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An interview with a university in Italy gives details of the collaborative mapping carried out in response to the Rio Grande do Sul disaster
This interview is registered on Zenodo.org and available as PDF file. How to cite this interview:
Accessing information in moments of crisis - Interview with Dr. Raquel Dezidério Souto about the Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)’s disaster occurred in April and May, 2024. Respondent: Raquel Dezidério Souto. Interviewer: Laura Bortoloni. Rio de Janeiro: IVIDES.org, 20 mar. 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15058928. Licensed under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Ⓒ authors.
This interview is also available in Portuguese:* https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15058822
1. Professional Profile
Can you tell us about your background and how you became involved in Cartography?
My first contact with cartography was during my undergraduate studies in Oceanography. Then I got my Master Science in Population Studies and Social Research (IBGE) and my PhD in Geography (UFRJ). Over time, I developed lines of research in collaborative mapping, with the support of digital cartography and Web mapping. The focus of my post-doctorate in geography has been the development of Web solutions for digital collaborative mapping. We are currently developing projects with free software or hybrid projects (mixing free and proprietary software), within the framework of the Virtual Institute for Sustainable Development - IVIDES.orgⓇ, a virtual research institute that I created in 2008. Some of these projects are being made possible by IVIDES DATA, its management company.
What drew you to humanitarian mapping and participatory mapping projects?
Back in 2019, we developed our first collaborative map during the oil disaster, which affected just over 50% of the entire Brazilian coastline (which totals around 8,500 km). Given the length of the coastline and the emergency nature of the event, we made available to the public a platform with the oiled locations and the photographs that were sent via the WhatsAppⓇ group. At the time, we didn’t yet know about OpenStreetMapⓇ and we built the Web map on Google My MapsⓇ (https://ivides.org/mapa-participativo-petroleo-2019-2020). We learned about the OpenStreetMapⓇ project in 2021, during a course on Leaflet (https://leafletjs.com/) offered by the State University of Rio de Janeiro. With it, we developed an interactive map during the COVID-19 pandemic (https://ivides.org/mapa-dinamico-de-incidencia-de-covid-19), which showed the data provided by the municipalities of the North and Northwest of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
And the campaign for Rio Grande do Sul 2024, which I’ll detail below. Then, with the training courses offered by UN Mappers (https://mappers.un.org/learning/), we got to know the world of humanitarian mapping with OSM. With the training, I joined the group of validating mappers from UN Mappers, which added more practical mapping experiences in various other countries. Joining YouthMappers as a chapter for the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), with which I am affiliated, provided (and still provides) the transfer of this knowledge to the academic public and to people outside the university, having promoted mapping training with OpenStreetMapⓇ for around 700 people over the last two years.
Have you worked on similar disaster response mapping projects before? If so, how does this experience compare?
Yes, whenever possible, in projects promoted by OSM user groups, the UN Mappers, the Brazilian YouthMappers chapters and some chapters in Africa, especially Mozambique and Angola. The last collaborative mapping project I took part in was (is being) the response to the disaster caused by cyclone Chido, in the Mayotte Island (official name: Département de Mayotte) /relation/3388394#map=5/-15.96/50.12, a French overseas territory, adjacent to the marine coast of Mozambique, in the Indian Ocean. The projects are available at https://tasks.hotosm.org/explore?text=Mayotte&omitMapResults=1. Collaborative mapping is very different when we adopt open data and platforms, such as tasking managers and mobile applications, which are open source and editable by others. Proprietary solutions limit the customization of projects (from a computational point of view) and prevent the sharing of data and information, which hampers the interoperability of data between different systems. Open data and interoperability are crucial in times of disaster, which require a rapid response from those dealing with the event, during and after its occurrence. Thus, we are currently adopting free solutions in disaster response and have trained the younger generations so that they are able to participate in existing projects and propose (and manage) new humanitarian collaborative mapping projects.
2. Mapping floods in RS
How did you get involved in the participatory mapping project for the Rio Grande do Sul flood?
I heard about the disaster from relatives living in Canoas, in the Guaíba region of Rio Grande do Sul (I live in Rio de Janeiro). My aunt and uncle lost their house and all their belongings after the water dam upstream from the river burst. Then there were comments about the disaster in the OSM RS group on Telegram, a group of OpenStreetMap users in that state, and by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), which made several projects available on the HOT Tasking Manager (HOT-TM). We were developing a training agenda for the thematic mapping with OSM, promoted by IVIDES.orgⓇ, and we created a collaborative mapping project in the tasking manager in order to map the Taquari-Antas River Basin https://tasks.hotosm.org/projects/16706, the region most affected by the tragedy. This project also served as support for the workshop on OSM mapping of waterways and related features, provided by Séverin Ménard (aka Severingeo), co-founder of the Les Libres Géographes (LLg), a french non-profit organization and, at that time, a consultant for the United Nations Global Service Center (UNGSC). The choice of the river basin as the project’s area of interest (AOI) is justified by the importance of assessing the occurrence of the event in a geographical rather than political-administrative division, due to the nature of the phenomenon (hydrological disaster).
