UNHCR refugee site mapping Import
Goals
As part of the partnership with UNHCR, and our Organized editing activities, CartONG runs imports of data on refugee/displaced sites. For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page.
Schedule
In progress imports:
- All UNHCR known refugee sites in Lebanon - March 2022
Past imports:
- M’Bera refugee site, Mauritania – Decembre 2018
- Kebribeyah, Shimelba, Mai Aini and Aysaita refugee site, Ethiopia – December 2019
- Displacement site localization, World – January 2019/January2020
Import Data
Data description
Data is provided by the UNHCR headquarter office in charge of site mapping or directly by field operations.
Data is generally issued of survey deployment and is composed of:
- Displacement site coordinates
- Site perimeter and/or administrative boundaries
- Shelters footprint
- Facilities localization (administration, security, health, WASH, social, education, worship) and specific attribute (name, operational status, capacity, general condition of the building, etc.)
Only recent data is being consider for integration, either data recently collected in the field or recently added in the UNHCR site mapping database.
In preparation of survey deployment, CartONG runs mapathons in partnership with UNHCR in order to map refugee sites. The UNHCR then deploys field specialists in-country to add attributes and complete the map and trains local staff to update the geographical database in the long term.
Background
| Permission | Data source | OpenStreetMap License compatibility | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lebanon sites | https://unhcr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2028db44801d43fe8eb49321eea19285 | verified with the owner | |
| M’Bera refugee site, Mauritania | “The provision of data from the Site Mapping database is fully in line with the data sharing dynamic that UNHCR wants to promote. In order to ensure the widest possible dissemination of this data, I am pleased to inform you about the agreement of the UNHCR for putting online those data on OSM platform under ODC-ODBL license under the condition to be cited as owner of the data we provide.” | https://im.unhcr.org/apps/campmapping/#/site/MRTs004241/mapping | verified with the owner |
| Kebribeyah, Shimelba, Mai Aini and Aysaita refugee site, Ethiopia | https://im.unhcr.org/apps/campmapping/#/ | verified with the owner | |
| Displacement site localization, World | https://im.unhcr.org/apps/campmapping/#/ | verified with the owner |
Import type:
One-time manual import with JOSM
Data preparation
Tagging Plans
Tagging plan is done in accordance with the updated refugee site mapping datamodel documented here : https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Refugee/Displaced_Site_Mapping
Changeset tags
Import changeset are associated with each items to ease tracking.
source=UNHCR
source:date=yyyy-mm-dd
url=https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/UNHCR_refugee_camp_mapping_Import
Changeset comment: #UNHCR #CartONG #COUNTRY #Import #Improving refugee site mapping
Data transformation
| Refugee site | Conducted transformation | tools | Link to OSM XML files |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lebanon sites | Manual transformation | JOSM | |
| M’Bera refugee site, Mauritania | Transformation was done using SQL scripts with : creation of osm table, add geometry, copy data in osm table, replace null value by empty value, update fields following data scheme. Data was exported in geojson in order to open it in JOSM | JOSM | |
| Kebribeyah, Shimelba, Mai Aini and Aysaita refugee site, Ethiopia | Manual transformation | JOSM | |
| Displacement site localization, World | Manual transformation | JOSM |
Data merge workflow
Team Approach:
Import will be undertaken by CartONG OSM team and experienced OSM mappers from our Missing Maps volunteer community, using an import specific OSM user account (CartONG_Imports)
Workflow:
- Transform data and generate a Geojson file through SQL or manually when very small data set. [See transformation section above]
For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
- Open the import file into JOSM.For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
- Validate data, with JOSM validation tool (delete empty fields and correct remaining errors manually).For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
- Download osm data in an independent layer.For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
- Make a copy of existing data available on the area for reference and for correcting mistakes during the import.For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
- Use the Conflation plugin to identify matches between existing data in OSM and new imported dataset. Walk through the matches and accept or reject conflation. Make sure that existing tagging is kept.
- For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]Sent to OSM with Changeset information (detailed in the relative section)For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
- Quality review For more information on the context and goals of these imports, please check the project's page [Lien]
In case of import problem the changeset will be reverted using the JOSM Reverter Plugin.
Conflation:
Refugee site are located within an area with very few POI, for the moment conflation is done manually by experienced OSM contributors.