Post by Kim Stephens
Crisis Mapping is an important tool for response organizations because a map can provide a visualization of events, needs of survivors, and also an aggregation of response activities. And a map can be created in near real-time. Mapping epidemics, particularly cholera, is of particular importance because it gives a visualization of how quickly and where the disease is spreading. As the death toll from the tragic cholera outbreak in Haiti surpasses 1000, you can look to maps created by several different organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, to see its grim progression. One issue, however, seems to be the sheer number of maps available and the duplication of effort regarding their creation. As noted by Chris Thompson of Humanity Road:
There are many different types of maps that are being used and different elements mapped to each for various focus areas – safe water sources, versus cholera cases, versus locations of cholera treatment centers. To some degree there is duplication that we would like to see eliminated, but unfortunately, that is not the case.
Another limitation I observed is that although the map-producing groups indicate that they are collaborating, each one tends to keep its own map on its own website. In addition, the maps do vary regarding how well their user-interface works.
After reviewing current mapping efforts for the epidemic in Haiti, I have two questions for which I cannot find answers: (1) Who is using these maps for operations in the field? And (2) which one(s) are they relying on? Although Ms. Thompson did offer assurances that both government and humanitarian organizations were using maps created by technology volunteers, she really couldn’t provide me a concrete example (if one exist please comment). In short, while a lot of well-meaning individuals and organizations are gathering and sharing data, who is using it? We know more about the supply of information than the demand for and use of it.
Here are five examples of mapping efforts that I found in the past few days:
(1.) Since the first case was confirmed on Sept. 19, according to the U.N.’s Cholera Inter-sector Response Strategy for Haiti, the humanitarian response has been led by the Ministry of Public Health and Populations (MSPP) with support from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization. The PAHO interactive map of the epidemic represents cholera cases with varying shades of red, giving the viewer a quick understanding where cases are concentrated. It is, however, somewhat difficult to decipher anything other than at the macro-level. From the PAHO website you can also click on a map of health related resources in Haiti is simply called “Resource Finder”. At first glance this is an impressive list of health facilities, their availability, capacity, and services. Upon closer inspection, however, under each of those categories “No information” was posted instead. This google doc. explains that this list is of all facilities before the earthquake.
(2.) The Health Map, which I have written about before, uses color coded pushpins overlaid on a Google Map to represent validated reports of cholera cases as well as information about where to find clean drinking water and health facilities. According to their website, their maps are populated by data combed from “20,000 global news and health Web sites and blogs each hour.” Reports are sorted by disease, relevance and location. And “it uses text-mining algorithms to aggregate and sort this information.” An “Alerts-Now-Showing” box beneath the map gives a list of each of the reports, sorted by date. Useful overlays include:
- New Safe Water Installations
- Water Points
- Haiti health facilitates
- Cholera treatment centers
- Emergency shelters
HealthMap displays a note that they are collaborating with CrisisMappers and Humanity Road and their combied efforts were recently highlighted in a CNN report: Texts, Maps Battle the Haiti Cholera Outbreak. The article states the importance of the effort:
“On the mapping side of thing