Open Geospatial Data for Disaster Recovery/Response

Fiji is a small island developing state and has been and continues to be severely affected by the obvious impacts of climate change, i.e. increase in sea level causing coastal erosion, water shortages due to salt water intrusion and the more apparent impact of the increased occurrence of extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones, storms, floods, droughts etc. Having personally experienced some of the worst tropical cyclones that has ever made landfall in Fiji, the project has been developed in light of the after effects of these extreme events. It takes time, resources and finance to begin rebuilding after a tropical cyclone hits and many are ill-prepared for this recovery process. For years, many Fijian communities have been all too aware of and much too dependent on the disaster relief packages they receive post disaster occurrence from the Fijian government, FRCS, NGOs and even international aids. However, it should be made known that there are alternative forms of assistance available for individuals, businesses etc. in regards to disaster relief/rehabilitation packages. The aim of this legacy project was to map and update points of interests entailing locations and relevant information relating to financial institutions/bodies that offer or have in the past offered disaster recovery/relief packages to members of Fijian communities within the Northern and Central divisions.

Area of study

Text

Data Collection

A survey was undertaken to gauge respondents various level of awareness of current, available disaster recovery/response packages in Fiji. In addition, certain financial institutions were also contacted via face to face office visits and through email. The financial institutions targeted are as follows; (i) Sugar Cane Grower’s Fund (ii) Tower Insurance (iii) Fiji National Provident Fund (iv) Home Finance Company Ltd

Results

… See full entry

Hi everyone ,happy to sign up and engaged newbies today . Also attended an Innovation week exhibition where we exhibited our work at unique mappers

I made it an obligation to participate in this years edition of the SOTM Nigeria. I must say, it was worth it; because the various topics presented during this year’s conference opened up my mind to new possibilities in the world of GIS. I am also immensely grateful to the sponsors of this event for affording me the opportunity to be awarded a travel grant. Thank you SOTM Nigeria, see you in Lagos in 2024!

Over the last few months, I’ve been filling out the houses and buildings in southwest London because I’m bored and have taken a strange fixation on improving the map in this way.

I have noted a few things over the last few months, particularly how the addresses to flats and rows of townhouses are managed. when marking out an area for a building of flats it only lets me put one address in, when flats typically have multiple addresses attached to the same physical building.

Not a major drawback at the moment but this is the main reason im not filling addresses in as there are typicaly more than one address attached to each building. Im not a coder here but this is my mild wednesday musing put on paper.

I’m writing this a bit prematurely, i.e. before the video about the topic comes out, but I might be too busy the days following the video, so here we go:

Some weeks ago, I noticed a drawbar slot in the half-collapsed door of Donoughmore Church in Co. Kilkenny:

… See full entry

Two years ago I somewhat naively asked on the wiki whether ÖPNVKarte couldn’t perhaps render the interval key somehow. I don’t think it would have to be as nicely designed as Transportparadise’s Oxford Bus Map, which even separates bus routes that share the same way. In my opinion, it would be sufficient to have the different patterns per way travelled (i.e. if two or more lines share the same way the pattern for the most frequent interval could be shown, or, more ambitiously, the intervals added up) for the map to give an overview of where public transport can take you more or less reliably. Unfortunately, I have lacked knowledge, experience and patience to use Maperitive and/or Overpass to try out how this could be put into practice and soon forgot about it.

The reason I came to think of this again was a holiday in Colmar, Alsace, France. To an outsider, the intervals of the city buses there are completely nuts, see for example this timetable pdf. But generalizing “37-48-41-51-44-etc.” into interval=45 would seem acceptable to me and a less fundamental question than how to discriminate between workdays and weekend. I am reflecting on this from a rural setting, where there might be no buses at all on Sundays.

Anyway, to a tourist, Colmar’s and Alsace’s public transport system is grand, amply subsidized and only partly affected by the typical downward spiral.

For our first hiking tour, we started from Wettolsheim Marbach through the vineyards first to the Les Trois Chateaux ruins and then on to the reconstructed Hohlandsbourg before heading back to the bus at Wintzenheim. The bus to Wettolsheim in the morning was in fact an on-demand service, a taxi ordered via the Flexitrace app and included in the normal fare: 1.50€ for a single trip, 11€ for 10 rides or 7€ for unlimited travel in 72 hours within Colmar and suburbs.

