed to travel to the UK for training).
MapAction’s new strategy will see a greater diversity of organisational partners, data specialisms, services and products than ever, as it strives to bring the power of fast-moving advances in data and geospatial analysis to humanitarian crises.
MapAction wants to hear from willing people with professional skills in any of the following fields :
MapAction needs such skills to support the ever-growing range of information needs for humanitarian decision-making. Traditionally, MapAction helped in the immediate aftermath of disasters: over the last 20 years, our organisation has produced 1000s of maps and decision-making tools for well over 100 humanitarian emergencies. The team has also trained humanitarian partners in the types of maps, data visualisations and other data tools necessary to mitigate emergencies. We have created tools to automate the gathering and quality of critical geospatial base data when an emergency occurs and helped many vulnerable countries and communities to ensure their key data sets are ‘emergency ready’ and available in advance of when they are needed.
Since the organisation’s inception in 2002, MapAction has enabled scores of people like you to contribute their technical skills to solving crises. Back then, MapAction mostly made maps – now a MapAction volunteer is as likely to be asked to design a data dashboard or contribute to a rapid extent flood model as to make a map (although just to be clear, we still love a good map).
MapAction volunteers can contribute their work remotely but we also still send volunteers out on missions when invited. Which is often. Volunteers might go to the heart of humanitarian crisis responses, alongside relevant UN, regional and national disaster management colleagues, providing the data sets and maps that can help emergency relief coordinators make key decisions about aid delivery for affected communities. Or you might be training or supporting local governments or civil society organisations in how to better prepare and use their data in an emergency context.
A MapAction volunteer’s work is challenging and varied but you will always receive extensive training and support before we put you into any situation. Working with data under pressure, and when lives are at stake, is a big responsibility.
Despite the challenges, MapAction volunteers often find the work highly rewarding. Many have been with us for more than a decade. Most enjoy the opportunity to help mitigate emergencies and crises, to create positive outcomes for vulnerable communities. “There is a great sense of achievement being part of MapAction, it allows me to utilise my professional skills within another context, at the same time providing support to those helping people,” says long-term MapAction member Tony Giles.
MapAction member Rachel Alsop says: “When I went on my first emergency deployment I remember saying that I thought working in consultancy was great preparation, working long hours, with tight deadlines and under considerable pressure. Having a background in data and analytics has been really useful over and above my GIS skills. MapAction is a big commitment but I have loved every year I have spent volunteering and we wouldn’t all be committing our time unless it was also a lot of fun.”
“I wanted to join so I could use my programming skills to make a real, immediate, and positive difference to places in the world that need it. The MapAction staff and volunteers have been more than amazing in welcoming me into the world of humanitarian aid. Through the training days and weekends I’ve spent with them, I’ve had great fun with possibly the geekiest (and I know geeky!) GIS crowd around, made good friends, and felt a sense of great privilege to be part of MapAction’s crucial and respected work with aid agencies worldwide,” adds MapAction member Leon Baruah.
Kirsty Ferris, another MapAction member, says it is the impact that keeps her tied to the role. “I get to make a real impact in devastating situations using GIS, information management and mapping, all of which are areas of expertise that I find enjoyable to use. While the training is intensive and time consuming, the benefits to me personally and professionally are too vast to mention. The volunteers and full time staff at MapAction provide great support, understanding and shared geekiness, there are not many places where you can talk GPS and geodesy with such shared enthusiasm,” Kirsty told MapAction.
As Leon notes, our volunteers receive a lot of support and undergo extensive training to ensure they are ready to work in humanitarian contexts. They meet regularly to exchange ideas, troubleshoot challenges and learn together. MapAction’s annual disaster simulation exercise brings together the majority of the team to ensure maximum preparedness for any emergency. The 2023 edition will be on the Isle of Cumbrae in Scotland.
Want to know more about what it takes to be a MapAction volunteer? Please get in touch. To see a full list of volunteer opportunities at MapAction and to apply, please click here.
MapAction’s work has always applied its geospatial and data expertise in order to provide information on humanitarian needs. Now, due to the changing world around us, we are expanding our focus on issues such as health and in other areas. Our activities will increasingly aim to use data and geospatial information to combat major health challenges that affect vulnerable populations.
We have previously used our expertise in health related areas during the Covid-19 crisis and are now turning our focus to other challenges, the first being malaria. Malaria is one of the leading causes of death, suffering, poverty and underdevelopment globally. Every year 500 million people become severely ill from malaria and more than a million people die, the great majority of them women and children in sub-Saharan Africa.
