Author: Melanie Eckle-Elze

  • Earthquake Response- Mapathon, Friday, 22/9/17 2pm

    Tuesday night central Mexico was struck by an earthquake with the magnitude of appr. 7.1, causing the collapse of several buildings in Mexico City and serious harm for the local population. This event is the latest of a number of disasters in the recent weeks, including hurricanes and floods. Just twelve days before, the southern…

  • HeiGIT/GIScience at annual HOT and Missing Maps events in Canada

    Canada- picturesque mountains, craggy-coasts, vast untouched landscapes, diverse cultures- and a country that is increasingly supporting the use of open data. In this vein, last week the capital of Canada became a place for exchange, knowledge sharing and awareness building all around the use of open data to support humanitarian and disaster related purposes. The…

  • Maptember in Ottawa: HeiGIT/GIScience at Missing Maps and HOT gatherings

    This year the capital of Canada will become the gathering place for the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and Missing Maps community and partners. September 12th/13th the Missing Maps members will come together for their annual meeting to discuss current projects, challenges, ideas and future plans. The next two days, September 14th/15th, the HOT Summit will…

  • HeiGIT/GIScience Heidelberg partnership with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)

    We are happy to hereby announce the official partnership of the HeiGIT/GIScience Research Group Heidelberg and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)! The GIScience Research Group at Heidelberg University has been supporting the use of OpenStreetMap for humanitarian and disaster management purposes already since 2008 when the first instance of the Disaster and Emergency OpenRouteService was…

  • Happy Birthday MapSwipe!

    Already one year ago that MapSwipe was officially launched! A big thank you to our contributors for your support – one year of tapping, swiping and putting families on the map! In just one year thousands of users contributed more than 10 million taps and thereby provided crucial information on unmapped places. In projects like…

  • Call For Participation for Crowdsourced Damage Assessment Project

    In the aftermath of a disaster, knowing the condition of buildings, infrastructure, and utilities is critical to both immediate response and long-term recovery efforts. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) is often asked to help identify damage to buildings and other assets in the affected region. In the past, limitations in post-disaster imagery and difficulties in…

  • Missing Maps Data Collection and Validation Mapathon to help eliminate Malaria

    Malaria is a major threat to people all around the world, particularly those most vulnerable: children and elderly. Our previous events Semester Start Missing Maps mapathon for World Malaria Day 2017 and Missing Maps Mapathon at Makerspace (DAI) aimed to support projects to identify potential malaria affected areas and enable better Malaria prevention in collaboration…

  • GIScience @ ISCRAM 2017

    The last couple of days, the picturesque city of Albi in southern France became the gathering place of researchers, practitioners and organizations in the field of information systems for crisis response and management. Following the ISCRAM conference theme “Agility is coming” presentations, round tables, workshops, symposiums and keynotes were organized in which the current and…

  • GIScience support for German Red Cross

    Following the example of the British, American and Netherland Red Cross, who are as the GIScience Research Group Heidelberg all members of Missing Maps and have been collaborating with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and our research group for a couple of years, the German Red Cross (GRC) organized their first Mapathon in Berlin beginning…

  • Semester Start mapathon coverage in SWR aktuell

    A big thank you to all the mappers that supported the fight against Malaria in our Semester Start Mapathon yesterday! In three hours, buildings in an area of around 400 km² were mapped that can now be covered in the Clinton Health Access Initiave Malaria program. Moreover, a TV team of SWR was visiting the…

  • GIScience support for Crowdsourced Damage Assessment project at Stanford University

    In the aftermath of natural disasters an assessment of the impact and damage in the affected area is crucial to enable coordination of response and recovery. While the disaster preparedness and response activations by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team in regard to infrastructure mapping have already proven great potential in various disaster events, due to a…

  • GIScience/Disastermappers in Radio Program “Early Bird”

    Last week, Melanie Eckle of our disaster mapping/ disaster management department (HeiGIT) was invited to do an interview in the radio program “Early bird” of Deutschland Radio Wissen. She provided an overview of the use of OpenStreetMap for disaster management and humanitarian aid and the work of the GIScience Research Group, disastermappers heidelberg, Missing Maps…