Tufts students last semester successfully used crisis mapping to aid rescue and relief efforts in the wake of the Haiti earthquake in January. This semester, crisis mapping makes its return to the Hill in a bid to build on that experience.
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on Friday will host the second annual International Conference on Crisis Mapping: Haiti and Beyond with the International Network of Crisis Mappers (CM*Net).
The conference brings together policy makers, humanitarians, technology groups and students to discuss the potential use of crisis mapping technology in humanitarian disasters, according to Patrick Meier, CM*Net co−founder and Fletcher Ph.D. candidate.
Meier defined crisis mapping as the process of collecting, mapping and analyzing information to address humanitarian needs on the ground in the event of an emergency.
"During a humanitarian disaster, crisis mapping allows us to make better informed decisions," he said. "Maps are very important, but they are static. Crisis mapping reflects the rapidly changing environment in real time."
Meier said that a key goal is to link aid groups with organizations possessing technical expertise.
"We want to create partnerships between technology and humanitarian groups, to get formal actors like the United Nations (UN) and FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] to interact with Google and smaller groups so that we can bridge the gap between these two communities," he said. "This way, when disaster strikes we can respond more effectively."
The conference, free for Tufts students and faculty, will host over 300 groups, including the United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mercy Corps and Humans Rights Watch.
The event will feature a hands−on crisis mapping training session on crisis mapping the day before the conference, short presentations on crisis mapping projects called "Ignite Sessions" and a technology fair.
Kurt Jean−Charles, director of the Haitian technology company Solutions, and Assistant Secretary−General and Chief Information Technology Officer for the UN Secretariat Choi Soon−hong are scheduled to speak.
CM*Net, launched in 2009, held its first conference at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, in conjunction with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. It helped formalize a network of crisis mappers and participated in the disaster response to the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, Meier said.
CM*Net Co−founder Jennifer Ziemke noted that the network's response to the earthquake, while not without flaws, helped save lives by mobilizing people hundreds of miles away.
"People could share high−resolution satellite imagery and aerial photography of the refugee camps or damaged areas," she told the Daily. "We created a message board where people could pose technical questions about mapping hospitals or geo−locating aid stations, and people would respond within minutes. It became a way for various agencies to inform one another: The Red Cross was doing one thing, the UN was doing something else. We helped all of these different actors work together."
Ziemke said that the Fletcher students' involvement in crisis mapping during the crisis factored into the decision to hold this year's conference at The Fletcher School.
"Fletcher has been a great example of student volunteers using crisis mapping," she said. "They seized the opportunity and put in so many hours during what was at times a very stressful situation. We felt the world should know that Fletcher was the center of the Haiti deployment."
A key component of the conference is a series of 28 short information presentations, or "Ignite Sessions," by groups such as Development Seed, which implements technology projects for large international development organizations, the World Bank, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Fletcher School, followed by breaks during which students and presenters can discuss the information.
"These presentations are designed to ignite the audience," Fletcher student Rosalind Sewell said. "These slide shows are different from the usual long−winded presentations: Each slide advances every 15 seconds. It's a way to hit the audience with a lot of info without boring them."
The first series of sessions will focus on crisis mapping in response to the Haiti earthquake, while the second series will look at the potential for using crisis mapping technology in areas such as Pakistan, Chile and Burma, according to Meier.
Sewell also noted that the technology fair scheduled for Friday afternoon will allow people to physically interact with new technologies, including an interactive map used to evaluate the BP oil spill.
Meier added that crisis mapping conferences like this one are instrumental in educating students about new technologies, due to the lack of college courses about crisis mapping despite a growing demand for mapping technologies.
Crisis mapping projects can satisfy students' desire to participate in a global culture while learning about cutting−edge technology, Ziemke said
"There is this huge desire to help people around the world, but previously there hadn't been a way to create immediate change. … Through the network, I could respond to a question from someone around the world," she said. "I don't know if anyone will pick up the message, but the idea is very motivating. We don't always know if our system is working, but we do know that it helped save hundreds of lives."
