Crisis mapping

al Affiliation Crisis Mapping Research The main objective of crisis mapping isprovision of maps with core geographical data that is relevant to disaster response. The 200-2008 general elections in Kenya ended up in fatal tribal conflict. Ory Okolla a Kenyan blogger, with the support of other bloggers established a crises mapping project called Ushahid (Okolloh and Hersman)i. Through Ushahidi, witnesses sent messages through a designated number or reported occurrences online. The reports were later posted with appropriate titles, description and GPS coordination into a Google map. Humanitarians then use this information to determine localities where their help is needed (Goolsby, Social media as crisis platform: The future of community maps/crisis maps.).
In the year 2011, East Japan experienced an earthquake and Tsunami, which claimed many live, destroyed properties and disabled others. It was a situation, which needed humanitarian assistances (Goolsby and Gao). The openstreemap community launched a crisis map hours after the disaster occurred. The humanitarian team was able to identify areas facing particular types of problems and respond appropriately. The Ushahidi project, enabled by Google maps, facilitated real time distress calls and, therefore, was an invaluable resource for humanitarians.
The earthquake, which struck the Christ church in New Zealand in 2010, is another disaster occurrence whose situation eased by the help of crisis mapping (Munro and Meier). Given the loss of lives and injuries experienced by the victims, Crowd source, crisis map provided by Google maps and Ushahidi acted in helping organizations and local people to identify people who needed help.
The Libya crisis map project was as a response to the U. N’s request, which was in a bid to ease coordination of the required humanitarian affairs. Although the crisis map operated on a delayed 24 hours for information security purposes, it was able to update on evacuation, refugee’s movements, street fights, and military actions (Christopher). The information enabled for appropriate reaction by volunteers in helping the victims. Conclusively, Crisis mapping has helped in disaster management in the most convenient way.
Works Cited
Christopher, Chivvis. Toppling Qaddafi : Libya and the limits of liberal intervention. Vol. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Goolsby, R and H Gao. ” Harnessing the Crowdsourcing Power of Social Media for Disaster Relief.” IEEE Intelligent Systems, 26. 3 (2011): 10-14.
Goolsby, R. ” Social media as crisis platform: The future of community maps/crisis maps.” ACM Trans. Intell. Syst. Technol 1. 1 (2010): 1-7.
Munro, R and P Meier. ” The unprecedented role of SMS in disaster response: learning from Haiti.” SAIS review 30. 2 (2010): 91-103.
Okolloh, Ory and eric Hersman. ” Ushahidi: From Crisis Mapping Kenya to Mapping the Globe.” 7 March 2008. 25 May 2014 .