Over the past 10 days, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and Mapillary have been reviewing the results of #map2020. #map2020 is a collaborative effort between HOT and Mapillary that aims to leverage street-level imagery to solve humanitarian challenges. This year we focused on navigation and how people move around their city in low and middle income countries.

There were many excellent projects, and we were particularly interested in projects that engaged communities, and those that had clear, ongoing potential post #map2020. One project has been selected to share their work at the 2020 HOT Summit.

There were 28 groups participating in #map2020, and many contributed to the campaign by attending webinars, capturing street-level imagery, mapping in OpenStreetMap, and meeting with local stakeholders. Restrictions on movement imposed by Covid-19 have made it difficult to capture street-level images, but groups have been adaptable, mobilising quickly to capture imagery when safe to do so, and utilising existing images on Mapillary.

Projects shared their results in the form of a final report which covered the data they collected, stakeholders they engaged, challenges they faced, impact delivered, and the ongoing viability of the project. Of the 28 groups that participated in #map2020, eight submitted their final reports by the May 31st deadline, and these were the projects that were part of our evaluation process.

The locations of projects who submitted reports.

Our selection criteria

Projects were assessed against the assessment criteria below. Two members of HOT and two members of Mapillary evaluated each project independently, determining how each of these projects performed with respect to the criteria. Geoffrey Kateregga and Sophie Mower represented HOT, while Said Turksever and Edoardo Neerhut evaluated for Mapillary.

The selection criteria used to evaluate projects.

After individually reviewing the projects, we met virtually to make a final decision on the project that would represent #map2020 at the HOT Summit. We can honestly say that it was a tough decision. Four projects in particular stood out and scored very closely on the assessment criteria. In the end we went with the project that we felt had had long term potential and valuable lessons for the wider mapping community that could be shared at the 2020 HOT Summit.

#map2020 project of the year - SIGenBici in Medellín, Colombia

We’re happy to reveal that the selected project is SIGenBici from Medellín, Colombia. This project was led by Natalia Arruda and focused on mapping cycling infrastructure within the city. One thing that impressed us about this project was the close collaboration between the University of Antioquia, YouthMappers, and SiCLas, a group of cyclists. Collaboration and engagement of stakeholders were fundamental criteria for us because it strengthens opportunities for this project to continue beyond the #map2020 initiative.

Stakeholder engagement alone is not enough however, the mapping is equally important. Here SIGenBici also impressed us, utilising existing Mapillary imagery to contribute 190 changesets to OpenStreetMap. These changesets included map additions such as the location of cycleways, surface type, turn restrictions, bicycle parking locations, and direction of travel. We were impressed by the focus on cycling infrastructure and ultimately their efforts to create maps that will help cyclists to safely navigate Medellín.

One of the mapathons Natalia arranged for the SIGenBici project.

The final projects

As mentioned, it was tough to settle on one project when we were impressed with so many of them. Here is a quick look at the projects who submitted reports on their #map2020 efforts.

Sanda Mohammad - Winneba, Ghana: Winneba Road Project

One of the most active projects and one we were very impressed with. This project made more map edits than any other project, contributed over 25,000 thousand images and brought together a strong team.

Thanks to their efforts, the state of street-lighting and road surface quality in Winneba, is vastly improved.

Sophiya Solovyova - Kyiv Ukraine: Speed Bumps Project

Aleks is a leader in the Ukrainian mapping community and presented his #map2020 efforts along with his wife Sophiya at the HOT Summit in 2019. This year he rallied the Ukrainian community to focus on mapping speed bumps throughout Kyiv. This was made possible by the vast amount of imagery that has been contributed in Kyiv. It is one of the best mapped cities in the world when it comes to Mapillary and Aleks has been a central figure. In addition to imagery, Aleks leveraged verification projects to validate where Mapillary has identified speed bump sides.

We’re looking forward to seeing how the speed bump data collected will improve navigation for the citizens of Kyiv.

Ayebale Marvin John - Kampala, Uganda: Kampala Roads

Makerere University continues to impress. Last year Henry Sseruwaji represented Makerere at the HOT Summit demonstrating how they had mapped waste management in Kampala. This year Marvin John led a project to map areas of road flooding throughout the city. They collected new imagery, but also utilised existing imagery. They made it clear that the fine material used to construct a lot of the roads is an ongoing problem whenever it rains. There is still a lot of work here to be done here, but this is an important project of great relevance to navigation throughout the city.

It is wonderful to see the YouthMappers chapter at Makerere passing knowledge on from year to year and growing a strong tradition of open mapping.

Jolaiya Emmanuel - Akure, Nigeria: FUTA Navigation Guide

Once again YouthMappers is well represented in #map2020 with the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) chapter making a significant contribution. Over 300 changesets were made in Akure which you can take a look at using the #map2020_futanav hashtags. The main focus of these editing efforts was to map buildings and roads in and around the campus. A mobile app is being developed to give students a useful map to work with. Development of the app can be tracked here.

Jariatou Jallow - Kanifing, Gambia: KomboYon

Jariatou is hardworking and very determined. She was working largely independently, but didn’t let that stop her from mapping routes around her university. She is determined to improve OpenStreetMap in the area around Kanifing to help students navigate to and from university. She is also in discussions with the university to embed a street-level imagery viewer and map on the university website to make the most of the OpenStreetMap and Mapillary data collected.

Jariatou Jallow using the Mapillary app in Gambia.

Macello Medeiros - Salvador, Brazil: U-go

Macello has set out with a very clear objective, to create helpful mobility maps in Salvador, Brazil. Any mobility data added helps improve accessibility information on u-go.info/. While he has been highlighting areas with mobility infrastructure like parking for the mobility impaired and crosswalk facilities, his research is also helping to determine where more of this infrastructure is needed.

Nathalie Sidibe - Bamako, Mali: Bamako Roads

Nathalie is regularly active in the OpenStreetMap community and #map2020 this year was no different. Building on work done in partnership with The World Bank, Nathalie and her team have been mapping bus routes in Mali’s capital of Bamako. 4,500 new images were collected. More imagery and additional map editing will help to fill in missing information on the location of bus stops and routes within the capital.

Towards safer transportation

Overall, more than 550,000 images were uploaded to Mapillary and 3230 changesets were made on OpenStreetMap by successfully submitted projects during #map2020. In addition to these eight projects, there were many others who contributed imagery and map data but were unable to bring together their project reports by May 31st. Mapillary and HOT will be here to support all projects should they wish to continue beyond the #map2020 initiative. A lot of progress has been made mapping all kinds of navigation related features and we want to continue our mission to make transportation of all kinds safer and more accessible for citizens.

Thank you once again to the incredible groups taking part in #map2020 for their tireless efforts to make this a reality.