Tag: Open Cities Africa

Quand résilience des villes rime avec épanouissement professionnel des jeunes

Jusque-là, les données urbanistiques étaient rares, souvent obsolètes et difficilement accessibles. Lorsque les étudiants congolais ont appris que le projet Villes ouvertes mobilisait les ressources locales pour pallier cette pénurie de données, en promouvant ainsi la production d’informations gratuites, accessibles et collaboratives, ils y ont vu une opportunité. Ces jeunes ont réalisé qu’ils pouvaient collecter des données inaccessibles autrement, les partager librement et les analyser afin d’améliorer la situation de leurs quartiers, et se sont investis avec ferveur et fierté dans ce défi.

African communities are closing the digital map gap for cities

Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban areas are among the world’s least mapped and most vulnerable. Through the Open Cities Africa program, municipal governments work with local universities, NGOs, and community members to collect detailed geographic data for a more resilient future.

Open Cities AI Challenge: Segmenting Buildings for Disaster Resilience

The Open Cities AI Challenge, put on by GFDRR with Azavea and DrivenData, recently concluded with over 1,100 participants, 2,100 submissions and $15,000 in total prizes awarded. Along two competition tracks, the Challenge produced global public goods — open-source data, code, research, and know-how — that will support mapping efforts for disaster resilience. This includes: Increasing… Read more »

Perspectives on Responsible AI for Disaster Risk Management

Machine learning (ML) can improve data applications in disaster risk management, especially when coupled with computer vision and geospatial technologies, by providing more accurate, faster, or lower-cost approaches to assessing risk. At the same time, we urgently need to develop a better understanding of the potential for negative or unintended consequences of their use. The… Read more »

Uganda Open Mapping for Resilience Completes Ggaba Parish Pilot

The Uganda Open Mapping for Resilience project team have completed fieldwork in Ggaba Parish, gathering important information for the lakeside communities to highlight and analyze disaster risk. This follows up on the capacity development on open mapping for resilience methodology across Ugandan authorities. This OpenDRI initiative has seen residents and GIS professionals collaborating shoulder to… Read more »

Planning An Open Cities Mapping Project

This Open Cities guide documents lessons learned from work in South Asia, providing an overview of the design and implementation of a community mapping program. To keep this guide up-to-date and truly open source, the online version of the document is hosted on GitHub welcoming comments and contributions.

The Rise of Local Mapping Communities

In the past few years, there has been a meteoric rise of locally organized OpenStreetMap communities in developing countries working to improve the map in service of sustainable development activities.

Building web maps in Zanzibar

Developers and geospatial professionals from across Africa gathered in Zanzibar for a two-day workshop on using Mapbox tools with open imagery, highlighting what’s spurring geospatial innovation across the continent.

Comprendre les risques d’inondation à Niamey grâce à la cartographie open source, aux drones et à la modélisation

Pendant des millénaires, le fleuve Niger a été le poumon socioéconomique du Niger, mais aussi des pays voisins du bassin du Niger. Pourtant, même si cette imposante voie navigable permet à de nombreux Nigériens de se nourrir, s’approvisionner en eau, et gagner leur vie, elle présente également un grave risque d’inondation en Afrique de l’Ouest… Read more »

Open Cities Africa Kickoff 2018

The Open Cities Africa Kickoff hosted the largest gathering of teams in Open Cities history this summer in Kampala, Uganda. For a week in June, eleven Open Cities project teams represented by 55 delegates convened as a cohort to receive training in innovative, open, and participatory data collection and mapping processes to support management of… Read more »

Open Cities Africa

Creating open spatial data on the built and natural environment, developing tools to assist key stakeholders to utilize risk information, and supporting local capacity-building necessary for implementing urban resilience interventions.

A Drone’s Eye View: UAV applications for a resilient Seychelles

In the Seychelles, life straddles the coastline. The 94,000 residents depend upon the sea for sustenance. The country relies on a mere 400 hectares of agricultural land, increasingly at risk of climate-related events. Inspired by the experience of Zanzibar, a neighboring island state with similar challenges, the Seychelles is now embracing drones as a tool to collect low-cost, highly accurate aerial imagery for resilient development.