OSM meets Academy for Crisis Management Emergency Planning and Civil Protection

On Saturday, May 28th members of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community and employees of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (in German “Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (BBK)”) met for a workshop at Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.

Source: Haiti Crisis Map - OpenStreetMap NL (http://haiti.openstreetmap.nl/)

The main goal of this event, taking place at the Academy for Crisis Management Emergency Planning and Civil Protection (in German “Akademie für Krisenmanagement, Notfallplanung und Zivilschutz (AKNZ)”), was to inform active contributors of the OpenStreetMap community and employees of AKNZ and BBK about OpenStreetMap and crisis mapping.

During the devastating earthquake in Haiti (2010) OSM proved to be a valuable source of up-to-date geodata and partner for international relief organizations. Crisis-Mapping includes but is not limited to e.g. the determination of infrastructure, collapsed buildings, spontaneous camps and more in crisis areas, which can be an important contribution to the orientation of rescue workers on-site. This has also been documented in specific reports by the mass media.