The International Conference of Crisis Mappers gets underway tomorrow in New York City, offering those active in the field the opportunity to explore some of the local crisis mapping initiatives including some of the responses built following Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The ubiquity of information and communications technologies (ICTs) has seen the frequency of so-called crisis mapping jump. Put in place to help identify and digitally plot areas in need of assistance following a natural disaster or to monitor outbreaks of violence in areas where conflict is rife, crisis mapping helps authorities develop and deliver support services to those in areas that are most in need and facilitates the flow of vital information following a disaster.
From November 6 to 9, Crisis Mappers together with The New School and Google Crisis Response will host a conference to gather together all the key players and allow them to delve into crisis mapping in New York.
Participants will have the opportunity to explore New York’s on-the-ground response units (and see how this is then matched to its mapped resources); meet the team at environmental mapping firm Green Map who hosted a cycling tour of the city after Hurricane Sandy that looked to teach people about adapting to climate change; look at how to build sensors to collect environmental data with the team at Public Lab; and hear keynotes from UN humanitarian representatives.
For more information on the event, please click here. To find out more about crisis mapping in conflict zones, check out our Act Now article on the subject.
