[OSGeo-Discuss] Nepal earthquakes - wake up call for action to support building geocapacity globally

[Enock Seth Nyamador]

You're welcome Suchith.

Best,

- Enock
twitter: @Enock4seth
enockseth.github.io | [[User:Enock4seth]]


On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 7:25 PM, Suchith Anand <
Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:

> Colleagues,
>
> It is really sad to see  two earthquakes (in less than a fortnight)
> hitting Nepal . I thank all colleagues who have been contributing to the
> Humanitarian Open Street Map's http://hotosm.org/  relief efforts for
> this. The Humanitarian Open Street Map Team applies the principles of open
> source and open data sharing for humanitarian response and economic
> development. These efforts are greatly helping relief efforts in Nepal
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32603870
>
> I am especially grateful for the work and relief efforts being done by our
> colleagues in Open Source Geospatial Lab at Kathmandu University  in these
> challenging circumstances and may God help them to help others in need.
>
> https://sites.google.com/a/ku.edu.np/opensourcegeospatial/
> https://geospatiallab.wordpress.com
>
> Two earthquakes in just over a fortnight in Nepal is a time for all of us
> to think on how we all can contribute to better capacity building in
> national/regional/local levels globally to help with not only relief
> efforts but also be better prepared for  combating natural disasters from
> earthquakes to flooding to landslides . Especially there is very limited
> capacity in geospatial technologies  in developing countries as many of the
> developing countries do not even have local capacity  or ability to buy
> expensive properitory GIS software tools needed. That is why is it very
> important that there is local capacity build in all countries using free
> and open technologies and principles. So making geospatial education
> opportunities assessible to all is key long term aim that we all should
> work together.
>
> Preparedness is key for managing these kind of disasters and capacity
> building at  national, regional and local level is important and we need to
> more engage with United Nations community for this. In 2012 and 2014 we
> have organised hands on  workshop "Open Source GIS & WebMapping for UN
> staff" in Vienna, Austria . It was organized on behalf of the Commission on
> Open Source Geospatial Technologies of the International Cartographic
> Association (ICA). Barend Kobben  (University of Twente) was the course
> organisor for this.
>
> http://kartoweb.itc.nl/kobben/SOMAP-OSGEO-workshop/  (2014 Workshop )
> http://kartoweb.itc.nl/kobben/SOMAP-OSGEO-workshop/report2012.html  (2012
> Workshop )
>
> So i suggest as a community we plan the following actions:
>
> 1. We will need to expand these Open GIS and Open Data training programs
> for UN staff globally. We should  build upon ideas from   International Map
> Year (IMY) http://internationalmapyear.org activities led by the
> International Cartographic Association (ICA) and supported by the United
> Nations  with the aim to provide opportunities to  making and using maps
> and geographic information to actually focus on this aspect of capacity
> building also. It is important the capacity building is there at the local
> level to make this effective.
>
> 2.  Planning ideas of getting students doing GIS programs in universities
> worldwide to contribute to the Missing Maps projects of Humanitarian Open
> Street Map Team  http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Missing_Maps_Project
> to help map the most vulnerable places in the developing world, in order
> that international and local NGOs, and individuals can use the maps and
> data to better respond to crises affecting the areas. It can be a hands on
> exercise (one session minimum) as part of the GIS curriculum.
>
> I got so many emails from lot of faculty worldwide who contributed to the
> Nepal mapping efforts. A lecturer in Southern Methodist University, USA
> (Jessie Zarazaga) emailed "Thank you  for sharing the opportunity to
> participate. It pushed me into action, and we held a very successful Map-In
> on Friday at the school of engineering.My students were proud to be able to
> do even something small to help.And next time they will be even better
> positioned to play their part."
>
> Thank you Jessie Zarazaga for your mail . Your mail has inspired me to
> think of actions for the long term and to ensure that we will be able to
> train and develop  a new generation of cartographers and geographic
> information scientists with the skills needed to take action globally.
>
> All colleagues and volunteers who have contributed for the Humanitarian
> Open Street Map Team's efforts are our "Geo for All" Heros.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
>
>
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