This year the bi-annual German Congress for Geography was held in Kiel in northern Germany. The conference is the main platform for German speaking researchers to exchange recent research results in the field of geography. Besides this, a growing number of events are being organized by students and “young” geographers as part of the “Youth Congress for Geography” (JKG). HeiGIT and the disastermappers Heidelberg contributed to JKG by organizing a mapathon on friday.
The mapathon was supported by the student associations from Heidelberg, Hannover and Göttingen and was attended by around 40 students. We introduced them into OpenStreetMap mapping, the use of HOT’s Tasking Manager and MapSwipe. Besides this, the event was a good occasion to build connections between students from all over Germany. We envision to grow the mapping community by having more regular events. Geography awareness week will be held in November. So stay tuned for updates and events coming soon.