YouthMappers Chapter at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University (YouthMapper at BSMRMU) and CartONG at BSMRMU celebrated the fifth edition of GeoNight, founded by the French National Geographical Committee (FNGC) in 2017, on 9th April 2021. "GeoNight Missing Maps Mapathon - YouthMappers BSMRMU with CartONG" was held on online with the participation of 25 contributors from the national and international community.
YouthMappers at BSMRMU participated in celebrating GeoNight 2021 among 20 mapathons in 12 countries organized as part of the GeoNight by CartONG on the month of April 2021.
At the start of the event, one of our guests YouthMappers Regional Ambassador Mr. Sawan Shariar, represented YouthMappers and spoke about its activities globally and in Bangladesh. After that, the president of YouthMappers at BSMRMU, Khan Mohammad Ibtehal, thanked everyone for their participation in the event. He started by explaining Geonight and mapathon and spoke about the establishment of the YouthMappers chapter at BSMRMU and all the activities and participation of national and international events since its establishment on December 23, 2020.
Summary slide of participation of YouthMappers chapter at BSMRMU at various national and international OpenStreetMap events in the four months after it was established on 23rd December 2020 up until 9th April 2021.
Léonie Miège from CartONG opened by sharing about the formation and activities of the GeoNight 2021 events. She presented on the objectives and formation of CartONG by illustrating a broad view of the activities of the NGO. She explained MissingMaps and their contribution towards the vulnerable to natural disasters, health emergencies, armed conflicts, and poverty. She followed her points by explaining the background of “Mapping Missing villages in the Tajik mountains with Tajik NGO Little Earth” project we would be working on during the mapathon.
On GeoNight Missing Maps Mapathon - YouthMappers BSMRMU with CartONG contributors helped to edit 750 buildings and 44 kilometers of roads through the participation of 25 participants at the event.
The mapathon project on the HOT Tasking Manager was hosted by “Little Earth: The project carrier." Little Earth is an NGO founded in 1997, which has rich experience working on education for sustainable development, clean energy solutions, climate change adaptation, youth environmental movement development, women's empowerment, mapping and mobilization of mountain communities. There were many new enthusiastic contributors mapping with iD Editor. The project gave them ease mapping with iD Editor. Along with the main event, another session about OSM account creation and mapping with ID Editor was conducted by the president of the YouthMappers chapter at BSMRMU for the new contributors in a breakout room.
The mapathon had vibrant contributors and communicated lots of knowledge. At the end of the day, the contributors crossed the target line for the mapping edit goal. Numerous contributors attended the mapathon, and they were able to add 750 buildings and 44 KM of roads to the OpenStreetMap. The mapathon ended by acknowledging the contributors and thanking the collaboration of CartONG and YouthMappers at BSMRMU, ending with a perpetual group photo of the participants.
About the Authors:
Noshin Tabassum Hridita is an undergrad studying in the first year at the Oceanography and Hydrography department and is a vibrant General member of YouthMappers at BSMRMU.
Khan Mohammad Ibtehal, President of YouthMappers at BSMRMU, is an undergrad studying in the 4th year at the Oceanography and Hydrography department