www.sfgate.com Global MapAid seeks clearer disaster maps Stanford project helps aid groups get real-time data
- David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, January 17, 2005 Picture landing in a remote stretch of Sumatra ravaged by last month's tsunami, your ship or plane loaded with medicine or food for survivors. You're ready to help, but you're not sure where all the hospitals and health clinics are. You don't know which roads are passable and which have been washed out. You can't find all the refugee camps scattered along the coast. And the camps, clinics and blocked roads don't show up on any standard map. A project hatched at Stanford University may be able to help. Called Global MapAid, the effort builds maps of disaster zones or other areas where international aid agencies work. With a combination of handheld computers, satellite phones and innovative software, the organization can quickly draft and update maps that show the washed-out roads and altered coastline, the location of aid centers, even areas with contaminated water. After starting as a student project, Global MapAid has registered as a nonprofit organization. Its founder and chairman, who helped create a similar group in England, just secured a $12,000 grant to visit Sumatra next month and demonstrate the process for the aid agencies gathered there. To date, the mapping project has garnered critical acclaim but has not been truly deployed in any disaster areas. The founder, Rupert Douglas-Bate, hit upon the idea years ago while working on a relief mission to Bosnia. Trained as a water engineer, he was assigned to repair drinking water systems that he couldn't find. "I didn't know where any of them were," he said. "There were minefields everywhere. ... I didn't know where the refugees were. It would have been incredibly helpful to have a series of maps that showed, 'These refugees are here.' " He was neither the first nor the last relief worker to run into the same problem. "If you don't have current intelligence, it can get you killed," said Randy Strash, strategic director of emergency response operations at the World Vision aid organization. His organization has viewed a demonstration of the Global MapAid system, and he thinks the maps could prove useful. Strash had to draw his own maps when he visited Kigali, Rwanda, during that country's 1994 civil war. He pitched his tent on the grounds of a girls school, not realizing that one of the warring parties had seized the houses across the street for its top leadership. He also didn't know the location of the local warehouses that aid organizations would need to use. "I had a map of the country," Strash said. "What I needed was a map that told me that stuff." Global MapAid's system is designed to compile that kind of information in simple, visual form. To start, Global MapAid would take basic maps of a disaster zone, showing towns, cities and roads. Then the group or an aid organization working with it would hire residents of the area to serve as data collection teams. Team members would receive a field kit of equipment costing about $2,000 each. The kits, tucked into small bags that look like carry-on luggage, contain a handheld computer, a satellite phone and a battery. Team members would be trained to enter information on the handheld, hook the computer to the satellite phone every few hours and send the data to a field office where it could be compiled. Then the teams would wander their community, recording what they found. The kinds of data collected would vary depending on what local aid agencies need. The workers might locate and count schools and hospitals. They could locate clusters of infectious disease. Specially designed software at the field office would take the data streaming in via satellite and quickly incorporate it into maps. Douglas-Bate went to Stanford two years ago on a fellowship, hoping to design just such a system. He had spent more than a decade working in international relief for such organizations as World Vision and the Red Cross. At Stanford, he gathered together students and faculty with expertise in cartography and computer coding to assemble the system. "He was very good at bringing together people from different disciplines, " said former Stanford Professor Gordon Bloom, who worked with Douglas-Bate, still serves as an adviser to the group and now directs Harvard University's Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory. "He created a very multidisciplinary approach to solving social problems." The project won a prize in 2003 in a competition organized by the Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students to reward innovative business plans that address social problems. Douglas-Bate is now making the rounds of venture capital firms and charitable organizations, looking for funding. Although the tsunami will be the immediate focus of the group's efforts, Douglas-Bate wants the group to focus long-term on anti-poverty efforts in Africa. But the system also may have other uses. Global MapAid board member Stephanie Race said companies with overseas operations may find the maps useful in studying the impact of their facilities on nearby communities. "It doesn't have a lot to do with disaster response," she said, "but it's another possibility." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAPPING DISASTER Global MapAid's system uses a combination of off-the-shelf technologyand specially designed software to create detailed maps for internationalaid organizations. The maps can show everything from the location ofhospitals and washed-out bridges to the population of neighborhoodsand the prevalence of contaminated drinking water. How it works: 1. Global MapAid, or an organization working with it, will hire residents of a disaster area to serve as data collection teams. 2. Team members will receive a field kit that includes a handheld computer and a satellite phone. 3. Team members traverse their community, noting on the handhelds the location of important facilities such as hospitals or food warehouses. Every few hours, they connect the handhelds to the satellite phones and send their information to Global MapAid’s field headquarters. 4. Using the organization’s software, Global MapAid will take the files flowing in via satellite phone and add the information to maps of the area. 5. The maps can then be loaded onto a Web site for use by aid agencies. E-mail David R. 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