Last week, GeoHub hosted this academic year's first Missing Maps Mapathon, a crowdsourcing event that helps map the most vulnerable places in the developing world. It was organized to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, celebrated each year on October 13.
Students and academic staff from CEU in Vienna and AUCA in Bishkek, also joined by online participants from OSUN members, came together to learn more about the topic and develop their mapping techniques. Overall, this hybrid workshop gathered almost 60 registered participants.
The introductory talks by guest lecturers Lorant Czaran (UN-SPIDER Vienna Office) and Olga Shashkina (international consultant and disaster resilience specialist) were followed by a practical exercise. Paromita Basak (University of Maryland) gave a comprehensive introduction to OpenStreetMap (OSM) and mapathon training, after which participants were encouraged to start mapping to support the vulnerable communities of the Dominican Republic affected by Hurricane Fiona.
We congratulate Monika Somogyi from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy at CEU on being the most active participant of the mapathon! For her hard work, she will be rewarded with a 1-year subscription at the GEO University, which stores numerous courses and materials on developing skills in GIS and Earth Observation.
Time spent volunteering with Missing Maps can have a real impact and support response to crises affecting the most vulnerable places in the developing world. We would like to thank all participants and speakers who joined us on that day, in person or virtually!
GeoHub hosts mapathons and many other geospatial events, so keep an eye on our events page/sign up for our newsletter to join us next time!
