PoliMappers/Collaborative and Humanitarian Mapping 2021
About
In February 2021, PoliMappers proudly announced that they would held a course about Collaborative and Humanitarian Mapping coordinated by Professor Maria Antonia Brovelli.
The course was recognised by Politecnico di Milano as a Passion in Action course, a series of seminars and workshops focused on innovative teaching activities that the Politecnico offers to students to support the development of transversal, soft and social skills. In particular, attendants learned all the secrets of collaborative mapping with seminars and workshops by experts. Then, they tested their skills in mapping session on OpenStreetMap using the most popular and innovative tools.
How to participate
The course was held virtually. Students was able to join remotely the seminars and workshop accessing the dedicated ZOOM virtual room.
The registration for PoliMi students was managed through the dedicated platform on the Politecnico di Milano website https://www.polimi.it/en/programmes/innovative-teaching/course-detail/?corso=31501072&fbclid=IwAR2qGyZN5qV9G9Srcxkzpm6fY4zucnHD-_CXbh2FqsNwF6F1aShUOKDsh94 link]. Students that fullfilled the requirements in terms of homeworks and attendance received the recognition of 2-CFU for the course, mentioned on their Diploma Supplement at the end of their studies.
All the activities were open and freely accessible also for people outside Politecnico di Milano. They could indeed attend the course and access to the ZOOM virtual meeting by registering through the dedicated form or by following PoliMappers social media channels, in particular Twitch were all the meetings were live-streamed.
Programme
March 5th, 16:00-19:00 CET - OpenStreetMap introduction (Open Data Day)
The first event of the course was held on the occasion of Open Data Day 2021 (March 6th), an annual celebration of open data all over the world. It was an opportunity to show the benefits of open data and encourage the adoption of open data policies in government, business and civil society. The first part of the event aimed to introduce participants to OSM by explaining the project and the milestones reached so far, as well as the basic concepts of mapping. In the second part of the event, an example of how OSM is now fundamental in the humanitarian world was illustrated. This was the case of the World Food Program (WFP), which operates in many countries and uses the OSM database to constantly update its mapping resources and ensure optimal support to field missions. Participants tried their hand at mapping buildings using the TeachOSM Tasking Manager and iDeditor in the area around Tartus, Syria, where the WFP operates. No previous knowledge was requested for this introductory training. Our President Chiara Ponti and Vice-President Mathilde Puche conducted the trainings.
Meeting Programme
- Welcome message and Course Programme overview - Professor Maria Antonia Brovelli, PoliMappers Faculty Advisor
- Introduction to PoliMappers, YouthMappers & OpenStreetMap - Chiara Ponti, PoliMappers President
- The Importance of OSM for World Food Programme - Dimitris Karakostis, Head of WFP Geospatial Unit, Damascus Syria
- Contextualisation of "Mapping Tartus" and Mapping Tutorial (TeachOSM & ID Editor) - Mathilde Puche, PoliMappers Vice-President
- ... Mapping Time!
Mapping Area
Resources
Statistics & Results
An approximated amount of 90 people attended the meeting and 52 contributors took active part in the mapathon with 241 changesets.
| Features mapped | Amount |
|---|---|
| Buildings | 4166 |
| Roads | 1151.1 km |
| Landuse area | 7.75 km2 |
March 12th, 16:00-19:00 CET - Mapping deforestation in the Amazon rainforest with JOSM
During the second meeting of the Passion In Action course, attendants worked on a given project aiming to map deforestation in the Amazon rainforest on the TeachOSM Tasking Manager platform. The activity was introduced by our Tresurer Gorica Bratic. She is the research grant holder for the "Cross-continental YouthMapping for deforestation in Amazonas region" project that was awarded by YouthMappers in 2019. Professor Maria Antonia Brovelli, coordinator of the Passion in Action course, is also the mentor of this project. Our officer Lorenzo Stucchi conducted the training on JOSM editor. In this event attendants learned more about how OpenStreetMap data could represent crucial information for mapping the effects of climate changegaining also hand-on experience on an advanced desktop editor like JOSM.
Meeting Programme
- Welcome message + Overview of the previous meeting results with useful mapping tips and tricks - Professor Maria Antonia Brovelli, PoliMappers Faculty Advisor and Lorenzo Stucchi, Social Media & Communication Responsible
- Presentation of the "Cross-continental YouthMapping for deforestation in Amazonas region" project - Gorica Bratic, PoliMappers Treasurer
- JOSM Tutorial - Gorica Bratic
- ... Mapping Time!
Resources
Statistics & Results
A total of 23 contributors took active part in the mapathon with 571 changesets.
| Features mapped | Amount |
|---|---|
| Buildings | 560 |
| Roads | 2092.3 km |
| Landuse area | 693.22 km2 |
| Rivers | 495.3 km |
March 26th, 16:00-19:00 CET - Mapping informal settlements with Mapillary and OSM
The topic of the third meeting of the Collaborative and Humanitarian Mapping course was the collaborative and open mapping of informal settlements in Bogotà and Soacha. This project was part of the master thesis work conducted by Maria Alejandra Rojas Bolanos and Silvia Raviscioni, two PoliMi architecture EDA students that included for the first time this work in a case study for the application of IMM methodology to slums in Colombia. This event is in collaboration with IMM Design Lab with the coordination of Professor Massimo Tadi, who was also the supervisor of the thesis previously described. The event was part of an inter-continental cooperation made possible by the activities conducted by TECHO Colombia in Bogota. Their volunteers, indeed, in the past weeks collected a significant amount of photo sequences on field with Mapillary after having attended a practical training session with Polimappers officers. During the event, after a first introduction about the context of the mapathon, our President Chiara Ponti and Faculty Advisor Federica Gaspari involved the attendants in a training about the joint use of ID editor and Mapillary photo sequences for updating the OpenStreetMap database. The mapathon focused in particular on urban services that will be crucial for the application of IMM methodology. Participants worked on TeachOSM platform. Due to some Mapillary technical issues, the mapathon was based on the use of ID editor for mapping instead of JOSM.
