Humanitarian Examples

This page attempts to list a range of cases where OpenStreetMap data has been used for humanitarian or development purposes.

This list is by no means comprehensive, please feel free to add any examples that you come across.

Humanitarian and Development Examples of OSM Data Use

Last updated 2 December 2024

Organisation(s)	Location	Date	How OSM was used	Link
IFRC	Global	2017-01	IFRC GO Aims to make all disaster information universally accessible and useful to IFRC responders for better decision making. Uses OSM as base map and 'Risk Watch' uses OSM building data to determine at risk populations.	Platform
CrossCut	Global	2017-04	Generate health catchment areas using OSM data.	Website
CartONG	Haiti	2019-09	Identifying and mapping unsafe or high-risk places of gender-based violence in 7 neighborhoods of the city of Jeremie. Led by CARE's office in Jeremie and funded by UN Women.	Blog
MSF	Burundi	2021-04	Malarial spraying in Burundi - updated building footprints allowed the field teams to go everywhere door-to-door and to verify that no habitation was forgotten.	Blog
Meta	Global	2021-04	Relative Wealth Index constructed using OSM for road density and "...satellites, mobile phone networks, social media, and other geospatial data. These “big” data sources are matched to the “traditional” survey data using geographic markers present in both datasets."	Blog
Various	DRC	2021-05	Analysis of houses affected byt the Niragongo explosion in DRC using OSM data.	Dashboard
Center for Life Change Development (CLCD)	Uganda	2021-08	Project to reduce gender based violence in Bushenyi district through sensitization and awareness in communities, to introduce OSM tools to social workers, police and other stakeholders, and generate maps of administrative boundaries, police stations and health centers. Funded by a Meta Community Impact Grant, managed by HOT.	Blog
Academia	Global	2021-09	Research paper on the use of OSM during COVID-19.	Paper
Resilience Mappers	Uganda	2021-09	Mapping buildings and roads in informal settlements in Kampala for identifying treatment, immunization and evacuation sites in case of pandemics as well as identifying and cleaning up illegal waste dumpsites.	Storymap
UNESCO	Madagascar	2021-11	Mapping roads in Madagascar to advance educational microplanning.	Blog
Nigerian Red Cross and British Red Cross	Nigeria	2021-11	Using OSM to digitize towns (buildings, schools, healthcare) in Nigeria for Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments.	Medium post
Operation Fitsula	Madagascar	2021-12	Mapping settlements in Madagascar to enable access for fistula treatment.	Blog
NOSSAS	Brazil	2022-03	Mapping public services, safety, health and the social assistance network for women in Brazil.	OSM Diary
MapMalawi	Malawi	2022-04	Mapping Dzaleka refugee camp to highlight basic population needs.	Medium post
SiPetaniDKI	Indonesia	2022-04	OpenStreetMap used to share information about urban farming activities in Jakarta and distribute free plant seeds.	Indonesian Article English Translation
Healthsites	Senegal	2022-06	COVIDaction - Mapping emergency health data in Saint Louis Senegal.	Blog
Open Cities Africa	Mali	2022-06	Raising awareness of flooding, collection and use of flood risk data in Bamako.	Blog
MSF	Madagascar	2022-07	South of Madagascar malnutrition crisis - data improved navigation and rural community reach for the MSF field teams, communities’ improved access to water, food, and health care.	Video
YouthMappers	Mexico	2022-07	Mapping safe places for women in Mexico City.	Blog
AKUT Search and Rescue Association and AFAD	Turkey	2023-02	OpenStreetMap data used to support rescue coordination in response to Turkey/Syria Earthquake.	Tweet
World Bank	Turkey	2023-02	Used OSM as an input for infrastructure modeling to give context to satellite-detected damage in Turkey in their report: Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE). Estimated $34.2 billion in direct physical damages.	Report
MSF	Turkey and Syria	2023-03	MSF used HeiGIT's openrouteservice to log 'avoid areas' and calculate routes in earthquake affected territory. Openrouteservice uses OpenStreetMap as a primary dataset.	Blog
Türkiye Ministry of Health	Turkey	2023-03	Surgeon Dr. Çevik shared a message on how Organic Maps and the OSM data that feeds it were essential for him and his colleagues to get to the people that needed medical attention and save lives in the Hattay region.	YouTube video
Türkiye Ministry of Health	Turkey	2023-03	Dr. Mehmet Faruk Uçum shared a message on how OSM data were used to support public health programming in the Kahramanmaraş tent city, where people are living after being displaced by the earthquakes. OSM map data were subsequently used by local authorities to support planning and infrastructure.	YouTube video
MSF	Malawi	2023-06	Using OSM as the main source of geographic data allowed MSF to access affected populations and aided their response to a cholera epidemic and to the consequences resulting from cyclone Freddy.	Blog
MSF	DRC	2023-06	Using OSM to guide health interventions in camps of internally displaced peoples in Goma, DRC.	Blog
ROOTGIS	Tanzania	2023-12	Hanang District in Tanzania suffered flooding and landslides, local authorities utilized OSM data to assess the extent of the damage, identify critical infrastructure, and plan evacuation routes for affected citizens.	OSM Diary post
UN Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)	Gaza Strip	2024-03	IPC report on famine used OSM buildings in combination with other baseline datasets to estimate number of buildings damaged (see map on page 6). Overlaid Sentinel-1 radar detected damage with pre-conflict buildings outlines from OSM.	IPC - Special Brief
EU, UN, World Bank	Gaza Strip	2024-03	Gaza Strip - Interim Damage Assessment Summary: OSM building footprints used to estimate damage to critical infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Estimated to be around $18.5 billion, with over half of the population on the brink of famine at time of report. Pages 25 and 26 mention OSM buildings footprints three times in methodology.	Interim Damage Assessment Summary
British Red Cross	Global	2024-03	Examples of Missing Maps and OSM supporting British Red Cross Programmes in Nigeria (disaster management), Nepal (urban resilience), Guinea (reproductive health), Uganda (refugee support) and Indonesia (impact-based forecasting).	Medium post
Forensic Architecture	Gaza Strip	2024-10	OSM Buildings, roads and points of interest used for creating interactive cartographic platform and report with geolocated destruction in Gaza strip (in full report see pages 31 and 512 for direct data source mentions, and pages 516, 519 for methodology.)	Platform, short report, full report (pdf)