We know that data and geospatial information and good knowledge management can help reduce these figures. Our IHDP tool (Integrated Humanitarian Data Package) was designed to aid vaccine delivery planning and logistics. It contains selected data sets, information explaining the data (‘metadata’), and GIS and coding tools which allows users to easily develop situation-specific items such as maps and other graphics.
Having trialled the IHDP in South Sudan for Covid 19 vaccine delivery planning, we are now testing it in a second country, and with malaria. In Burundi malaria cases have almost doubled since the early 2000s, reaching 843,000 cases per million inhabitants in 2019.
To kick-off our programme of work, two MapAction team members travelled to Burundi to meet with partners from the Programme National Intégré de Lutte contre le Paludisme (PNILP – the National Integrated Malaria Control Programme). Our aim was to support them with digital data collection and to assess the need for more support.
The PNILP team distributes long-lasting insecticide treated bednets to households across the region. In the past, they have used a paper-based survey to estimate the number of bednets needed but they want to use a digital survey to make the process more effective.
The two teams discussed how we might work together and the MapAction team demonstrated how KoBo – a software app for mobile data collection and management – could be used for future surveys.
MapAction volunteers, Daniel Soares and Chris Jarvis, provided KoBo training to 12 members of the team. The participants already had a foundational knowledge of KoBo, which meant that MapAction could work with the team at a faster pace.
The training session looked at how to design KoBo forms for the survey teams who will be using smartphones, and how to then upload the collected data for analysis and planning.
In addition, the session also covered how to make data collection more secure and effective, by restricting access to the data and ensuring privacy, and how to streamline the data collection process for faster data analysis.
PNILP were interested in digital data collection for other activities too, and the focus is now on continuing to support the PNILP team with specific technical needs when necessary.
Parts of Paraguay are experiencing a devastating drought. A La Niña weather pattern is being compounded by three consecutive years of poor rainfall. The Western region, or Chaco zone, where almost half the population is indigenous (approximately 44%), is particularly badly affected by the drought which is predicted to worsen and last until at least the beginning of 2023.
The drought is impacting access to water, health, food security and the livelihoods of large numbers of families (due to huge losses in farming), and is exacerbating the often fragile conditions of indigenous populations and farming communities. This situation makes the country very vulnerable to climate change impacts.
The Governor of the Boquerón department in the North West has made a request for urgent assistance, resulting in a combined UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) and MapAction team mission. Together, the team will undertake a rapid needs assessment of six regions. This will provide information on the impact of the drought and the humanitarian situation in the most affected areas and inform the Government’s decision-making process and how best to respond.
MapAction has deployed one of its highly experienced specialists, Luis Velasquez, who will be using his skills to supply situational data analysis, visualisation and geospatial expertise. A remote team will also be helping with data gathering and map generation.
One of MapAction’s aims is to help disaster management agencies around the world to use vital geospatial and data analysis tools in their work. By doing so we can deepen how effective and impactful the sector can be, both when emergencies strike or in advance by enabling regional communities and organisations to reduce their risks.
With this in mind, we work with our partners at the Centre for Emergency Situations and Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR), a body established to decrease the risk of emergencies across Central Asia. In line with our usual training programme, we worked together to develop and deliver three training sessions in April and May of this year.
The initial training was in Tashkent – the first time MapAction has trained personnel in Uzbekistan. Three of our members – Alistair Wilkie, Katharina Lorenz and Richard Phillips – provided a week-long course of tailored basic training aimed to introduce and raise awareness of humanitarian and emergency mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Information Management, allowing attendees to become familiar with some basic techniques.
In mid-May MapAction members Chris Ewing, Mark Gillick and Colin Spiller delivered training in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. As we have trained many CESDRR members in basic techniques over the past few years, this was a more advanced course exploring operational readiness and testing participants under time and pressure constraints in simulated scenarios.
Training CESDRR members in Kyrgyzstan
Finally, at the end of May, Members Alistair Wilkie, Dominic Greenslade and Mark Gillick, delivered another advanced course for the regional and national offices of the emergency agencies in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where we have delivered several courses previously.
The courses were all well received and helped to cement and enhance MapAction’s long-standing partnership with CESDRR, and to strengthen valuable GIS skills that are crucial in disaster response and humanitarian aid distribution. Again with CESDRR, we are planning to deliver training in Tajikistan next year.
