Missing Maps

Missing Maps, “Mapas Perdidos”, is a humanitarian project dedicated to creating detailed maps of the parts of the world that are vulnerable to natural disasters, armed conflicts and epidemic diseases.

Some of the most vulnerable sites in the world are in under-resourced urban or rural areas and are generally not well mapped. The purpose of Missing Maps is to map these vulnerable areas before a disaster or crisis occurs, to reduce risks and help speed recovery. Having better maps before a crisis helps emergency response teams, aid groups, and the communities themselves. The project has three steps:

• In the first, the volunteers plot satellite images on OpenStreetMap, adding information such as roads, buildings, rivers and so on. Mapathons, mapping meetings, are usually organized to carry out this activity.
• In the second step: NGOs work with groups of local people who live in these communities, to confirm the accuracy and add details to the map, for example, the type of building, locally used names, etc….
• Finally, humanitarian organizations and groups use the information from the newly created map to plan risk reduction projects and improve the standard of living in those communities.

The TECSOS Social Technologies Foundation, together with the Spanish Red Cross and the Vodafone Spain Foundation, join this initiative to promote the first step, through the organization of the Mapathons activity.

During this year, several events open to the general public will be organized, where vulnerable areas will be mapped to put those places and people on the map, working with volunteers around the world.

Go ahead and participate in this website: https://www.missingmaps.org/es/