Organized Editing/Activities/Refugee-displaced Site Mapping for UNHCR
The refugee/displaced site mapping project is implemented by CartONG in partnership with UNHCR as part of our Organized editing activities in OpenStreetMap.
Please notice CartONG is not the only organisation mapping displaced/refugee sites, you can check the standard approach for site mapping, as well as other organization’s projects on the page about Refugee/displaced site mapping.
Contact
For any question on CartONG's activities around OpenStreetMap, in particular on an Organized Editing activity and/or if you try to contact a specific contributor linked to us and don't get a fast answer, please email us.
| Coordination | CartONG’s Missing Maps team, in partnership with UNHCR’s Global Data Service section. |
| Contact | missingmaps[at]cartong[dot]org |
| Hashtags | #CartONG #missingmaps #RefugeeSiteMapping #UNHCR |
| Timeframe | Since 2017 (ongoing) |
CartONG is a member of the Missing Maps project, where our preparedness projects such as this one are coordinated. This project also encourages occasional participation from one member’s volunteers to another organization’s project, in which case CartONG remains responsible for the contribution completed under our projects.
Project background and objectives
UNHCR, a UN agency, is dedicated to the protection of refugees, internally displaced people and communities otherwise affected by displacement, as well as stateless persons. UNHCR provides people affected by displacement with life-saving assistance, including shelter, food and water, and intervenes as necessary and appropriate to safeguard their safety, dignity and access to basic rights.
CartONG is one of UNHCR’s implementing partners for mapping and information management (IM) projects. We support the agency in a large range of activities, but particularly with OpenStreetMap (OSM).
Overall objectives of the project
- To improve the availability and quality of OSM data on displacement sites around the world
- To facilitate the contribution and use of OSM data on areas and thematics linked with displacement, including via documentation, data model (tagging) definition, training and cooperation among actors
- To create analysis products (e.g. maps, interactive visualization of sector-specific indicators, etc.), utilizing OSM as well as other data sources, and making them available to UNHCR and other field actors as appropriate. .
The products are used by UNHCR to facilitate decision-making and programming/planning activities that directly contribute to the improvement of living conditions for displaced communities, such as planning camp extensions, filling the gap of access to basic services, identifying best installation sites for new facilities, etc. Please refer to the Impact section below for detailed examples..
In addition to meeting the specific needs of UNHCR, the data generated remotely on OSM can be used by other organizations providing assistance to displaced populations, thus ensuring better coordination and use of resources, avoiding duplication and supporting the overall efficiency and sustainability of information management in sites.
Activities
Getting data on refugee camps, and displacement sites in general, has always been a challenge given their fast evolution and the diversity of situations around the world. UNHCR and CartONG have implemented together various projects since 2006 to improve this mapping and in general the quality of data available to support displaced communities aid efforts.
OpenStreetMap has been identified as a key resource to produce accurate, recent and open data that can complement UNHCR’s existing databases, and also facilitate the access of other actors (in particular local ones) to the information.
To do so, CartONG implements the following activities in OpenStreetMap:
- Remote mapping of displacement sites based on satellite imagery: this first step is essential to get an initial understanding of many aspects of the site and its nearby environment, in a context where most of the time no data at all (or almost none) is available in the beginning. This step allows to generate critical information such as the number and density of shelters (which allows to estimate the population of the site), the conditions of access to the site, the presence of host villages or other displaced communities settlements in close proximity, the morphology of the site, type of structure and disposition of the shelters, etc. This initial data can be used to directly produce maps, or to plan further assessments and in particular field surveys.
- Standardize the data model and improve the methodologies used in OpenStreetMap for refugee/displaced sites mapping. This allows various organizations and users to easily create, find and share data, including the location of sites, map features (shelters, infrastructures, etc.) as well as specific information from this area of work. It includes coordinated efforts of data cleaning/standardization/completion of sites referencing around the world.
- Collect field data and import it in OpenStreetMap. CartONG supports UNHCR in implementing their own field data collection tools & methodologies (that are not necessarily using open source software or producing open data), and then imports relevant and qualitative field data into OSM to improve the database accessible to all.
Data model and imports
CartONG is working on improving the standardization and documentation on mapping of refugee/displaced sites in OpenStreetMap. In collaboration with other organizations working in this field, in particular the Humanitarian OSM Team, REACH, or the International Organization for Migrations (IOM), CartONG has updated and is maintaining the page documenting the data model and mapping methodologies.
This has also included the work to create and vote a new tag to reference sites.
Following the approval of this tag, CartONG is leading a global effort to update the location and referencing of sites in OSM. CartONG has also used the standardized data model to import data created by UNHCR during field data collection into OSM.
In full application of the OSM guidelines, all imports are listed on the catalogue of imports, with a dedicated page for the imports performed by CartONG for UNHCR.