One of the Nur-Sultan course participants commented, “I would like to note the work of the best specialists in the field of QGIS mapping, wonderful MapAction (members) – Mark, Colin and Chris, who trained the participants of the training for 5 days, and distinguished themselves by their literacy, cognition, accessibility, professionalism, feedback, responsiveness and decency.”
A significant part of what MapAction does as an organisation is making sure other agencies around the world are ready to respond when crises arise and can use vital GIS tools in their work.
For a week in June, my MapAction colleague Darren and I supported the training of almost 30 members of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team, which is part of the international emergency response system for sudden-onset emergencies.
The training event was held in Lima, Peru which not only meant a long flight but everything, including the training, was in Spanish. As a native speaker, this was ideal for me! Having also just undertaken MapAcion’s ‘Operational Readiness Course’, it felt like the perfect time to go on my first official ‘deployment’ as a MapAction volunteer.
MapAction often works with UNDAC during emergencies, so it was a great opportunity to make some contacts and meet others in the humanitarian sector, often people from different backgrounds and with a wide range of experiences. It was really beneficial for me to understand the way in which UNDAC works, and for me to ascertain the levels of knowledge of the new trainees in terms of GIS and the data that needs to be collected.
Sunday was all about introductions and ensuring the team knew about MapAction, how we work and how we support UNDAC in emergency situations. Monday saw the start of a three-day and three night simulation exercise which involved delegates being split into four teams and ‘travelling’, along with ourselves, to a ‘country’ that had just experienced an earthquake.
Darren and I had dual roles; we participated as MapAction and supported all of the teams in the geospatial elements of the simulation, we were also part of the exercise coordination team. From the data collected during the exercise, Darren and I developed a number of GIS products and maps that helped identify humanitarian needs and tell the unfolding story of the crisis. Although they were long days, being part of the team 24/7 meant that we made some really strong bonds.
As well as it being great for my personal and professional development, and confidence building, I now feel more confident that I can handle the pressure of a deployment to a humanitarian crisis.
Aside from volunteering, I work as a Geospatial Consultant at the Satellite Applications Catapult and I am part of a team focused on ensuring that the International Development & Humanitarian sector is maximising the opportunities that satellite-enabled geospatial data and technologies can provide.
This first ‘deployment’ has also allowed me to travel around Peru and visit some extraordinary places such as Machu Picchu. It was a very valuable experience and I now feel ready to deploy when an emergency happens.
MapAction team members get ready for deployment through our annual disaster simulation exercise
In June MapAction volunteers from all over the world headed to Gloucestershire for their biggest deployment team training event in the calendar.
These simulations are a chance to practise many of our standard operating procedures, and an opportunity to build team cohesion.
This year’s simulation focused on reinforcing field skills and rapid analysis whilst operating with limited connectivity in a demanding setting. The scenario took place in a fictional country, where an ongoing 15-month drought was causing food insecurity. A sudden migration event tipped this into an emergency and triggered a MapAction ‘deployment’ in support of an alliance of international and national NGOs.
As with previous simulations, facilities were deliberately basic and participants had to camp. One night also involved an overnight stay in work areas as venturing outdoors was deemed to be ‘currently unsafe’ within the scenario. Team members might encounter such insecurity on a field deployment.
For MapAction Volunteer Alice Goudie, who joined us in 2018, the training was a good opportunity for her to test out some of the skills she’s picked up on deployment:
“GIS skills are only part of what we do, a lot of the skills are more to do with working in harsh environments, communicating, and working under pressure.”
Alice has been on a number of deployments with us but knows that each situation is a learning experience,
“In the four years that I have been deployable I have been on an International Search and Rescue Advisory Team (INSARAG) mission to Armenia, two emergency deployments to The Bahamas and Madagascar, one emergency deployment which ended up being remote for Equatorial Guinea, and I’ve done two remote covid projects in Libya and Kenya and worked on a CSO project in Nepal and Indonesia.“
Laverne Rogers volunteers for MapAction’s Caribbean section. She normally works as a GIS Manager for the Government of Montserrat. She was inspired to join MapAction following the devastation that hurricanes Irma and Maria brought to the Caribbean. She recently deployed to support one of our partners, CDEMA, following a volcano eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Our training events are also a time where we can mentor and develop new team leaders in a safe but challenging environment.
