A mobile mapping app that draws on crowdsourced data to help humanitarian responders find people in remote areas is being rolled out by Médecins Sans Frontières
A mobile mapping app that uses crowdsourced data to help responders find people in remote areas quickly, is being used by international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
MSF estimates that the homes of hundreds of millions of people from the world’s most vulnerable communities are not mapped. It’s impossible for aid workers to know exactly where and how many people are living in these parts of the world. This makes it difficult to plan mass vaccination campaigns, understand how diseases are spreading as well as deliver other life-saving activities.
MSF personnel told the MSF’s Scientific Days meeting in London last week that the MapSwipe app has helped them locate people even during urgent missions – but that it needs work to be more reliable.
Finding people fast in an emergency, whether an earthquake or disease outbreak, can make the difference between life and death. Better knowledge of West Africa could have helped tackle the 2014 Ebola epidemic faster, MSF has said.
Launched last year, MapSwipe asks citizens to put together detailed maps of areas where existing geographical information is basic. It draws on the open-source platform OpenStreetMap, and is part of the Missing Maps project designed by MSF and partners…
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