We are formalizing our crisis mapping participation in activations led by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). With guidance from HOT’s Activation Protocol we have createdMapbox Engagement Guidelines with HOT and made them available online. These guidelines govern our engagement during an official HOT activation and outline our overall support for the HOT community.
Our team routinely participates in crisis mapping efforts, recent examples are the Nepal earthquake, Hurricane Patricia, and the Afghanistan earthquake. HOT does amazing work building local mapping communities, developing free and open source tools, and providing open geographic data contributions worldwide to OpenStreetMap. Working with many HOT partners, Mapbox is committed to supporting the work of HOT. We map, provide imagery, and help fund HOT to support responders on the ground with better maps.
Our guidelines specify what resources we will contribute in a crisis, and help us to better engage and focus in a response, by:
- Maintaining close coordination with HOT’s Activation Working Group before, during and, after an activation.
- Improving OpenStreetMap data through remote mapping, validation, training and developing mapping guides.
- Coordinating and expanding our imagery coverage for tracing in OpenStreetMap.
Get in touch with me or Mikel if you want to learn more. Join us to support HOT by participating in mapping and support HOT in its ongoing funding drive.
OpenStreetMap in use during the Typhoon Haiyan response. Photo courtesy of the American Red Cross