For this simulation exercise, Laverne had the opportunity to be a Team Leader:
“I learnt how to manage a team during a disaster response, understanding safety and security requirements for the team and also being able to understand the situation on the ground in order to provide suitable support to our partners and guide the team members to do that.”
MapAction’s Chief Executive, Liz Hughes, and senior geospatial expert member, Alan Mills, are at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. They are representing MapAction at the twelfth session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM), under MapAction’s official observer status.
The event, held from 3 – 5 August 2022 (side events from 1 August), comprises designated Member State experts and relevant international organisations. It seeks to promote international cooperation in global geospatial information management and provide an international forum for coordination and dialogue.
Led by Member States, UN-GGIM sessions seek to address global challenges regarding the production, availability and application of geospatial information, including in development agendas and policymaking. This includes joint decision-making and setting directions towards nationally integrated geospatial information management within national, regional and global policy frameworks and development agendas.
MapAction’s Alan Mills presented and was a panel member at the ‘Geospatial Information and Services for Disasters’ side event on 1 August. He discussed the challenges and suggested ways to apply geospatial information across complex humanitarian problems.
Disaster responses can take many forms and include multiple stakeholders, but he put forward that whatever the combination of these complex dimensions, reliable, consistent and well presented information, geographical information in particular, is essential. This will allow those involved to understand and identify the vulnerabilities and risks, what is happening, who has been affected and what resources people need to recover.
He drew on the experience MapAction has in supporting governments, international and regional agencies, civil society organisations and communities. He then outlined four brief scenarios that highlight the need for sharing timely, accurate, information, analysing it effectively and communicating through good visualisation. The intention was to show that UN-GGIM can and should provide the gold standard, allowing humanitarian and emergency response workers to relieve suffering and leave no one behind.
MapAction Chief Executive Liz Hughes said: “MapAction has been working to help manage global humanitarian crises for 20 years. We therefore have a lot of experience to share, in terms of how we have worked with governments, UN and other agencies and civil society organisations. We want to strengthen the system and are looking at ways to increase protection and reduce vulnerability. UN-GGIM provides a great forum to meet with other experts in the field and to jointly set the future agenda.”
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) deliver much of the world’s humanitarian aid, build resilience against disaster and advocate for many of the world’s poorest people. Enabling them to take advantage of information and data technology, in-line with other parts of the humanitarian sector, needs to be a priority.
MapAction is working with several CSO networks, exploring how we can share our knowledge of humanitarian mapping and information management. We held a session at Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW) which was intended to share our range of experiences, highlight learning and challenges and see more CSOs being supported in this way.
The session aimed to highlight the huge amounts of information management that the civil society sector does. It was also a space to learn about the barriers that prevent CSOs from gathering, using and sharing data, not just within the CSO networks but between them and governments, regional agencies and international humanitarian systems. We wanted to share our experiences of working with CSOs and to use this platform to advocate for more support to these valuable organisations.
It also considered how the humanitarian sector can better support CSOs and accelerate their adoption of new technologies for information management, mapping and data science etc, as we all grapple with a wide range of anticipation, programming, monitoring and evaluation challenges.
As well as looking at the bottlenecks, the session looked at some of the challenges, such as: how to access good information; avoid poor use; allow for easy and efficient information exchange; and how organisations might be able to do all this with already stretched funding and capacity constraints.
See the zoom recording of the session below
The Humanitarian Networking and Partnerships Week (HNPW) is run by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA). It provides a forum to address key humanitarian issues. Throughout the three weeks, participants and partnerships shared their expertise and collaborated on best practices to address shared problems.
The new grant, aimed at strengthening the sector, runs from 2021-2024. It will see MapAction working with local, regional and international organisations to ensure that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and information management processes are at the heart of humanitarian operations, including preparedness, anticipatory action and emergency response activities.
This work builds on the achievements of a previous BHA-funded programme that took place from 2017-2021, which helped improve the use of GIS and spatial analysis across the humanitarian response sector through preparedness work and training with key partners.
Specifically, the new fund will help us to address the key data and information management gaps at regional and national levels, as well as working with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and urban authorities at the local level. This will enable us to build on localisation initiatives and establish context-appropriate surge capacity.
It will also allow us to continue our work to develop best practice for managing information in humanitarian contexts and enhancing the policy environment.
It will be implemented by MapAction’s team of experienced and highly skilled staff and volunteers who will work closely with partner organisations to build on the relationships and foundations we have already established and develop new relationships with regional and national partners.
