I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.” - Dr. Seuss
This Earth Day, a group of volunteers from the OSM community participated in a mapathon to “speak for the trees” as the Lorax would say — to map ecosystems and environments they care about. Together, our team, MapHubs, and Vulcan used the event to test OSM Earth, the new public tasking manager that helps you coordinate groups of digital mappers during environmental mapping projects (built by MapHubs). A note: OSM Earth is a direct fork of the open-source Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Tasking Manager (made possible by the leadership and contributions of HOT and OSM communities.)
We were inspired by the incredibly active and motivated community of disaster-response mappers and humanitarian mappers that the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and partners have cultivated. We thought, let’s see if there could be a similar community that loves to map for environmental causes. — Leo Bottrill, MapHubs
There hasn’t yet been a rallying point for people who are most interested in mapping land-use, landscape features, or infrastructure that is significant for environmental protection projects, like logging roads or unplanned development near protected areas. I’m excited to see OSM Earth grow as a place where OSM mappers can develop their skills for this kind of mapping, and for environmental mappers to recruit help from the wider OSM community. — Joel Masselink, Vulcan
Mapathon Tasks
Volunteers from our team, MapHubs, and Vulcan worked in OSM Earth on a variety of tasks including:
- Spotting signs of encroachment near protected areas in the DRC: OSM contributors can map signs of encroachment (new roads, new settlements, etc) near Virunga National Park in the DRC. This project supports the Virunga Alliance, which works in collaboration with local communities to prevent encroachment, poaching, and other environmental damage to this refuge of mountain gorillas.
- Mapping sea level rise in island communities: Volunteers can map island communities most at risk of sea level rise — from Alaska to the Maldives to Papua New Guinea. Some of these islands are very small, and some have not been mapped in OSM at all, but people live there. Up-to-date maps help local populations better understand what infrastructure is at risk as sea levels rise.
- Understanding indigenous land use in Kenya: participants can contribute to the mapping efforts of the Northern Rangelands Trust, Kenya Land Alliance, and the Ogiek Peoples Development Program. These organizations work to help indigenous communities map their traditional lands; and have a greater say in how they are used.
- Mapping Himalayan glaciers: Our Bangalore team contributed a task that was close to home, helping community members map glaciers as they change in the Himalayas.
- Tracking tourism infrastructure in the Philippines: Inspired by reports of unsustainable development and pollution on the island of Boracay in the Philippines, the team challenged mapathon volunteers to add missing buildings and infrastructure to the Boracay map. With an updated map, local leaders can better understand the speed of development on the island.
In all, our team’s mapathon volunteers made 1,800 road/buildings edits and 395 glacier edits.
Help the planet — contribute to OSM
It was really easy to get started mapping on OSM — a 10-minute guided online tutorial, and you’re good to go. I loved the meditative nature of studying satellite imagery and identifying buildings and roads. It’s satisfying to think I can maybe help people somewhere across the world do better work to improve lives — all without having to leave my desk!” — Sofia Heisler, Mapbox
Join the thousands mapping in OpenStreetMap every day and support organizations and communities working for environmental protection and sustainable development—contribute to the coordinated mapping projects in osm.earth. For resources on learning how to map in OSM, visit learnosm.org.
A mapathon for the environment with OSM Earth was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.