News — 26 April, 2015

HOT Activates for Nepal Response - Report #2

HOT has been active almost 20 hours since the devastating earthquake in Nepal. Our thoughts are with the affected communities and our fellow Mappers in the region. Every emergency is hard but for a few hours our community waited to hear if our OSM colleagues, fellow Board Member Nama Budhathoki and their families were safe. They are and we are so thankful. The previous work of the local OSM community meant that the maps of Katmandu were fairly robust. Until we heard back from our local OSM colleagues and potential responders, the HOT team began searching for key parts of the map in the affected region that needed work. They updated roads and worked through the night across timezones.

Today Nama reports that Kathmandu Living Labs team have assembled in a situation room. They are beginning to establish contact with response agencies. And, they are already in touch with the Nepal Redcross.

 

Here are the high priority areas for your help with mapping:

1. Outskirts of Kathmandu Valley (https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/4583125#map=13/27.7179/85.3337). Please focus on north, east and north-east of  the valley.
2. Lamjung District : ( https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/4588153 )

3. The major residential area in this district is Besisahar ( https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/28.2271/84.3777 )

4. Nuwakot District : https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/4583250

5. Gorkha District: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=27.9996&mlon=84.6235#map=14/27.9997/84.6235
6. https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/4583249#map=10/28.0041/84.9490

We would like the following objects to be focused: road network, buildings, open space (for helicopter landing).

 

 

The Active Tasks for this project are: (NOTE: these tasks will be updated with Nama's requests.)

1. #994 Nepal Eartquake, 2015, Road Network - task 1

2. #995 Nepal Eartquake, 2015, Road Network - task 2

3. #1001 Nepal Eartquake, 2015, Road Network - task 3

4. #1002 Nepal Eartquake, 2015, Road Network, villages and buildings - task 4

 

Key Resources:

• Wiki page for the Nepal Earthquake Response

Get Involved:

New to OSM? See LearnOSM and MapGive for some details on how to get started.

• IRC -irc://irc.oftc.net #hot
• HOT Email List -Humanitarian OSM Team (HOT) Mailling-List (Subscription Required)

 

About Katmandu Living Labs

The Katmandu Living Labs Executive Director, Dr. Nama Budhathoki, is also a HOT Board Member. Once he and his family were safe, he got in touch with HOT to advise that he and his team were ok and that they were coordinating the next steps. Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) is a non-profit tech company that works at the intersection of emerging mobile and web technologies in Nepal. They are responsible for the growth of OSM in the region with their partners. 

 

If you can help them, they advised that they are having internet connection issues. Having a HOT team in the region means that they can guide the global community to map the items needed by responders. While the response priorities of search, rescue, safety and food necessities are so important, this is one thing that the technical community could help with.

 

See more updates from the Katmandu Living Labs on their Facebook page and their @KTMLivingLabs twitter account.