A Successful Mapathon

We hosted a Mapathon on Thursday, the 26th of October, which saw the participation of students and researchers alike. We started mapping after a short introduction talk by Isabell Klipper on the usage of such data for example for the … Read More

HeiGIT’s contribution to the 2nd UN Maps Conference

The United Nations Maps program, created in 2019, held its 2nd UN Maps Conference, this time in Valencia, Spain. Prof. Alexander Zipf of HeiGIT and the GIScience Research Group at Heidelberg University and Benjamin Herfort of HeiGIT attended the conference … Read More

HeiGIT, DLR & GRC’s Cooperation Workshop February 27-28 in Berlin

The German Red Cross (GRC) has been working with the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT gGmbH) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for several years to bridge the gap between research and practice by identifying needs and developing technological … Read More

Cooperation between HeiGIT, the German Red Cross and the German Aerospace Center

Cover image: Team representatives from German Red Cross, DRL and HeiGIT in the replica of the European research capsule COLUMBUS, which is part of the International Space Station (ISS). Photo by Anne Schneibel, Jan. 24, 2023. Which buildings are most … Read More

HGG Vortrag: Digitale Geographie im Katastrophenmanagement

Einladung Vortrag Online: Dienstag, 14. Dezember 2021, 19:15 Uhr Melanie Eckle-Elze, Benjamin Herfort, Dr. Carolin Klonner Digitale Geographie im Katastrophenmanagement Klimawandel, Bevölkerungswachstum, Verstädterung und weitere zunehmende Landnutzungsveränderungen führen dazu, dass immer mehr Menschen in Risikogebieten leben. Um die vorhandenen Risiken … Read More

HeiGIT and GIScience at Virtual Conference of the Red Cross Red Crescent Urban Collaboration Platform 2021

On Friday, November 26th, Dr. Carolin Klonner (GIScience Research Group) and Melanie Eckle-Elze (HeiGIT) will be supporting the Urban Context Unit of German Red Cross (GRC) in the “Data and Digitalisation in Urban Humanitarian Action” session at the Virtual Conference … Read More

HeiGIT participation at HOT Summit 2021

Also this year HeiGIT is participating at the HOT summit with the topic of “The Evolution of Local Humanitarian Open Mapping Ecosystems: Understanding Community, Collaboration, and Contribution”. Again the conference will be virtual and is organized in three blocks across … Read More

FOSS4G 2021 Videos with HeiGIT contributions online – OSM data quality and MapSwipe

Recently videos with our contributions by HeiGIT to the FOSS4G conference were put online. Did you miss the event? Now you can watch whenever you like 🙂 Benni by HeiGIT explains who to use the ohsome.org framework to develop an … Read More

Successful end of the 25 Mapathon Project

On October 12th the “25 Mapathon project” was finalized with an exceptionally successful public online mapathon. Around 20 participants with various professional backgrounds mapped 2273 buildings in three hours to support a flood preparedness project of the GRC in Togo. … Read More

World Refugee Day: Mapathon by CartONG

Whether you are a beginner or an advanced mapper, or just curious to learn more about why mapping is so important for humanitarian work, join us on 21 June. Support the mapping of refugee locations on World Refugee Day. It … Read More

HeiGIT und das Deutsche Rote Kreuz beim Digitaltag 2021

Am 18.06.2021 findet der Bundesweite Digitaltag 2021 der Initiative „Digital für alle“ statt. Der Digitaltag ist eine Plattform, auf der digitale Projekte und Aktionen aus der Zivilgesellschaft vorgestellt werden und das Thema Digitalisierung von verschiedenen Seiten beleuchtet wird. Mit dem … Read More

Detecting OpenStreetMap missing buildings by transferring pre-trained deep neural networks

Recently, a new research paper “Detecting OpenStreetMap missing buildings by transferring pre-trained deep neural networks” (Pisl, J., Li, H., Herfort, B., Lautenbach, S., Zipf, A. 2021) has been accepted at the the 24th AGILE conference 2021. The conference will take … Read More

MapAction and HeiGIT partner to further geoinformation innovation

The Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT) and the international humanitarian geospatial charity MapAction have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlining their plans to collaborate in a number of areas. Both organisations share a common vision to support humanitarian … Read More

Two-part Mapathons for better new user retention?

The project “25 Mapathons“ goes into the next phase. Based on the experience of until today 17 OSM mapathons with German Red Cross (GRC) chapter and an extensive literature review on the success of mapathons, the “25 Mapathons” team has … Read More

Towards a framework for the analysis of local OSM contributions

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) such as OpenStreetMap (OSM) is often defined as the collaborative acquisition of geographic information and local knowledge by volunteers, amateurs or professionals (Goodchild, 2007). The increasing availability and importance of local data in OSM is largely … Read More

HeiGIT und DRK veröffentlichen weiteres Trainingsmaterial zu Mapathons

Gemeinsam mit dem Deutschen Roten Kreuz (DRK) hat das HeiGIT heute das Dokument “Die häufigsten Fehler beim „mappen“ mit dem iD-Editor & deren Lösung” veröffentlicht. Das Dokument ist komplementär zum Handbuch zur Veranstaltung von Mapathons, welches bereits 2020 veröffentlicht wurde. … Read More

Mapathon “Mapping for International Solidarity” on 06.04

Hello dear friends of the disastermappers heidelberg! At the moment, the Heidelberg International Weeks against Racism 2021 are running – and the disastermappers are also taking part! Why? The unequal distribution of resources is often a consequence of historical (and … Read More

Humanitarian OSM Stats: How to monitor humanitarian mapping in the HOT Tasking Manager? – Part 5: the American Red Cross

Since 2010 organized humanitarian mapping has evolved as a constant and growing element of the global OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. With more than 8,000 projects in 150 countries humanitarian mapping has become a global community effort. Due to this large amount … Read More

Flood Impact Assessment on Road Network and Healthcare Access at the example of Jakarta, Indonesia

Extreme natural events create catastrophic situations for cities and their populations. Due to climate change and anthropogenic activities, the number and intensity of these events has steadily increased at the global scale. Floods are the most common natural disaster worldwide, … Read More

Humanitarian OSM Stats: How to monitor humanitarian mapping in the HOT Tasking Manager? – Part 4

Since 2010, organized humanitarian mapping has evolved as a constant and growing element of the global OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. With more than 7,000 projects in 150 countries, humanitarian mapping has become a global community effort. Due to this large amount … Read More