OpenStreetMap Response To Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda

Pierre Beland | Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) | November 17, 2013

The Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda in Philippines is the worst ever registered. The Humanitarian OpenSteetMap Team (HOT) has activated to provide geographic base data in areas affected by typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in the Philippines. Currently we are supporting the active OpenStreetMap Philippines community. During the first week of our intervention, more than 1,000 volunteers from 82 countries worked remotely to update OpenStreetMap map.

We have activated in conjunction with our partners at the Digital Humanitarian Network(DHN). For more information about what other DHN partners are doing please read their blog post about the activation. We are also working closely with United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the American Red Cross (ARC) to determine if they have mapping needs which we can help fulfill.

The red line shows the path of the super typhoon Hayan and colored areas show where OpenStreetMap volunteers completed the map the first three days of operation. Tacloban City has been the most affected.

The up-to-date map has progressed a lot since then. The American Red Cross and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team HOT are coordinating during this crisis to produce detailed maps and up to date, and identify damaged infrastructure.