HOT's LAC hub dedicates an important part of its activities to foster mapping and collaborative projects in the Amazon, with different academic and civil partners, and with the regional Openstreetmap community including its large student community, in continuity with OSM-Latam's Mapazonia initiative.
The Amazonia Program is a multifaceted initiative that addresses mapping gaps and promotes social impact mapping in the region. Partnerships with disaster risk management, civil protection and municipal development authorities aim to fill mapping gaps and improve the risk management and sustainable development, including preservation, of this critical region for the world. Early mapping identifies vulnerable areas to improve planning and response and make degradation processes visible. The community projects teach mapping and support environmental monitoring in several Amazonian cities and communities in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, fostering local engagement and open data ownership.
The set of projects develops technical competencies with the great diversity of actors that have a role in the management of their territory (governments, communities, ancestral governments, civil society, supported by universities), based on the use of free and collaborative geographic data (OSM) and “low tech” mapping and monitoring tools, also free, culturally relevant, and with low connectivity requirements.
In this talk we will explain the long term strategy to map the Amazon, will exemplify different projects, show the challenges for the region, and show the different mappings that the audience can join and invite their own communities.
This talk will serve as an introduction to a practical activity that will be proposed to contribute to the mapping of Belém.