The devastating events in Morocco (earthquake) and Libya (floods) happened within two days of each other on the 08 & 10 September 2023. Both have meant large scale destruction of infrastructure and thousands of tragic deaths and injuries.
OSM communities in both countries (OSM Maroc and OSM Libya), alongside partners, have responded and with huge support from mappers from the OSM community across the world.
The following diary entry is an update on a similar one from 18 September.
The latest…
The open mapping community response
More than 2,500 OSM mappers have added data to support responders in Morocco. Two projects on the HOT Tasking Manager has so far been completed (mapped and validated) and there are four more available for mapping.
Contribution statistics for the Morocco earthquake response
Morocco Earthquake activation - HOT tasking manager project progress
Also, in Morocco, experienced mappers completed mapping from high definition, post-disaster imagery to identify inaccessible roads and damaged infrastructure. This data is now available and has been incorporated into services such as OpenRouteService so that responders can use it in their planning.
Find the data on overpass turbo
For the Libya response, almost 500 OSM mappers have completed three road mapping projects and two building mapping projects in Libya (mapped and validated) and are progressing on the remaining two projects. It is possible that more projects may be added (tbc - in consultation with OSM Libya).
Contribution statistics for the Libya Floods response
Libya Floods activation - HOT tasking manager project progress
The MapSwipe community has also mobilised, providing a settlement layer that is directly useful for responders (to validate their own data sets in advance of assessments, for example) and for OSM mappers (reducing the time and energy needed for people to digitise the buildings in the affected area).
Data for data users
Open aerial imagery
Through collaboration with Maxar (as part of their Open Data Program), HOT has also been able to make recent pre-event imagery and up-to-date post-event imagery openly available to mappers and responders through OpenAerialMap.
Satellite imagery in Libya made available through OpenAerialMap
This includes responding to specific requests from staff in response organisations trying to assess damage to specific infrastructure in the affected areas of Libya.
OpenStreetMap data
The map data is available directly from OpenStreetMap as always, but also in curated packages via OCHA’s Humanitarian Data Exchange - see here for Morocco and here for Libya - and HOT refreshes these packages every six hours.
Since the events, downloads have spiked for many of these data sets as responders seek information to support their activities (see here for a previous diary post on the significance of this from the Turkey / Syria earthquake)
(The HDX platform is a repository for all kinds of data and a quick search for Morocco and Libya will return many data sets from many organisations that might be useful to responders and analysts.)
The team behind OSMAnd has also made maps of Morocco and Libya freely downloadable to support teams in the field.
OSMAnd make their Morocco and Libya maps available
As always, many of the maps and infographics being produced by humanitarian organisations are using the data provided by OSM contributors. A quick search on ReliefWeb brings many examples, such as the one below from World Food Programme (see data sources for OSM attribution).
How can you contribute?
If you are a mapper, please jump in and map some tasks! Campaigns in the HOT Tasking Manager are here for Morocco and here for Libya. There is still a lot of data needed for the affected areas.
If you are a community organiser, you can organise a mapathon to mobilise your community members to support these efforts. If you want support, please reach out on the HOT slack.
If you are a responder / data user, please let us know what you need! You can do this via email, the HOT slack, twitter or any other means.
If you see OSM data used in the response to either of these disasters, please flag it with me or anyone at HOT. The people who map for these activations do so out of solidarity and humanitarian spirit and there is nothing more motivating (and I include myself in this) than seeing the data we have contributed supporting responders and having an impact on the ground.
If you want to get latest news, follow the Open Mapping Hub - WNA or HOT on social media.
Thanks to activation supporters
A big thanks to Maxar, who very quickly activated their Open Data programme and released recent imagery for both areas, which is now hosted on OpenAerialMap.
And, also huge thanks to Skoll Foundation, TomTom and AWS, who have contributed to the above disaster activations through the mobilisation of resources (mappers and funds). Highly appreciated!
Organised editing documentation:
Following the earthquake, OSM Maroc, supported by HOT’s Open Mapping Hub - West and northern Africa, launched the 2023 Morocco Earthquake activation and OSM Libya did likewise, launching the 2023 Libya Floods activation, supported by HOT and UN Mappers.