Disaster Response & Humanitarian Aid

Mapping hope when it matters most.

Discover how OpenStreetMap powers global disaster relief and humanitarian efforts—saving lives through maps made by people like you.

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The Map that Saves Lives

What This Means

When disaster strikes—be it a flood, earthquake, or conflict zone—response teams need accurate, up-to-date maps to reach those in need. OpenStreetMap, with its open data and global community, fills critical mapping gaps in real time. Powered by volunteers and supported by humanitarian organizations, OSM enables aid agencies to navigate chaos with clarity.

How OSM has been contributing to saving lives

Assessing OpenStreetMap Completeness for Management of Natural Disaster by Means of Remote Sensing: A Case Study of Three Small Island States (Haiti, Dominica and St. Lucia)

Researchers use remote sensing to evaluate OpenStreetMap building-footprint completeness for natural disaster management across three Caribbean small island states. The study quantifies OSM data gaps in Haiti, Dominica, and St. Lucia and demonstrates how coverage and quality directly affect evidence-based disaster risk assessment, humanitarian preparedness, and response planning in vulnerable island contexts.

Rann Goldblatt, Nicholas Jones, Jenny Mannix • Source link

Mapping for Emergencies: WFP's custom mapping innovation informs humanitarian operations worldwide

The World Food Programme uses OSM road network and settlement data through its Humanitarian Topographic Atlas to plan food aid delivery routes in crisis and post-disaster settings. OSM supports topographic mapping, logistics infrastructure visualization, and road network verification, while field teams in Syria and Nepal update OSM layers to guide truck drivers, identify access constraints, and coordinate humanitarian operations in remote and vulnerable areas.

WFP Innovation Accelerator • Source link

OpenStreetMap Damage Assessment Review

The American Red Cross uses OpenStreetMap for disaster damage assessment and field response coordination in crisis settings. During the response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, the American Red Cross directly coordinated volunteer mappers on OpenStreetMap, directing them to trace priority areas based on field intelligence.

Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Interim Report • Source link

CartONG provides GIS and mapping support to humanitarian organisations using OSM in crisis settings

CartONG uses OpenStreetMap to support humanitarian operations such as camp management, needs assessments, and monitoring. It helps partners like UNHCR, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and Action Against Hunger apply OSM data, while building mapping capacity and tools for field teams.

CartONG • Source link

NetHope supports NGO connectivity and digital tools including OSM-based mapping in disaster settings

NetHope is a consortium of international NGOs enabling technology in humanitarian settings. It supports members like Save the Children, World Vision, and IRC with OSM-based mapping and connectivity tools. Through its Digital Humanitarian Network, NetHope integrates OSM into crisis response and builds NGO capacity for faster, higher-quality field operations.

NetHope • Source link

Missing Maps: How geodata is helping humanitarian aid efforts

Doctors Without Borders uses Missing Maps and OpenStreetMap to map underserved crisis areas before and during emergencies. Volunteers trace roads, buildings, and settlement features so MSF teams can plan water points, latrines, medical outreach, disease response, and logistics for displaced communities in hard-to-reach locations with faster situational awareness and coordination.

Doctors Without Borders • Source link

iMMAP embeds information management specialists in humanitarian operations, using OSM as a core data source

iMMAP is an international non-profit providing information management support for humanitarian and development work. It embeds specialists in UN agencies, governments, and NGOs to produce maps and analyses. Using OpenStreetMap as a basemap, iMMAP builds dashboards tracking displacement, access constraints, and service availability in real time across global crisis contexts.

Not specified • Source link

Mapping as a response to the disaster in Esmeraldas, Ecuador

In response to historic floods in Esmeraldas. Ecuador’s risk management agency and HOT hubs created targeted mapping projects for flooded zones. Volunteers combined river flood-susceptibility layers with populated areas to define priority zones and then traced roads and infrastructure in OSM

Juan Melo Luna and Juan Arellano Valdivia • Source link

Haiti Earthquake Crisis Mapping (2010)

After Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, OpenStreetMap volunteers worldwide rapidly mapped roads and buildings from satellite imagery. Over 450 OpenStreetMap volunteers across the world created the a detailed map of Haiti ever, which became the basemap for relief agencies such as UN, Red Cross, World Bank, US Marines who coordinated the responseh

OpenStreetMap contributors • Source link

Nepal Earthquake Open Mapping (2015)

The 2015 Nepal earthquake struck Nepal on 25th April. After the earthquake, More than 7,500 OpenStreetMap contributors from around the globe collaborated to map affected areas. This crowdsourced geodata (buildings, roads, villages) supported Nepal’s government, UN agencies, and NGOs in organizing rescue logistics and relief operations during the crisis.

OpenStreetMap contributors • Source link

Hurricane Otis 2023 Response (HOT

Hurricane Otis, a formidable Category 5 storm, struck Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on October 25, 2023, after this disaster, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and community institutions initiated a project to address the critical need for accurate mapping and information. Using satellite imagery, volunteers mapped 52,000+ buildings in Acapulco in days, tagging damages to guide rescue and relief.

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) • Source link

HOT West Africa Impact Report: Mapping and Open Data Critical to Disaster Response

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) released an impact report on September 18, 2024, highlighting two years of enhancing open data for disaster response in West and Northern Africa. Key successes include vital infrastructure mapping in Morocco, Senegal, Liberia, and Nigeria, showcasing the importance of accurate data and community collaboration.