What was the specific role of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap in this emergency?
HOT is a US non-profit organization that provides human and material resources for project management and open data, which facilitates collaborative mapping activities during and after disasters. The adoption of the tasking manager has grown over time and this solution, which is also being used in projects by other international organizations and is open source https://github.com/hotosm/tasking-manager, makes it possible to increase the speed of mapping, a fundamental aspect, since time is crucial when responding to emergencies. However, we still face difficulties in obtaining high-resolution and up-to-date aerial images; and the role of the organization and the usefulness or application of the open data generated are still unclear in Brazil, which could be resolved with greater awareness campaigns among the general population and public agents and with the continued promotion of courses and other training modalities.
Can you describe the context in which this initiative was launched and how it was coordinated with local authorities and NGOs?
The Rio Grande do Sul disaster involved mass movement events, flooding, inundations and river erosion, which occurred in May and April 2024, but with effects that continue to this day. As reported on the Wikipedia page created to document the disaster: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchentes_no_Rio_Grande_do_Sul_em_2024. In several cities, in the period between April 27th and May 2nd, it rained between 500 and 700 mm, corresponding to a third of the historical average rainfall for an entire year, and in many others the rainfall was between 300 and 400 mm between May 3th and 5th (…), according to data from the Hydraulic Research Institute (Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas), of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). May rains brought more than 14 trillion liters of water to the Lake Guaíba, a volume equivalent to almost half the reservoir of the Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant. (…) The excessive rainfall affected more than 60% of the state’s territory. (Free translation)
Initially, the projects available on the tasking manager were not coordinated with local authorities, as most of the municipalities affected by the disaster adopted proprietary mapping solutions on the emergence efforts. But some connection was realized with the Brazilian Ministry of Integration and Regional Development (MIDR), in order to know the most affected places. For example, the Porto Alegre municipality adopted the same solutions that were already used by the Civil Defense of the State of São Paulo, which are based on proprietary software. Unfortunately, these administrations do not recognize the importance of applications and open data, even though the advantages of using them are clear, as recognized in various scientific articles on successful case reports in risk management and dealing with the consequences of disasters. These free and open source softwares, combined with the use of OSM’s geospatial base, could improve the care and rescue of victims, as well as saving public resources, since there is no payment for licenses. It is worth remembering that the same Porto Alegre municipality later cooperated to assess the damage caused to buildings and roads, based on the data mapped by everyone, but this assessment did not involve the mapping community; it was carried out only between the NGO, the government and the IDB.
3. Mapping Processes
How was the work organized between volunteers and professionals?
In our mapping project, all the mappers were managed through the tasking manager and social media - WhatsAppⓇ and digest emails groups. The mapping of features, with initial priority given to buildings and roads, was carried out by people of any level of knowledge, while validation was (and still is) carried out by mappers with intermediate or advanced levels (which corresponds to 250 or 500 data sets sent, respectively). This division is important to increase the quality of the mapping. Interaction in the groups is fundamental for solving doubts and problems and for exchanging data and information. To encourage participation in collaborative mapping activities (mapping marathons) and to communicate the results, we also publish short articles in the weeklyOSM https://weeklyosm.eu/, which has a worldwide distribution.
Were there any particular challenges in collecting data or engaging the community?
In Brazil, there are difficulties in acquiring aerial images with high resolution to adequately map buildings in the pre-, during- and post-disaster stages. Another obstacle has been the adoption of closed licenses (or the lack of declaration of the type of license) in the official datasets. Some municipalities have entered into agreements in which private companies provide the services and really act as the owner of the data. But, according to the Brazilian law, this data needs to be publicly available - Federal Law no 12.527/2011, https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011-2014/2011/lei/l12527.htm. Part of the Brazilian population does not have adequate resources (such as good computers, smartphones and access to the high-speed networks for Internet), especially in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, which limits their participation. The lack of training to operate the programs is also a limiting factor for mapathons (mapping marathons) and we have been working at IVIDES.orgⓇ to promote education for more mappers, in order to collaborate in the mapping projects.
4. Community Participation
What strategies did you use to make the map accessible and understandable to those affected by the flood?
We organized some public events, in order to engage people for collaborative mapping projects. One of the events mentioned above was the workshop on thematic mapping of waterways and related features. The other event was the Scientific Seminar for Rio Grande do Sul, realized in Portuguese and with a great audience https://ivides.org/seminario-rs, where researchers from the RS’ public universities (FURG, UFRGS and UERGS), who have carried out actions related to dealing with the consequences of the disaster, were able to show their mappings, exchange information and discuss the difficulties encountered. The events were held remotely in order to reach a wider audience and two videos were made available on the IVIDES.orgⓇ channel - https://www.youtube.com/live/fD5kp_j6w_Y and https://www.youtube.com/live/Dv9t2ZTRsWQ, reaching seven thousand views. The project page on our institutional portal also helped disseminate this initiative and promoted public access to the official data we were able to gather at the time from various sources (https://ivides.org/desastre-rio-grande-do-sul-brasil-2024).
