Map review - draft proposal for consultation

[Helen Campbell]

Dear All,  Some of you may know that we are in the process of developing a methodology for reviewing maps produced for disaster response.  Initially the focus will be on the recent response in the Philippines, but we do hope to extend it to other countries as well, in order to make the results more generalisable. 

So far, the methodology has been developed by a partnership including ACAPS, the Disaster Resilience Lab (DRL), the SIIEM project and MapAction.  Our aims all vary slightly, but we hope that by doing the work in partnership, we will be able to build a comprehensive picture of the current status of mapping for disaster response.  Below is some more detail about what we hope to achieve.  The database that we produce will be open, so we also hope that you might be interested in doing some wider analyses as well.

The proposed methodology is to collate all the maps into one repository, and then record information about each map, as shown in the attached spreadsheet (which we hope to convert into a database).  We will be asking for volunteers to help with this categorisation, as it will be quite a lengthy task!  I have also explained below more information about what each section of the database is aiming to achieve.

I am hoping that you will all be able to have a look at this, and let me know your thoughts, and whether you have any recommendations about how the process could be improved.

To me, one of the biggest challenges will be how we assess the way that the maps are informing decision making, which is why we have added the table for Decision Makers Needs.  However, assessing how a map could have been used for decision making will be quite difficult.  SIIEM will be addressing this through a workshop in the Philippines, but I would also like to see if we can develop some way of capturing at least some of that information in the database.  We plan to have a skype chat about how to achieve this in the next few days, so please let me know if you would like to join the call.

Please let me know if you have any comments.
Thanks, Helen
 

Aims:

ACAPS – to better understand when, during the crisis time span maps have been used, under what circumstances, for what purposes, for what themes and using what types of data/analyses.  Understanding more about how and when map production and use changes throughout the disaster cycle - e.g. we know that phase 1 of assessment is 2D (Geo vs Sectors) and that phase 2 is 3D Geo vs Sectors vs Affected groups).  Theoretically, further phases should provide more in-depth information (from Admin 2 to admin 3, from affected groups to vulnerable groups, from sectors to subsectors etc).  Finally, we need to understand how these layers and categories of information aggregate and intersect analytically to reach the grail of analysts: severity and priorities, across groups, sectors and geographical areas, now and in the future.  Would like the review to cover disasters over the past three/four years.

SIIEM – Part of the Eye on Earth movement which is focusing on improving access to data, and looking at what is being used.  Initially focusing on Philippines (Yolanda).  The SIIEM project advocates for greater in-country government capacity development for data collection, management, open access, and use. Want to include a map review of the maps produced during the response to Yolanda focusing on what data have been used in the map, who made the map, what was the source of the data, how much govt data were used, was the data from local or national sources, how useful were the maps (the latter to be assessed by the Philippines govt at a workshop this year (DSWD are the local contact)).

MapAction – Interested in understanding more about data and map availability alongside Decision Makers Needs to inform future field mapping strategies

DRL: Carrying out research into decision makers needs, information flows and communication, and impact assessment.   Undertook a field research trip to the Philippines end of December, to interview decision makers and information officers from various organisations.

Summary of fields in spreadsheet:

1.       Contextual – provides background information, including the date the map was produced vs the date of the disaster onset

2.       Map Author, purpose and Type

3.       Basemap/baseline data – presence of Admin boundaries, Baseline population and type of data... etc

4.       Situational data – presence of situational data, along with its source and date (the latter being useful to see how often its being updated).  The field for ‘Affected area’ will need to contain different lists of datasets for different types of disasters – the one shown is an example for floods.

5.       Programmatic

6.       Situational infrastructure and humanitarian access – again source and date of this information is important

7.       Analytic – useful to see how maps are being used to analyse and present information in ways that are useful for decision makers

8.       Qualitative vs Quantitative – how does use of different types of data evolve, and how is it presented

9.       Indication of uncertainty in the data – how is this being expressed in maps

10.   Decision makers needs questions – we need to think more about how to address the impact of maps and their associated data/analyses.  My preference would be that we use our contacts to ask a few decision makers (from govt, NGOs, UN, donors etc) from each disaster that we study to do a separate assessment of how the maps were used/which were most useful etc.

Where we are asking for sources and dates of data, it will also be important to record if the information is unknown/unclear, as this will be useful for assessing whether maps are being properly attributed.