Fieldwork Program awardees are filling in the data gap!

Organized as an opportunity to fund locally designed, chapter-led projects, the YouthMappers Fieldwork Program supports students' efforts to create new geospatial data in their communities. YouthMappers is committed to supporting university students' activities to create and use high-quality geospatial data, make it available as a public good, and apply it in meaningful research and analysis to directly address international development challenges. Students with advanced technical workforce skills and leadership capacity are well positioned to contribute to the development of their communities, and outcomes of these projects will contribute to local and regional development needs.

This year, we awarded funding to the following chapters whose projects focus on improving transportation data for urban planning initiatives, addressing waste management in flood-prone areas, and supporting public health brigades in vulnerable communities.

Comunidade YouthMappers Moçambique, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane Maputo, Mozambique

The Maputo #1000km Challenge

The Maputo#1000km Challenge will provide the Maputo Metropolitan Region transport governing body with a formal and highly-accurate map of the city's road network. YouthMappers at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane have organized activities around mass transport in the Maputo Metropolitan Area since 2017. Unregulated population growth in this city of 3.5 million has presented many challenges that can be addressed by creating a detailed map for local governing agencies to use in the planning and management of transportation services. They are working with the Agência Metropolitana de Transportes (AMT) and Observatório da Mobilidade e dos Transportes de Moçambique (OMT). In order to upgrade the road network data on OpenStreetMap, coordinate a collection of street-view imagery, and support the standardization of road network classification. To produce a data package, AMT will use as a reference database for their future transportation planning and management activities.

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SMCoSE YouthMappers, Sokoine University of Agriculture

Morogoro, Tanzania

Field data collection on trash points and drainage systems in all flood vulnerable areas: The case of Morogoro Urban

Morogoro is one of the fastest growing urban regions in Tanzania and is experiencing unprecedented population growth as it is the center of socioeconomic activities in the region. Many studies have been conducted to address the issue of urban flooding in Morogoro and drain blockage in sewers, from open dumping practices, has been identified as a leading cause of urban flooding. Waste management efforts are lacking reliable data, especially on the location of trash dumps and trash collection points in relation to sewage lines. This project will focus on collecting data to support urban planners by identifying flood vulnerable areas within Morogoro and help identify which roads face high surface runoff during periods of high rainfall. These two factors — coupled with data collection on trash dump sites, trash collection techniques, and the alignment of drainage systems — will help shed light on the condition of drainage systems in order to find a solution.

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YouthMappers at UFBA, Universidade Federal da Bahia

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

Community Mappers Fighting Against Epidemics

YouthMappers at UFBA, under the guidance of professors at UFBA who have previously organized GeoCombate COVID-19 BA and Mobiliza RAU + E research groups, will train leading community mappers and community mapping agents in data collection methods to fill in critical data gaps in OpenStreetMap. These data gaps are related to health units, buildings, points for community support, and essential businesses in the city of Salvador da Bahia. 41% of housing units in Salvador are classified as being located in precarious areas where social distancing is difficult to achieve. These neighborhoods are often exposed to dengue, zika, chikungunya, and other zoonotic diseases adding to co-morbid conditions that make them vulnerable to epidemics and pandemics. This collaborative project will strengthen the relationship between the YouthMappers chapter, local research groups, and the Comitê Comunitário Virtual da Covid-19 nos Bairros Populares de Salvador, formed in March 2020 by civil associations actors, that operate in more than 60 vulnerable neighborhoods of Salvador.

Follow us at @youthmappers to get updates on these projects in the coming months!