Can you share an example of how participatory mapping had a direct impact on relief operations?
During this same disastrous event, the roads and bridges that were blocked or destroyed were mapped by the OSM RS community, especially by the mapper Fernando Trebien (aka ftrebien), and this data formed part of the Web map that we created with the french uMap platform (https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/pt-br/map/situacao-vias-rs_1070918). This data was used by the Autonomous Highway Department (in Portuguese, DAER-RS) to update its own map of affected roads, even though it is not explicit among the data sources link here.
5. Challenges and Opportunities
What were the biggest challenges you faced during the mapping process?
Lack of suitable aerial images, lack of declaration of the type of license of the data in the official datasets of the region, so that they could be imported into OSM.
What could be improved in future mapping efforts to make them even more effective in disaster response?
Improve communication with the groups of mappers and entities involved in the disaster. Increase the use of open programs and data, especially those that are part of the OSM ecosystem, such as tasking managers, the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) portal and field APPs that support offline mapping (e.g. KoboToolbox) or printed maps (e.g. Sketch Maps), especially in locations with poor Internet infrastructure.
6. Impact and Future Perspectives
Have there been any changes in local policies or land management as a result of the mapping efforts?
Not yet, as the event is relatively recent. But the federal government currently has a program to encourage the creation and adoption of municipal risk reduction plans, not only for regions affected by hydrological disasters (e.g. floods, inundations) and geological disasters (e.g. mass movements), but also for areas that are suffering from advanced and accelerated desertification processes in Brazil, in parts of the Central-West and Northeast regions (these are less discussed in our country).
How do you see the role of digital and participatory cartography in future climate disaster prevention and response?
The role of participatory (in loco) and collaborative (remotely) mapping is fundamental in responding to the challenges related to the climate crisis, since these events are tending to increase in intensity and frequency. Events require rapid responses during their occurrence, as well as integration between government, Academia and civil society organizations in order to improve risk and disaster management infrastructure and facilitate the processes in the post-disaster phases. The adoption of open digital mapping solutions promotes the dissemination and use of open data by different actors and also increases the digital inclusion of more people, as they have access to collaboration platforms where they can send their local information (voluntary geographic information, VGI). However, participation needs to go beyond its first level (only the consultative level) in Brazil, allowing the communities of the affected localities to really participate in decision-making.
7. Specific Insights on Santa Maria, Porto Alegre, and Infrastructure
How did the flood impact the urban infrastructure, transportation and roads of Porto Alegre and Santa Maria?
The disaster caused a great deal of damage to roads and buildings, but from the map of the roads that were blocked and destroyed, the damage was much greater in Porto Alegre than in Santa Maria. This is due to the fact that the most acute point of occurrence of this tragedy was in the Guaíba Region and the Historic Centre of Porto Alegre (but with a reach into many other locations adjacent to this region where the event was centralized). The picture below shows the uMap at the time:
How did participatory mapping help in identifying blocked roads, damaged bridges, or isolated communities?
Participatory mapping can help identify blocked roads and bridges and isolated communities, as it allows people who live or are temporarily in the places where disasters occur to contribute. Current Web map development platforms and social networks facilitate interaction between collaborators in digital collaborative mapping, but we face a new challenge, unfortunately common in our time, which is fake news. Incredibly, during the disaster, there were people who reported that roads had been cleared, when in fact they were closed, causing major traffic jams and causing damage and slowing down rescue efforts. This is one of the evils of modernity and highlights the need to validate the data that reaches the mappers. In an entry in his OSM user diary, Fernando Trebien (aka ftrebien) /mapper/ftrebien/diary shows how he checked the information. Initially, he used reports from the Web and those sent by social networks, checking between the media. Subsequently, Sentinel-2 images were also used, when available, in order to carry out validations, checking the veracity of the information.
** Is there ongoing monitoring or mapping to assess recovery and reconstruction efforts in Santa Maria and Porto Alegre?**
Post-disaster monitoring is carried out in Brazil by the civil defense departments. To date, we have not identified any Brazilian academic or private company initiatives to monitor the damage and the reconstruction efforts, as this type of activity requires access to high-resolution aerial images and fieldwork realized by specialists, like civil engineers, geotechnicians, geologists et al., to check the condition of the buildings, which can be prohibitive for some institutions due to the high costs.
(Translated with Deepl and validated by human).
This interview is also available in Portuguese: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15058822.
