Can a Disaster Have a Small Silver Lining?

Its now the third week of the disaster in Haiti and keeping up with the influx of updated information is a job and a half. Sometimes I have to search for hours and hours to find legitimate, useful information to map out projects in various parts of the world. But with resources like Open Street Map, Ushahidi, Sahana, GeoFabrik, I’m beginning to see something positive happening. Can a disaster like the one in Haiti prompt a positive reaction from the world in terms of GIS? I think so.

Each day I have been updating our Open Street Map extracts from GeoFabrik and the changes each day have been truly awe inspiring to see. From a country we had very little infrastructure data on, we now have a huge wealth of up to the minute information on roads, railways, waterways, buildings, the latest collapses, wrecks, points of interest, etc. We can paint a more accurate picture of the situation in Haiti because of all the on the ground contributions of people sending text messages, encampment reports, and all of the Open Street Map data.

Seeing the ability to mobilize and produce data with speed and accuracy in Haiti, other countries and will hopefully be spurred to follow suit. And hopefully the next time disaster strikes, the world will be more prepared to help.

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For more data visit Finder! and search “haitiquake.”