Crisis mapping (also known as disaster mapping) is the real-time gathering, display and analysis of data during a crisis, usually a natural disaster or social/political conflict (violence, elections, etc.).[1] Crisis mapping projects usually allows large numbers of people, including the public and crisis responders, to contribute information either remotely or from the site of the crisis. One benefit of the crisis mapping method over others is that it can increase situational awareness, since the public can report information and improve data management.[2]
Crisis mappers work with data that comes from diverse sources and can be produced for varying purposes. As such, there is some overlap with big data,[3]international development,[4][5] and community engagement.[6]
History
One of the first major events to utilize crisis mapping was the 2010 Haiti earthquake, which killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people and left homes and infrastructure badly damaged. People who wanted to help started mapping the basic infrastructure, especially in OpenStreetMap, and were then able to do more detailed mapping as better resources became available.[7] Crisis mapping in one form or another has been used in many crises since then. Many volunteers have also joined to help with data responses to crises and to build new information-handling tools for both crisis mappers and crisis responders in the field.
Crisis mapping leverage the following tools and methods to power effective early warning for rapid response to complex humanitarian emergencies:[1]
Mobile and web-based applications,
Participatory maps and crowdsourced event data,
Aerial and satellite imagery,
Geospatial platforms,
Advanced visualization,
Live simulation, and
Computational and statistical models
Crisis mappers are usually volunteers, meaning they contribute non-wage labor. They can be professional mappers, software developers, data analysts, or members of the public.[9] Since it is a new field, crisis mapping engages users' existing skills, rather than field-specific skills. However, new skills are often acquired during "deployments", where a crisis mapping organization and interface is established to begin collecting data.[10][11]
Instances of crisis mapping usually have a goal to process and/or produce data that would be of value in the crisis. Examples of processing data include geolocating news reports,[12] and classifying or translating text messages.[13] It is common to scrape social media sites for crisis-specific keywords. For instance, crisis mapping can include gathering tweets that have a specific designated hashtag.[14] Examples of producing data are creating geographic data by "tracing" buildings or roads on aerial imagery, identifying refugee camps in aerial imagery.[15]
These activities are usually crowdsourced to one degree or another and coordinated via online applications. Dedicated software is often used, for example based on Ushahidi or Sahana. "Mechanical-turk" techniques are sometimes used to break up tasks into tiny chunks that can be completed quickly. Often social technologies are also frequently used, like Skype or Google Drive.
Crisis mapping organizations
Crisis mappers are online teams of people, usually volunteers, who gather and provide data online to people responding to and people affected by disasters. To gather and organize the data, groups have formed to organize volunteers into teams to execute certain tasks. Organizations active in crisis mapping include:
Crisis Time Crisis Gaza Crisis Dino Crisis Crisis management Cabinet crisis Midlife crisis Crisis communication Crisis (disambiguation) Migrant crisis Currency crisis Cuban Missile Crisis Bubblegum Crisis Financial crisis The Crisis Final Crisis Legitimation crisis 2008 Latvian financial crisis Crisis (journal) Energy crisis Crisis Zone Subprime mortgage crisis An Crisis Yemeni crisis Crisis in Venezuela Crisis theory Oil crisis Midlife Crisis Crisis hotline Time Crisis 3 Agadir Crisis 1998–1999 Ecuador economic crisis Crisis on Infinite Earths Farm crisis Fanatic Crisis Constitutional crisi…
s 1976 sterling crisis The General Crisis Debt crisis Mengo Crisis Buddhist crisis Adrenal crisis Character changes during Infinite Crisis Housing crisis Crisis (charity) European debt crisis 2007–2008 financial crisis First Moroccan Crisis Danzig crisis Social crisis October Crisis Spiritual crisis Health crisis 1998 Russian financial crisis 1997 Asian financial crisis Greek government-debt crisis Walk crisis Bosnian Crisis 2000–2001 California electricity crisis 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII 1958 Lebanon crisis Identity crisis (disambiguation) Falklands Crisis Replication crisis The Crisis of Democracy Fuel crisis Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management Crisis of the Third Century Crisis (British comics) Sterling crisis Dino Crisis 3 Abyssinia Crisis Dark Crisis Great Eastern Crisis 2016 Tasmanian energy crisis Disaster: Day of Crisis Existential crisis 2014 Brazilian economic crisis Savings and loan crisis 1990s Finnish banking crisis Mexican peso crisis 2004 Adjara crisis Moroccan Crisis Personality crisis Evolution: A Theory in Crisis Crisis on Infinite Earths (Arrowverse) Flint water crisis Solar Crisis First Taiwan Strait C