3-day mapathon disrupts San Fransisco

Hundreds of individuals, both in person and remotely, contributed time and effort to the mapathon at the American Association of Geographers in San Francisco!

Over the three-day event, more than 17,000 buildings and 5,000 km of roads were added to OpenStreetMap for projects on Secondary Cities in Ethiopia, Disaster Preparation in Nepal, and Health Prevention in Mozambique.

Featured speakers and support from the State Department’s Office of the Geographer, the Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science at George Mason University, USAID GeoCenter, American Red Cross, Peace Corps, the World Bank, and the AAG. Organizers hoped to inspire and educate participants about the power of volunteered geographic information for humanitarian response and sustainable development.

Mapping was coordinated through the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s Tasking Manager, with imagery services provided by the Office of the Geographer’s Humanitarian Information Unit. Additional supporters of the AAG Mapathon were Mapzen, Mapbox, Colorado State, University of Colorado, McGill University, George Washington University, West Virginia University, Stamen Design, Texas Tech University, World Bank, and Youth Mappers.