Mapping Party: putting Malawi on the map featuring André Kuipers, ESA astronaut

On 14 November, the ITC faculty of the University of Twente, together with the Red Cross, is holding a Mapping Party for Malawi.

Anyone who wishes to, may make a contribution. During the event, André Kuipers, ambassador for the Red Cross Princess Margriet Fund (voorkomderamp.nl), and ESA astronaut, will deliver an inspirational keynote speech.

Mapping Party

During the Mapping Party, volunteers will map the structure of the country, based on satellite images, on OpenStreetMap: a detailed, open-source map of the world. Volunteers in Malawi will later add local information, for example on schools, sanitary provisions, hospitals and water point monitoring.

Importance of mapping

Good mapping material is essential for strengthening vulnerable places around the world. Places which are suffering from epidemics, conflicts, natural disasters, poverty or environmental problems, for example. Mapping helps governments to make better (policy) decisions and aid organisations to offer better assistance, because they have more knowledge in advance about medical activities and the distribution of needed relief supplies. In cases of disaster, they are able to react better and quicker.

Malawi is such a vulnerable place. The south of the country suffered a major flood in 2015. More than a quarter of a million people were affected by this natural disaster.

Crowdsourcing

Missing Maps is an international crowdsourcing initiative through which people from all over the world contribute to the augmentation of the world map on OpenStreetMap. In doing so, they focus on the world’s most vulnerable spots. More than 15,000 people are involved and, together, they have contributed more than 24 million updates. So-called mapathons are being held all over the world to bring the map more up to date, little by little.

Learn how it works and contribute to the map

You can join the Mapping Party, which will be held in the ITC geo-faculty at the University of Twente (address: Hengelosestraat 99, Enschede), free of charge. Do you have the time and inclination to help put Malawi on the map, literally, on 14 November, between 15:00 and 20:00? Anyone can participate in the event; specialist technical knowledge is not a prerequisite. We will provide pizza and drinks during the meeting. Please do bring your own laptop with you.

You may register via the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/rtyFn3BR53gVNSD42. There is only a limited number of places! For more information, contact Rob Lemmens of the Department of Geo-Information Processing of ITC, r.l.g.lemmens@utwente.nl.

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