From Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team · Disaster readiness · March 2023

Volunteer maps guided aid after the Türkiye-Syria earthquakes

After two large earthquakes struck Türkiye and Syria in February 2023, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and the Turkish mapping group Yer Çizenler asked volunteers to trace buildings and roads from satellite imagery. By mid-March, volunteers had mapped more than two million buildings and over 80,000 kilometers of road. The World Food Programme used the road data to plan aid deliveries, the IFRC used the building maps to help identify destroyed structures, and search and rescue groups and Türkiye's disaster agency also drew on the data. A surgeon from Ankara used the volunteer map in a phone app to reach patients in Hatay when other map services were not working.

Source: Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, 2023-03-17

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