Remote mapping
The remote mapping is based both on the specific data model for displacement sites mapping (cf. previous section) as well as OSM general guidelines.
Beside mapping and referencing displacement sites using the tags detailed above, CartONG encourages the mapping of nearby areas of the specific site, especially host villages, spontaneous settlement around, significant natural features and paying specific attention to the connection of roads to the road network especially at a larger scale.
We encourage OSM contributors who would like to support these mapping projects to join our mapathons for beginners and advanced mappers, cf. the last section of this page.
list of Tasking Manager projects :
| Site | Tasking Manager # | Statut | Project start date | project end date | Country | Imagery | Data quality control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zahle | #14302 CARTOGRAPHIE DES CAMPS DE REFUGIÉS (2) - ZAHLE - LIBAN | On going | 20/02/2023 | Lebanon | Maxar Premium | ||
| Zahle | #14301 [MISE À JOUR] CARTOGRAPHIE DES CAMPS DE REFUGIÉS - ZAHLE - LIBAN | Completed | 20/02/2023 | 20/04/2023 | Lebanon | Maxar Premium | |
| AL JAMEYA | #13774 : Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - AL JAMEYA - Soudan | Completed | 14/11/2022 | 20/11/2022 | Soudan | Maxar Premium | |
| El Ferdous | #13770 : Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - El Ferdous - Soudan | Completed | 12/11/2022 | 21/11/2022 | Soudan | Maxar Premium | |
| Kerfi | #12892 : Cartographie des camps de refugiés - Kerfi- Tchad | Completed | 30/06/2022 | 11/07/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Bredjing | #12829 : Cartographie des camps de refugiés - Bredjing - Tchad | Completed | 27/06/2022 | 01/08/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | |
| Belom | #12635 Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Belom -Tchad | Completed | 23/05/2022 | 21/06/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Am Nababak | #12590 Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Am Nababak -Tchad | Completed | 30/05/2022 | 16/06/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Doholo | #12589 Cartographie des camps de refugiés - Doholo - Tchad | Completed | 19/05/2022 | 25/05/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Dar Es Salam | #12533 Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Dar Es Salam- Tchad | Completed | 05/05/2022 | 19/05/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | |
| Kouchaguine-Moura | #12515 Cartographie des campes de refugiés- Kouchaguine-Moura- Tchad | Completed | 28/04/2022 | 19/05/2022 | Tchad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Lebanon All site | [mapping done outisde the TM]
referencing of all refugee site known and administered by UNHCR changeset : #UNHCR#RefugeeSiteMappingLebanon#CartONG #12382 Cartographie des camps de refugiés-Liban |
Completed | 15/03/2022 | 22/03/2022 | Lebanon | Maxar Premium | |
| Mile | #12354 Cartographie des camps de refugiés-Mile-Tchad | Completed | 07/04/2022 | 26/04/2022 | Chad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Touloum | #12259 Cartographie des camps de refugiés-Touloum-Tchad | On going | 24/03/2022 | 22/05/2022 | Chad | Maxar Premium | |
| Iridimi | #12256 Cartogrpahie des camps de refugiés-Iridimi-Tchad | Completed | 23/03/2022 | 21/04/2022 | Chad | Maxar Premium | |
| oure Cassoni | #12179 Cartographie des camps de réfugiés- OURE CASSONI- Tchad | Completed | 07/03/2022 | 01/04/2022 | Chad | Maxar Premium | done |
| Mayukwayukwa | Cartographie de camps de réfugiés - Mayukwayukwa - Zambie | Completed | Zambia | Maxar Premium | |||
| Maheba | #11819 Cartographie de camp de réfugiés - Maheba - Zambie | Completed | Zambia | Maxar Premium | |||
| Mantapala | #11817 - Cartographie de camps de réfugiés - Mantapala - Zambie | Completed | Zambia | Maxar Premium | |||
| Sheder | #11623 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Sheder - Ethiopie | Completed | 18/10/2021 | 22/10/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Tongogara | #11460- Cartographie des camps de refugiés- Tongogara - Zimbabwe | Completed | 20/09/2021 | 14/10/2021 | Zimbabwe | Maxar Standard | |
| Tsore | #11358 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Tsore - Ethiopie | Completed | 04/10/2021 | 13/10/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Gure Shombola | #11347 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Gure-Shombola - Ethiopie | Completed | 18/10/2021 | 29/10/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Sherkole | #11357 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Sherkole - Ethiopie | Completed | 04/10/2021 | 14/10/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Adi Harush | #11088 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Adi-Harush - Ethiopie | Completed | 05/07/2021 | 23/08/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Pugnido | #11045 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Pugnido - Ethiopie | Completed | 19/07/2021 | 15/10/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Nguyeniel | #11041 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Nguenyiel - Ehtiopie | Completed | 27/07/2021 | 