… See full entry

Reflecting on my experience at the SOTM Nigeria 2023 conference in Abuja, I can only describe it as an extraordinary blend of education and inspiration. The paper presentations were nothing short of eye-opening, shedding light on various facets of mapping, including cartography and geography. What made this experience truly enriching was the opportunity to interact and obtain ideas with distinguished professors, seasoned cartographers, accomplished geographers, and fellow mapping enthusiasts. Moreover, I had the privilege of contributing to the conference’s success by joining the volunteer team. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Victor Sunday the coordinator of Unique Mappers for his organizing and chairing the conference, I sincerely appreciate the organizers, partners, sponsors, both for the conference in creating an amazing and enlightening event, and for the grant, as I await the promised refund to the entire volunteer team who came from Enugu State to Abuja for the conference, Obasanjo Space Centre, Municipal Area Council, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. #SotM2023 #HOTopensummit #TomTom #UMT #LionMappers #AfriGist #NASRDA #SciStarter #WNHub #MiyaAcademy #OSM #OSMNigeria

Some time ago, I started adding links to 3D models on Sketchfab to ogham stones, sheela-na-gigs and high crosses in Ireland. I thought that this was a good idea to add value to the map, because we already link 2D images, 3D is just so much cooler and more useful. Some of these artefacts are not accessible to the public at all times, and having a digital 3D model makes them accessible for all the world (with a fast enough internet connection). Of course, you could just browse Sketchfab, but having the geolocation can be interesting and useful too.

Sometimes, museums or universities have contracted someone to make 3D models of artefacts that might be in storage in a museum or inaccessible in a farmyard, thus providing OpenAccess to these models in digital form.

What started this initiative of was that I found a working photogrammetry app called Kiri Engine. Full disclosure now: They have made me an ambassador for their app, since I’ve been promoting it in a video already and have recommended it to a few friends in archaeology. But I would still promote it, even if they hadn’t done that.

I’ve made a video on how to use it (YouTube) which will be followed by another one soon. The previous video was about why and how to link to Sketchfab from OSM: YouTube. I had made a wiki page for Sketchfab, but it has experienced some editing since. For it to be useful, the link has to work as a link, so for now, we cannot use just an identifier for the model, but have to use a full link. Sketchfab does hoewever provide a short link which consists of https://skfb.ly/ followed by a (for now) 5-digit code of letters and numbers. This might be possible to utilize as an identifier. But for now, I’m using and would recommend using url:sketchfab with the short url.

… See full entry

Home

State of the map Brazil 2023 - Curitiba -Brazil.

… See full entry

My Sotm Brazil 2023 conference, an incredible experience and a lot of knowledge about Brazilian projects

O State of the Map Brasil 2023 aconteceu no Centro Politécnico da Universidade Federal do Paraná, na cidade de Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil, entre os dias 02 e 04 de outubro de 2023, em formato híbrido.

As Palestras podem ser vista no canal do Youtube.

Canal do Youtube - State of the map Brasil 2023

… See full entry

My reflection on the SotM Nigeria 2023 conference, lots of experience gained, meeting new people, learning new skills and sharing knowledge about OpenStreetMap, Open source data, local community inclusion and a lot more about the geospatial industry in Nigeria and the globe were incredible and amazing. regardless of challenges pose we overcame and conference was a success.

Lesson Learnt: The SotM 2023 has triggered my passion for OpenStreetMap volunteerism, local community inclusion & development and humanitarian response to open mapping, it has connected me to geospatial experts from different location of Nigeria and across, indeed it was privilege to meet with Mentors geospatial industry, each bit of conversation was an opportunity for learning, inspiring and collaboration for me.

Knowledge Gained: the knowledge gain was really mind – blowing. presentation made by different participants, were absolutely inspiring, well-tailored. With the likes Prof. Joseph Oloukoi, (AfriGist), Maron Mikel (OSM foundation), Letwin Pondo (SciStarter), Geoffrey Ketaregga (HOT Community project Lead) and others presenters has deepened the knowledge of open mapping and local community inclusion.

