Stories

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, and as a demonstration of a commitment to open data, its MapGive initiative is partnering with YouthMappers to support the next generation of geographers! MapGive is happy to announce its sponsorship of an impressive cohort of student projects that showcase the importance of open data as a public good.

The YouthMappers Fieldwork Program is an opportunity to financially support students’ efforts as they undertake student-led projects related to creating and analyzing geospatial data in their local or regional communities. As a public diplomacy initiative encouraging participation and building capacity in the global open mapping community, MapGive is thrilled to help students around the world pursue projects which will help them develop key skills, build professional networks, and gain invaluable experiences, while contributing meaningful open data and analysis for more sustainable development.

This year, funding was awarded to the following four chapters in different parts of the globe whose projects focus on using geospatial data to address slum conditions, improving sanitation and hygiene access through field data creation, and filling data gaps in newly urbanized areas using field photo mapping. Awardees include YouthMappers chapters in Bangladesh, Paraguay, and also a close collaboration between two chapters in Uganda!

CUSS YouthMappers, University of Chittagong

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Sanitation and Hygiene Scenario in the Slum Community: A Fieldwork Program on Shanti Nagar Slum, Chittagong, Bangladesh

• The project aims to fill a sanitation and hygiene services data gap through field surveys and geospatial mapping to address slum conditions in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The CUSS YouthMappers will collect data about the present structural, sanitation, and hygiene conditions of the latrines and update information on a public OpenStreetMap (OSM) platform. They plan to map the geographical distribution of latrines, including vulnerable and unhygienic ones, to show the accessibility and availability of proper sanitation services to slum communities.

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YouthMappers UNA, National University of Asuncion

Asuncion-Ciudad del Este road corridor, Paraguay

Support for the Atlas Urbano Py project in the field photo mapping of the municipalities of Coronel Oviedo, Jose Domingo Ocampos, Juan E O’Leary, Malloquin, Yguazu, and Minga Guazu

• The project aims to create a workflow to fill in a gap of updated geospatial data to understand the urban characterization of cities in Paraguay. The students will produce freely available base layers of cartographic data (buildings, vegetation, and water) of cities location in the Asuncion-Ciudad del Este road corridor.

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Geo YouthMappers, Makerere University

Kampala, Uganda

Innovative field mapping of health vulnerability in marginalized Kampala refugee communities - Reproducing Ramani Huria field data models in water and sanitation mapping

• The project aims to create a WASH field data model for urban areas, an interactive web map visualizing the collected data and showing the distribution of WASH points across the study area, static paper maps showing which water points were identified as likely safe from contamination determined by their proximity to different contamination sources.
• Students will map all categories of clean water sources within Kisenyi, Katwe, and Kabalagala refugee settlements in Kampala city using field data collection techniques. Students will also identify buildings with toilets and other contamination sources such as waste deposit areas using open source technologies.
• The chapter intends to train its members on the field work processes, tools and data collection and contribute to the development of a WASH model for urban areas, blogs and social media posts detailing student workflows and WASH issue discussions.

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VISION MAPPERS, Institute of Survey and Land Management Chapter

Entebbe, Uganda

Improving health center accessibility in Entebbe municipality

• Accessibility to health centers in Entebbe Municipality can be a great challenge, especially to heavily expectant, lactating mothers, and their babies. The municipal authority through the Ministry of Health has recruited the Village Health Teams to curb this problem, but a lack of information on health center locations is slowing progress.
• The Vision Mappers chapter seeks to establish the location of healthcare services in the municipality and improve their data collection abilities with key digital open source tools like Kobo Collect.
• The team will create both static and digital maps for the municipal authority as an effort to re-enforce use of data driven decision making and improve overall health in the municipality.
• MapUganda has successfully added Entebbe municipality buildings and roads to the OpenStreetMap database, however additional validation and validators are needed.

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