27/09/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Sheder | #11040 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Sheder - Ethiopie | Completed | 24/06/2021 | 23/08/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Aw-Barre | #11033 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Aw-barre - Ethiopie | Completed | 24/06/2021 | 20/08/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Bambasi | #11010 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Bambasi - Ethiopie | Completed | 06/09/2021 | 01/10/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Jewi | #11018 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Jewi - Ethiopie | Completed | 21/06/2021 | 29/06/2021 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Kalma | #10669 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Kalma - Soudan | Completed | 08/04/2021 | 10/06/2021 | Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Sayam Forage | #10360 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Sayam Forage - Niger | Completed | 23/03/2021 | 25/03/2021 | Niger | Maxar Standard | |
| Foubé | #10299 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés - Foubé - Burkina Faso | Completed | 11/02/2021 | 25/03/2021 | Burkina Faso | Maxar Standard | |
| Abuda | #9988 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés d'Abuda - Soudan | Completed | 14/12/2020 | 16/12/2020 | Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Wad Sharife | #10054 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Wad Sharife - Soudan | Completed | 14/12/2020 | 14/01/2021 | Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Um Gargour | #9976 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés d'Um Gargour - Soudan | Completed | 07/12/2020 | 13/12/2020 | Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| kilo 26 | #9975 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Kilo 26 - Soudan | Completed | 07/12/2020 | 13/12/2020 | Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Shagarab I, II, III | #9932 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Shagarab I, II et III - Soudan | Completed | 30/11/2020 | 04/12/2020 | Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Helaweyn | #9850 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Helaweyn - Ethiopie | Completed | 13/11/2020 | 31/12/2020 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Kobe | #9849 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Kobe - Ethiopie | Completed | 13/11/2020 | 02/12/2020 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Bokolmanyo | #9848 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Bokolmanyo - Ethiopie | Completed | 13/11/2020 | 22/12/2020 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Buramino | #9847 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Buramino - Ethiopie | Completed | 13/11/2020 | 07/12/2020 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Melkadita | #9771 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Melkadita - Ethiopie | Completed | 05/11/2020 | 28/11/2020 | Ethiopie | Maxar Standard | |
| Gendrassa | #9366 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Gendrassa - République du Sud Soudan | Completed | 15/09/2020 | 22/10/2020 | Sud Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Kaya | #9365 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Kaya - République du Sud Soudan | Completed | 15/09/2020 | 16/11/2020 | Sud Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Ajuong Thok | #9364 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Ajuong Thok - République du Sud Soudan | Completed | 15/09/2020 | 29/09/2020 | Sud Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Pamir | #9362 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés de Pamir - République du Sud Soudan | Completed | 15/09/2020 | 01/10/2020 | Sud Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Etat du Nil supérieur | #9029 -VALIDATION - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Etat du Nil Supérieur - République du Sud Soudan | Completed | 07/07/2020 | 29/09/2020 | Sud Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Etat du Nil supérieur | #8928 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Etat du Nil Supérieur - République du Sud Soudan | Completed | 22/06/2020 | 13/08/2020 | Sud Soudan | Maxar Standard | |
| Rakhine (zone 5) | #8236 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Rakhine - Myanmar (Zone 5) | Completed | 30/03/2020 | 01/04/2020 | Birmanie | Maxar Premium | |
| Rakhine (zone 4) | #8235 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Rakhine - Myanmar (Zone 4) | Completed | 30/03/2020 | 03/04/2020 | Birmanie | Maxar Premium | |
| Rakhine (zone 3) | #8234 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés - Rakhine - Myanmar (Zone 3) | Completed | 30/03/2020 | 02/04/2020 | Birmanie | Maxar Premium | |
| Rakhine (zone 2) | #8178 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés – Rakhine – Myanmar (Zone 2) | Completed | 23/03/2020 | 02/04/2020 | Birmanie | Maxar Premium | |
| Rakhine (zone 1) | #8177 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés – Rakhine – Myanmar (Zone 1) | Completed | 23/03/2020 | 02/04/2020 | Birmanie | Maxar Premium | |
