OpenStreetMap Data Use Cases During the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This chapter describes the role played by OpenStreetMap (OSM) during the early months of the ongoing Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which - in contrast to past disasters and epidemics - is a global event impacting both developed and developing countries. The OpenStreetMap (OSM) project was started in University College London in 2004 and has subsequently grown to be arguably the largest and most popular Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and open geographic data project in the world today. The potential of OSM for supporting humanitarian efforts during crisis situations was noticed as early as 2010 after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. Volunteers across the world supported humanitarian efforts through mapping activities across multiple platforms, including OSM contributors who produced much data using available aerial imagery within only a few weeks. The dashboards and web maps above make use of a wide range of different OSM basemaps.

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