What is Crisis Mapping?

Post by: Kim Stephens

I recently had a conversation with a colleague, who is very well versed in social media and emergency management, asking me to explain crisis mapping.  I am not an expert in that topic, but Jen Ziemke, the co-founder of the International Network of Crisis Mappers, now assistant professor at John Carroll University, and fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, certainly is. Her presentation at Notre Dame University on the use of crowdsourcing and digital mapping for humanitarian response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti was recorded and I have embedded that presentation below. As described on CrisisMappers.net:

She also covered how crisis mapping is being used in a wide variety of contexts, including for election monitoring and tracking of pro-democracy initiatives. This event was co-sponsored by University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, Interdisciplinary Center for Network Science & Applications (iCeNSA), and the Master of Science in Global Health Program of the Eck Institute for Global Health.

Her presentation describes very clearly the concept and its application during disasters and humanitarian crises in first 8 minutes, however, I do recommend viewing it in its entirety.

See also: What Role Does a Crisis Mapper Play? 

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