News — 17 July, 2015
"Ramani Huria" Scale Up - Dar es Salaam, 6th July, 2015
The "Dar Ramani Huria" Scale Up Workshop took place at Nkrumah Hall, University of Dar es Salaam, on Monday 6th of July. Over the next three months, the Ramani Huria project ‘Community Mapping for Flood Resilience’ will be building on previous work and expanding its mapping activtities to 10-14 additional wards across Dar es Salaam. "Dar Ramani Huria" (Dar Open Map) is the local name of the "Community Mapping for Flood Resilience" project run in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by HOT.
The scale up will be lead by a group of fifteen students who have been trained by HOT, and previously worked with community members to map Ndugumbi, Tandale, and Mchikichini wards. HOT staff on the project are Paul Uithol (project manager), Geoffrey Kateregga (lead mapping supervisor), Steven Bukulu (mapping supervisor), and Sophie Lafayette (media specialist). In the coming weeks, the project with involve an additional 140 university students from the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and Ardhi University, as well as community members from across the 10 to 14 wards to be mapped.
In the first phase of the scale up, six wards will be mapped, including Makumbusho, Makurumla, Msasani, Mburahati and Mabibo. The wards to be mapped during the project are some of the most densely populated areas of Dar es Salaam and consist mostly of informal settlements. Settlements in these wards are also often built in flood prone areas, leading them to being heavily affected when flooding occurs.
The Scale Up Workshop consisted of two panels and a student participation workshop, with both students and ward officials in attendance. Guest of Honour at the event was Julia Letara, Municipal Town Planner for Kinondoni Municipal Council.
The event was opened by Dr Philip Mwanukuzi, Head of the Department of Geography (UDSM), a representative of the Principal of College of Arts and Social Sciences (UDSM), and the Guest of Honor, Mrs Julia Letara.
The first panel, ‘Engaging in Flood Mapping’, began with a primer entitled ‘Our State of the Map’ by Geoffrey Kateregga, the Mapping Coordinator for HOT. The panelists included: Julia Letara (Municipal Town Planner, Kinondoni Municipal Council); Mark Iliffe (Geospatial Specialist, World Bank); Dr Philip Mwanukuzi (Head of Department of Geography, UDSM); Professor Herbert Hambati (Professor of Geography, UDSM); and Geoffrey Kateregga (Lead Mapping Coordinator, HOT). This panel gave an overview of the progress achieved by the ‘Community Mapping for Flood Resilience’ project and an introduction to mapping tools used in the project. Julia Letara, highlighted that new technologies offer exciting opportunities, including giving citizens a voice and helping inform public service delivery.
The second panel, ‘Connecting Communities’, began with a primer entitled ‘Global Experiences of Community Mapping’ by Vivien Deparday from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). The panelists included: Deogratias Minja (Open Data Consultant, World Bank); Vivien Deparday (Disaster Risk Specialist, World Bank); and Kamal Hamis (Ndugumbi Ward Community Member). The panel, and following question and answer session, put community mapping in the context of Dar es Salaam, specifically the way in which the data collected through mapping could be used for planning and disaster reduction.
Following the two panels there was a lunch break, after which students returned for a workshop on ‘The Process of Mapping’, led by the team from HOT.
The first part of the workshop began with an introduction to mapping techniques. To further boost the project activities, HOT has acquired two drones for the project from senseFLY, which will help provide high resolution aerial imagery that will make mapping easier and more accurate. Included in the workshop introduction was a short demonstration and overview of the drones. The second part of the workshop allowed the students to experiment with mapping techniques and put their initial training into practice.
Following the Scale Up Workshop, students were given a complete training in mapping tools and techniques (July 7-9th) , before the commencement of mapping (July 13th). The course materials used are available on the project’s Github repository.