Our experience, skills and expertise, including in data science, means that we are uniquely placed to build on and share what works well in humanitarian information management, combined with the latest thinking in key areas related to data quality and preparedness.
By applying the best geospatial technologies to humanitarian problems, partner organisations can gain critical insights, enabling them to multiply their effectiveness.
Ultimately, this fund will mean that decision makers are better informed so they can more effectively anticipate, prepare for and respond to emergencies.
On 17-19 September, MapAction held it’s largest annual training event, a realistic simulation of a humanitarian emergency, with colleagues from partners including the British Red Cross, Insecurity Insight, Save the Children and Tearfund.
This exercise provides an opportunity for MapAction team volunteers and staff to hone skills, share learning, test protocols and embed new systems and technologies in a challenging but safe environment. It’s also a chance to catch up with friends and strengthen team relationships. Due to COVID-19, this is the first major training exercise of this kind we have held since June 2019, so it was great to be back in the thick of it again.
We are proud to be supporting the delivery of an online course in crisis mapping in the Caribbean this month. The training course will involve around 50 disaster management professionals from across the Caribbean and is in partnership with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), with input from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).
This is the second time the online course has been run, and we used our extensive deployment and training experience in the design and development of it.
Screenshot of the GeoCRIS showing a map of part of Western Haiti with several map layers selected
As well as learning the principles of disaster mapping for response and resilience and OpenStreetMap data entry, the participants are practicing effective use of the GeoCRIS. This is the new regional repository for geospatial data needed for risk and hazard mapping, disaster preparedness and response operations. As MapAction was involved in setting up the GeoCRIS, we are well placed to design and deliver this training.
The month-long course also includes a disaster simulation exercise in which the students will have the opportunity to deploy their newly acquired skills in a realistic emergency scenario. Additionally, two members of MapAction’s Caribbean volunteer team who have both recently been involved in the response to the La Soufrière volcanic eruption will be running a live session to share their real-world experiences of emergency mapping in the region and answer questions.
We’re grateful to USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) for funding this activity as part of our ongoing programme to improve the ways in which geographical information systems (GIS), mapping and spatial analysis are used in humanitarian emergencies.
MapAction’s strategy to 2023 aims to use geospatial technology and insight to bridge the gap between humanitarian need and available resources. We are doing this by, among other things, helping local, regional and global civil society networks to conduct their own geospatial analysis, and bolstering the resilience of urban communities to different types of crises.
As part of our programme of work funded by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), we are currently working with the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR) towards these two strategic objectives. GNDR is also midway through a BHA-funded programme entitled ‘Making Displacement Safer’ and we have aligned our targets in order to collaborate around our shared goals.
In the first phase of our collaboration with GNDR, MapAction intern Kelly Rutkowski targeted practical application of her research project within her Master of Science in Disasters, Adaptation, and Development to create a system framework for examining urban preparedness. She also mapped two case studies for GNDR in Khulna, Bangladesh and Garut, Indonesia.
We are now in the second phase of our collaboration, in which we are providing advice and support to GNDR’s civil society partners in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal and Niger for geographical analysis and mapping. The learning gained both supports GNDR’s programmes in urban areas and increases MapAction’s knowledge of how we further our own urban and civil society programmes.
During April and May, MapAction is providing online training in mapping and data tools and techniques to emergency responders in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
This is part of an ongoing programme of work with the Central Asian Center for Emergency Situations & Disaster Risk Reduction (CESDRR) to improve and expand disaster preparedness, relief and recovery activities across Central Asia through mapping and information management. The learning is being used, among other things, to support search and rescue operations and document regular situational overviews of emergencies, enabling more effective responses.
Earlier this month, around 40 participants from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan took part in a three-day online course including videos, exercises and live interactive sessions, culminating in a disaster simulation exercise providing an opportunity to test out new-found skills. This was the first time this course, which is designed to give participants an understanding of what geographical information systems (GIS) are capable of and how to use the open source QGIS platform, has been delivered online and remotely. A substantial amount of work was involved in converting the course content into an digital format and translating it into Russian.
In May, MapAction is running Advanced Humanitarian Mapping training for a select group of emergency management professionals from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan who have previously completed our introductory course and are ready to deepen their skills. The week-long, online course will cover data management, data preparedness and the different types of maps to use in particular emergency scenarios and phases.
We’re grateful to USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) for funding this work, which is bringing great benefits to humanitarian response across Central Asia.
Find out more about MapAction’s training and preparedness services >>