Challenge pose: Inadequate fund to support the conference was the major challenge of SotM 2023 conference, which has disbalance the logistical planning and other arrangement but I saw resilience, commitment, tirelessness of the Local organizing committee towards the success of the conference.

Future Hope SotM 2024: I look forward to SotM 2024 regardless of financial constraints posed at SotM 2023, that will not underscore relevant of open mapping and geospatial infrastructure in Nigeria. I believe in collaborative efforts of all individuals, as I was fortunate to witness the commitment and tireless effort of the organizing team, I look forward to SotM 2024, were we all work, meet and share knowledge and the trending happening of Open source and geospatial field.

… See full entry

Hi, I am Mahjabin, a undergrad student from Computer Science and Engineering Background from Eastern University. Additionally, I am the President of YouthMappers at Eastern University, Bangladesh. Through this chapter, I have came to know about OSM like two years ago, but I mainly focused on working with the existing map data for project by using Python or simply saying geocoding. I guess I got a practical experience why mapping in OSM is very much necessary as much as using the data, because when working with disaster management projects, I faced a lack of data in my area so I have started making small edits in my free time as well as working map data because my main focus is in that. I hope to contribute to OSM or open data overall as much as I can.

UNIQUE MAPPER A Poem by Cyrus Aladja

Growing up and coming into age Really never belonged, truly felt different Like a bird, free to roam never in a cage Now it’s dawn I clearly see and here’s the difference

It strange nor weird, oh this bird is no freak It’s long overdue, this bird is no longer shy Maybe by chance it hatched in a pen with chicks But it’s time now to take its place in the sky

High up in the clouds to see the world and conquer Coasts to coasts, nations to nations, city to city all therein Cause now all eyes can see this bird’s a wonder Flying on Eagle’s wings, with grace and so so serene

Now it’s clear, the bird is unique Created and formed by our maker A bird high in the clouds is unique! This bird is a unique mapper

Just a few short weeks ago I made the decision to map all house numbers in Lancaster. Of course, I understood what an undertaking this is, so I set off on a search for good ways to view and add this data. Ultimately, I found myself at Lancaster’s GIS Website. After consultation with the OSM discord, I considered it safe for use and began to map them by hand using JOSM.

This leads me to why I personally believe house numbers to be so important. Through personal experience, I would consider house-to-house navigation far more used than routing to a business. If a map has no house numbers, then that may rule a large number of people completely unable to use such a map. This is why I seek to map house numbers.

After about a month’s time of mapping (plus life getting in the way) I would say I’m about 5% done. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless!

If any others would like to join my mission for mapping Lancaster’s addresses, it would be much appreciated!

Hi all

Keen for advice on the correct tagging for roads in Wellington, NZ which have chipseal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipseal

I was applying Tag:surface=fine_gravel but now looking at the Wiki I think that might be incorrect. Perhaps asphalt is the best tag even though it’s not smooth?

Many thanks

visit to self

I pulled together some info I wanted to share: what is the longest connected group of untouched TIGER imported roadways in the U.S.? The answer is this 1258.6km group of ways in Brooks County, Texas. And then below will be the rest of the info I found. I haven’t done anything with it, I just wanted to share.

Note: the Overpass queries I link directly to are all relatively quick since they’re just lists of way IDs. But for some of them I link to pastebin since they were too long to pass in a url.

Overpass Turbo - Brooks County, TX

Idea

The full results are here as a spreadsheet but I also want to explain.

I was looking at the results of the query for unedited ways and nodes in an area near me and noticed there were way more untouched roads than I thought there would be.

… See full entry

Sotm Nigeria 2023 Abuja was very very impactful to me. Especially, having the privilege to present a topic titled ‘The Role Of Open Street Map On Emergency response. I want to use this opportunity to say thank you to all our sponsors for paving way for some volunteers who could not afford it to the conference physically, by giving grant which I also benefited from it. I’m looking forward to mapping more using open street maps and having more opportunities to participate in conferences and events coming up in the merest future. Once again I say thank you, I really do appreciate. 🙏

… See full entry