Meeting Programme
- Welcome message + Overview of the previous meeting results - Professor Maria Antonia Brovelli, PoliMappers Faculty Advisor and Chiara Ponti, President
- "Slums upgrading: An integrated design approach for the environmental performance and social inclusion based on IMM methodology in the border between Bogotà and Soacha (Colombia)" thesis project presentation - Maria Alejandra Rojas Bolanos and Silvia Raviscioni, PoliMi Master Students, thesis project of IMMDesignlab
- OSM amenities & shops tagging guide - Chiara Ponti
- Mapillary + ID editor tutorial - Federica Gaspari, PoliMappers Faculty Advisor
- ... Mapping Time!
Mapping Area
Resources
Statistics & Results
A total of 39 contributors took active part in the mapathon with 244 changesets.
| Features mapped | Amount |
|---|---|
| Shops | 508 |
| Amenities | 177 |
| Healthcare places | 17 |
April 16th, 16:00-19:00 CEST - Humanitarian Mapping with Map For Future
In the 4th meeting of our Passion in Action course, we continued exploring the world of humanitarian mapping with the help of Giuseppe Maria Battisti and Valerio De Luca, founder and responsible of the Map for Future project. This project is a humanitarian mapping initiative of the Una Quantum Inc., a Roma-based association promoting the use of open source Geographic Information Systems and geospatial tools. Through mapathons and meetings with volunteers, Map for Future fosters activities directly linked to the 17th Sustainable Development Goal: Partnerships for the Goals. Map for Future responsibles presented their activities and mission, with a special focus on their latest project in Somaliland that have seen an inter-continental collaboration with the local Somali urban planning and GIS experts in order to build together a resilient community. Through the Tasking Manager platform of HOT - OpenStreetMap Humanitarian Team, attendants carried out some tasks related to the digital mapping of developing countries for the intervention of relief by NGOs. Our Secretary Dina Jovanovic and Faculty Advisor Federica Gaspari supported the mapping activities.
Meeting Programme
- Welcome message + Overview of the previous meeting results
- "International Mapping Partnership Rome - Hargheisa 2020" project presentation - Map For Future, Una Quantum Inc., GIS&Cadastral Survey
- Mapping tutorial for fences
- ... Mapping Time!
Resources
Statistics & Results
A total of 40 contributors took active part in the mapathon with 184 changesets.
| Features mapped | Amount |
|---|---|
| Map changes | 14311 |
| Nodes | 12426 |
| Ways | 1351 |
April 30th, 16:00-19:00 CEST - Humanitarian Mapping with UN Mappers
The 5th event of our innovative teaching course supported by Politecnico di Milano focused on the activities conducted by UN Mappers. The group is a thriving community of OSM mappers supporting with open humanitarian mapping the UN field activities. UN Mappers is part of Unite Maps, an initiative led by the UN. During the event, our former president Michael Montani, now GIS Consultant for UN Mappers, introduced the group with a special focus on the task on which the attendants worked on through HOT Tasking Manager. Our Communication and Social Media Responsible Lorenzo Stucchi supported the mapping activities during the meeting.
Resources
Statistics & Results
A total of 13 contributors took active part in the mapathon with a total of 44051 map changes.
| Features mapped | Amount |
|---|---|
| Landuse area | 8.46 km2 |
| Highways | 513.32 km |
| Rivers | 113.58 km |
May 7th, 16:00-19:00 CEST - ViaLibera project: mapping accessibility with Mapillary and JOSM
In the 6th meeting of our Passion in Action course, we explored accessibility mapping; the activity will be part of the project ViaLibera. The project aims to map and evaluate the accessibility of Municipality 9 of Milano. The partner are Politecnico di Milano and three association of poeple with physical disabilities (Spazio Vita Niguarda Onlus, Ledha Milano and AUS Niguarda Onlus). The topic of accessibility mapping was explained with some examples and the possible use of this data. The mapping activity was done using JOSM and the Mapillary plugin. This type of mapping, also defined as micro mapping, required to have street-level images. The most useful are 360 degrees images that was collected by the volunteer association partner of the projects. The elements mapped were crossing, sidewalks and all type of obstacles, like kerbs. Our Communication Responsible Lorenzo Stucchi, a former Research Fellow on the project, helped in the presentation and the mapping activity.
Resources
Statistics & Results
A total amount of 17 contributors contributed to OSM during the mapathon with more than 90 changeset, mapping an approximated total of 20 km of sidewalks and crossings.
May 21st, 16:00-18:00 CEST - Examples of OSM data usage (with HOTOSM Board President Miriam Gonzalez)
In the occasion of the last meeting of our Passion in Action course we had the honour to introduce the attendants to the HOTOSM community with a special presentation by HOTOSM Board President Miriam Gonzalez. Our officers supported all the activities for this meeting that will explore the potentials of OSM data provided by contributors in different contexts. Various examples of applications were provided to the audience.
Resources
Useful additional references
- Collaborative and Humanitarian Mapping 2021 poster at State of the Map 2021
- Innovation in teaching: the PoliMappers Collaborative and Humanitarian Mapping course at Politecnico di Milano at FOSS4G 2021 Buenos Aires (Slides - Video recording)
- INNOVATION IN TEACHING: THE POLIMAPPERS COLLABORATIVE AND HUMANITARIAN MAPPING COURSE AT POLITECNICO DI MILANO, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVI-4/W2-2021, 63–69, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVI-4-W2-2021-63-2021, 2021.
Contacts
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