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 This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please send it back to me, and immediately delete it. Please do not use, copy or disclose the information contained in this message or in any attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system, you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
