Tag: Open Cities

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 »

One Challenge, Many Challenges: Machine Learning for Mapping

OpenDRI is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania this week for the annual conference of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G 2018). With over 1000 expected attendees, this large gathering of geospatial enthusiasts is a prime opportunity to learn and share about the latest technology in mapping. Part of the pre-conference program, Tuesday morning… 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.

Sri Lanka

The Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka (DMC) has been working with OpenDRI to support evidence-based methods to better plan for, mitigate, and respond to natural disasters.

Bangladesh

Mapping is on going in Bangladesh and open data sharing platform has been created for the country. It is soon to be launched officially.

Nepal

The World Bank and GFDRR started working in partnership with the Government of Nepal in 2012. The aim was to better understand seismic risk in order to build resilience in the education and health infrastructure of Kathmandu Valley.

More voices mean smarter cities

Creating mechanisms for participation in urban planning can be as traditional as institutionalizing town meetings on zoning issues or as innovative as deploying digital platforms for community mapping. For instance, a number of initiatives, such as the Open Cities Project, illustrate the ways in which citizens can help contribute information to the policymaking process.

Open Cities draws on inputs from a range of groups to “create usable information through community mapping techniques, to build applications and tools that inform decision making, and to develop the networks of trust and social capital necessary for these efforts to become sustainable.” The project informs World Bank investment planning on addressing urban challenges and disaster risk in pilot cities in South Asia.

Harnessing the Power of the Crowd – Reflections Six Months after the Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal

Through the Open Data for Resilience project, The World Bank, GFDRR, and other partners are supporting efforts to map areas at risk before a disaster strikes.

•In the six months following the April 2015 earthquake, OpenStreetMap data for Nepal was accessed by more than 3,300 users using a GFDRR platform that tailored the data for response and recovery.

•Urban areas around the world, including cities in Indonesia, Philippines, Malawi and Bangladesh, are a major focus of mapping efforts.

4 Years On, Looking Back at OpenStreetMap Response to the Haiti Earthquake

In 2014, Robert Soden reflected on the progress The World Bank and GFDRR made by becoming involved in the world of crowd sourced mapping. Now with a fully fledged program that leads dozens of projects worldwide and a host of strong partnerships, it is powerful to step back into his article and see where we’ve been and where OpenDRI has the potential to go.

Open Cities in Kathmandu: Health Centers Critical Health Sector Infrastructure

As detailed in the context of Kathmandu, one aspect of the the Open Cities Project engagement is the collection of asset and exposure data in urban areas in order to create a robust asset inventory. The Open Cities Project collects data through open and participatory methods in partnership with local government agencies, universities, technical communities, and the private sector. Open Cities Kathmandu has to date mapped over 100,000 buildings and collected exposure data for 2256 educational and 350 health facilities within Kathmandu Valley.

Open Cities in Kathmandu: Educational Facilities Critical Educational Sector Infrastructure

As detailed in the context of Kathmandu, one aspect of the the Open Cities Project engagement is the collection of asset and exposure data in urban areas in order to create a robust asset inventory. The Open Cities Project collects data through open and participatory methods in partnership with local government agencies, universities, technical communities, and the private sector. Open Cities Kathmandu has to date mapped over 100,000 buildings and collected exposure data for 2256 educational and 350 health facilities within Kathmandu Valley.