Microgrants/Microgrants 2020/Proposal/Detected Features Project
About your Mapping Community
Tell us a little bit about your mapping community at the moment, some examples of details to include are below, but please provide us with any information you think is relevant. Please write 100-200 words
Our mapping community consists of eight engineers and geographers from multiple countries, including Afghanistan, India, and the US. We work for a small, international development company called Development Monitors LLC based out of Arlington, Virginia, USA with satellite offices in Delhi, India and Kabul, Afghanistan. Our mapping is focused on developing disaster risk profiles for rural and urban communities Afghanistan, which is where we're currently implementing projects for the World Bank and the German Bank for Reconstruction. Individual members of the team have been mapping for over ten years, but as a company, we've been mapping since 2017. The gender balance in our company is skewed (seven men and one woman), but we're working towards addressing the imbalance with a revised recruiting policy. We supply disaster risk profiles, including maps of potential natural disaster risk, to communities, host governments, and donors. We use OSM to identify infrastructure at risk of natural disasters, including avalanche, drought, earthquake, flood, and landslide.
What do you need the grant money for?
We want to understand what you plan to buy, how much you plan to buy, and why this will help you to scale your community mapping efforts. There are two tables for you to fill in your response, and you may add more rows as needed. Some examples are in the table for your reference. You are welcome to use a different format in your response, but please make sure to include these details.
If awarded a grant, we'd like to use the funds for two purposes: (i) a third-year computer science major from Monmouth University is scheduled to begin his unpaid three-month summer internship with us June 1 and we'd like to remunerate him for his work. His internship assignment is to develop software to successfully import into OSM features that were automatically detected on aerial and satellite imagery by a machine learning model, and (ii) purchase a POSM device to be used in Afghanistan by a team of Afghan mappers to verify features on the ground that were automatically detected in aerial and satellite imagery before being uploaded to OSM. The amount we'd like to pay the student intern is US$1,500 per month for three months. The cost to purchase a POSM device is US$516. The requested total is US$4,500 + US$516 = US$5,016, which is approximately Euro 4,615 at today's exchange rate. Please note that we would be grateful to receive any funding for the student intern's OSM-related software development work and POSM device procurement.
Budget breakdown
Give your budget breakdown here. If you would like to present your budget in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here
Item What do you plan to spend the money on? Expected cost per unit (Euros) Quantity you plan to buy / subscription length Expected total cost (Euros) Why is it needed (Please give as much detail as possible)
| Item | What do you plan to spend the money on? | Expected cost per unit (Euros) | Quantity you plan to buy / subscription length | Expected total cost (Euros) | Why is it needed (Please give as much detail as possible) |
| 1 | Student Intern | 1,380 / month | Three (3) months | 4,140 | A third-year computer science major from Monmouth University is scheduled to begin his three-month summer internship with us June 1 and we'd like to remunerate him for his work. His internship assignment is to develop software to successfully import into OSM features that were automatically detected on aerial and satellite imagery by a machine learning model. |
| 2 | POSM device | 475 | One (1) | 475 | A POSM device will be used by our Afghan field team to ground-truth features automatically detected and uploaded to OSM. |
| Total | 4,615 |
If you receive a grant, what do you aim to achieve?
It is recommended that this supports mission of the OSM Foundation and your local community. Please provide us with any information you think is relevant including the metrics you expect to achieve. Please write 100-200 words.
This year our team completely mapped Jalalabad, a large city in eastern Afghanistan with an estimated population of approximately 356,000, in OSM and we're currently in the process of mapping the Afghanistan capital Kabul (estimated population of 4.275 million). Together with the automated detection software, we plan to use the intern's software and POMS device to automate feature detection and ground-truth the results of additional communities. We hope to receive additional funding from one or more international donors to allow us to continue mapping communities in order to create and share their respective disaster risk profiles. The proposed project will enable us to provide actionable information to communities needed to mitigate potential natural disaster risk to local inhabitants. By automating the detection and import of features into OSM, we can complete and share more community disaster risk profiles in a shorter amount of time. Between May and October 2020 we plan to map and develop disaster risk profiles for four drought-affected rural communities in northern Afghanistan as well complete our mapping of Kabul and possibly one other urban area in Afghanistan (Herat or Kandahar). We plan to accomplish the planned mapping and disaster risk profile work with our existing team.
Do you receive funding from any other sources at the moment?
If you receive funding from other organisations currently, please state how much this is, whether the donations are regular or one off, and how these funds have been raised. Please write no more than 300 words. If you have any sources of co-funding for this grant application, please provide details. Examples of this might be if you have any partners who would be willing to match grant funding if you receive it, or if your project has existing funding. Please provide as much detail as possible.
Our community-based disaster risk management / early warning (CBDRM/EW) project is being funded by the World Bank. We recently received a US$132,000 (one-off) extension for the period of May to October 2020. The funding covers our existing staff, but does not include funding for the student intern or a POSM device, hence the request for additional funding through the OSM micro-grant initiative.
Is there anything you would like OSMF to support you with?
If there is anything which you would like OSMF to support you with in order to strengthen your project, please let us know. For example, this could include building relationships with OSM communities, sourcing updated imagery for mapping projects, or guidance on how to use some of the tools we have created. We want to do our best to support OSM communities, so please let us know what you need. Please write no more than 150 words.
For our automated feature detection software, we're always looking for up-to-date satellite imagery of Afghanistan with as high a resolution as possible for civilian use.
Declaration
By submitting this form to the OpenStreetMap Foundation, you certify the information contained in this application is correct, and that if you are awarded a grant, you will use it only for the purposes described above. You will provide written documentation and receipts for all of your expenses to the OSM Foundation to demonstrate this. You understand that the decisions made by the OSM Foundation Microgrants committee are final. I, James K. Weeks, certify the information contained in this application is correct and if awarded a grant, we will use it only for the purposes described above.
Endorsements
Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here! In addition to James Weeks, the Development Monitors' OSM mapping community members endorsing this project include: Muhammad Fahad Joel Rhine Gareth Lewis Margaret Card-Silache Majid Jafary Rouhullah Hassanpoor Wahid Lalzad