The document discusses the use of geospatial technologies in crisis response, emphasizing the importance of community involvement and innovative approaches during disasters. It highlights key lessons learned, such as the need for data preparedness and the effective harnessing of local resources and technology volunteers. The author makes recommendations to enhance collaboration and resource access among volunteer technology communities and government agencies.

1. The use of geospatial technologies in digital mapping:
Bringing together communities who innovate crisis response
Fleming Europe: 2nd Annual Geospatial Conference
June 1, 2011
Budapest, Hungary
Heather Blanchard
Co Founder, CrisisCommons
www.crisiscommons.org
heather@crisiscommons.org
Twitter/Skype: @poplifegirl

2. CrisisCamp Haiti
•
Columbia
Call to action; global footprint
• 62 events, 8 countries, 30 cities
• Low barrier to entry; replicable
• 2,300+ highly skilled volunteers United Kingdom
• Recognized by CROs and VTCs
• Focus on mapping, missing
persons, language and search Canada
• Surge capacity for existing projects
France

3. What We Learned
• Disasters can create opportunities for innovation, rules
relax, people are willing to be open to solutions from
anywhere
• Disasters create the rise of the “crisis crowd”
• Disasters can benefit from existing programs with
training and leadership have the best change in effectively
harness the emerging crisis crowd into their existing
community
• Disaster response requests need to originate from the
local area/field

4. Potential of
Technology Volunteers
• Post-Disaster Basemap: OpenStreetMap
• Remote Building Assessment: GEO-CAN
• Monitoring: Big Idea with the Gulf Coast
Oil Spill
• Crisis Content/Trends: Japan Earthquake

5. Need to focus
on Open Data
• Many emergency management/civil authorities don’t
have access to tools and resources or partnerships
they need to harness additional capability/capacity
• Sometimes if there are resources, its limited to one
person
• Little focus on data preparedness; process
• Focus on data (and its availability) not platforms

6. United Nations
Office for the
Coordination of
Humanitarian
Affairs

8. What We Learned
Official/Affiliated Response Sources Public Sources
Existing Data
Population - Boundaries - Hydrology - Hypsography - Transportation/Roads - Social Capital
Before Crisis Community Indicators Before Crisis
After Crisis Power - Telecommunications - Weather - Alternative Access to Internet - After Crisis
Food - Fuel - Shelter - Transportation - Health Care
Crisis Specific
Self-Directed Public Safety Reporting - Hazard Identification -
Service Disruption Identifier - Public Sentiment - Status Sharing - Resource Management
Need for Data Preparedness

9. Learning from Japan
• Need for a data coordination role
• Need for “pre positioned” open data profiles
• Need for increased GIS practitioners to work
along side of crisis mappers
• Need to turn citizen content into GIS layers
• Need for organizations affiliated with the crisis
to provide data feeds (i.e. private sector,
government response agencies)

10. Observations
• Don’t create a platform expecting people to come
to you, play in an open data space
• Release resources for use (i.e. data, globes,
imagery)
• Technology volunteers want to help, they will
compass towards projects which support people in
need (not institutions)
• Technology volunteers do not support military or
national security objectives

11. Recommendations
to the U.S. Congress
• Resource and connectivity to volunteer
technology communities
• Create mission assignments which release
imagery for public use
• Engagement in experimentation and
demonstration projects
• Investment in data preparedness

12. Questions?

13. Heather Blanchard
Co Founder
CrisisCommons
heather@crisiscommons.org
703.593.3823
twitter/skype: poplifegirl
www.facebook.com/heather.blanchard
www.linkedin.com/in/hblancha
Thanks!