Mapping the needs the open source map technologies and volunteer movement playing an essential role in humanitarian emergency response

摘要

Just after Cyclone Idai made landfall in southern Africa, international medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) sent four experts in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to the region and mobilised thousands of volunteers around the world to produce high-quality maps of the worst-hit areas to help emergency teams mount an effective response. Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique and Zimbabwe in mid-March, flooding vast swathes of land, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless and destroying buildings, crops and infrastructure.