| Maratane | #7390 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés Maratane-Mozambique | Completed | 04/12/2019 | 09/03/2020 | Mozambique | Maxar | |
| Ifo | #7249 - Cartographie du camp de réfugiés Ifo - Kenya | Completed | 13/11/2019 | 16/12/2019 | Kenya | Maxar Premium | |
| Kakuma (zone 1) | #6174 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés Kakuma - Kenya (Zone 1) | Completed | 19/06/2019 | 01/08/2019 | Kenya | ||
| Tabareybarey | #6072 - Site Mapping Tabareybarey-Niger | Completed | 28/05/2019 | 28/05/2019 | Niger | Digital Globe Standard | |
| Kakuma (zones 2-3) | #6069 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés Kakuma - Kenya (Zones 2-3) | Completed | 28/05/2019 | 18/12/2019 | Kenya | Maxar Premium | |
| Kakuma (zone 4) | #6068 - Cartographie des camps de réfugiés Kakuma - Kenya (Zone 4) | Completed | 28/05/2019 | 18/07/2019 | Kenya | ||
| Kebribeyah | #5891 - Site Mapping Kebribeyah - Ethiopia | Completed | 04/04/2019 | 08/07/2019 | Ethiopie | DG Mapgive | |
| Mai Aini | #5890 - Site Mapping MaiAini- Ethiopie | Completed | 04/04/2019 | 23/05/2019 | Ethiopie | ||
| Aysaita | #5889 - Site Mapping Aysaita - Ethiopie | Completed | 04/04/2019 | 26/05/2019 | Ethiopie | ||
| Shimelba | #5861 - Camp Mapping Shimelba - Ethiopie | Completed | 04/04/2019 | 21/05/2019 | Ethiopie | ||
| Berhale | #5847 - Camp Mapping Berhale - Ethiopie | Completed | 27/03/2019 | 18/05/2019 | Ethiopie | ||
| Smara | #5571 - Camp mapping HCR - Smara - Algérie | Completed | 28/11/2018 | 13/12/2018 | Algérie | DG Standard | |
| Ausserd | #5446 - Camp mapping HCR - Ausserd - Algerie | Completed | 09/11/2018 | 29/11/2018 | Algérie | DG Standard | |
| Layoune | #4979 - Camp mapping HCR - Layoune - Algeria | Completed | 07/09/2018 | 25/10/2018 | Algérie | DG Standard | |
| Al Alagaya | #4909 - Camp mapping HCR - Al Alagaya - Soudan | Completed | 25/07/2018 | 26/07/2018 | Soudan | DG Standard | |
| Kiryandongo | #4857 - Camp mapping HCR - Kiryandongo - Ouganda | Completed | 12/07/2018 | Ouganda | DG Standard | ||
| Mentao | #4577 - Camp mapping HCR- Mentao - Djibo, Burkina Faso | Completed | 01/05/2018 | Burkina Faso | Bing | ||
| Betou | #3946 - Betou, Congo - Réfugiés en zone urbaine (zone prioritaire 1) | Completed | 15/12/2017 | Congo | Bing |
Impact
The overall impact of CartONG’s multi-year support to UNHCR is presented on our website.
A few case studies and products to highlight:
- The standardization of tagging in OSM as well as assessment of data available in OSM performed by our volunteers feeds in the UNHCR’s Site Maps world view, to visualize which sites are already mapped in OSM and/or using UNHCR’s own data collection. The OpenStreetMap humanitarian rendering is also used in the portal, in particular for sites where OSM is the only available data.
- This storymap by the UNHCR illustrates the support to the Shelter and Settlement Section in 5 refugee camps in northern Ethiopia - MaiAini, Shimelba, Berahle, Aysaitta and Kebribeyah - during the month of July 2019.
- This news by CartONG describes the same field deployment with additional details on technologies used.
- Use of GIS to support the UNHCR WASH team on the deployment of WASH Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices mobile surveys to help plan out the survey logistics and the sampling, and to allow to analyze survey results by taking into account the spatial context and the actual location of the WASH infrastructure, with examples in Congo, Uganda and Burkina Faso from 2018. The project included remote mapping of infrastructure to plan the survey, as well as field data collection using OpenStreetMap in Bétou (Congo).
- OSM data is also used as a background on several tools designed to map out local household survey results for instance in the SENS and the WASH KAP Mapper, as well as the Balance Score Card Application visualizing Assessments of supported Health Facilities.
Contribution to refugee/displaced site remote mapping
Since 2017, CartONG mapped 40 sites in 11 countries involving 1800 volunteers’ contribution, who help map 390 000 shelters and other facilities. Between 2019 and 2020, CartONG ran 60 mapathons for camp mapping, our team of volunteers spent more than 1300 hour of mapping and validating data on displacement sites.
Future roadmap
Efforts continue to expand the use of OSM data within the UNHCR’s Site Maps portal. We will work on trying to automatically detect existing OSM data quality and changes, to make the update of the information easier.
In parallel, CartONG & UNHCR are exploring the possibilities to automatically produce analysis from OSM data (shelters and point of interests), complementary to the sector analysis already performed in the platform with UNHCR’s data. Sites are regularly mapped in OpenStreetMap based on field requests from UNHCR teams:
We continue testing methods to improve data communication between UNHCR’s platforms and OSM, including imports, exports, field data collection and maintaining data models, together with other stakeholders.
How to contribute
You want to participate in the effort of mapping refugee/displaced sites, and join our team of volunteers ? All the details on how to participate in our volunteer’s projects are available on our OSM Wiki page.