Dec 27, 2022

4 min read

At the #KLL Situation Room, we have been coordinating mapping efforts nationally and internationally, and providing it to people in easy to digest ways. Here we will tell you how these resources can be used, depending on who you are. It will also go into how you can make the mapping resources better to help relief workers and people on the ground.

How can maps help you?

Well, that depends who you are. If you are:

Directly Affected, or in communication with someone Directly Affected

• Please submit a report describing your need to http://quakemap.org .  To do this, you can: + Use this form online: http://www.kathmandulivinglabs.org/earthquake/reports/submit + Send a tweet including the word #QuakeMap. Please include a picture and phone number for contact with your tweet. + Send an SMS to Ncell: 9802017413 or NTC: 9860782874 + Use the Android App “Nepal EarthQuake Reports” by Kathmandu Living Labs and submit a report.

Please include as precise a location as you can, a photo if it is possible to add one, and enough details in the description so someone can act on that information.

Providing Direct Relief Work in the Field

• Use http://quakemap.org/ to identify where people need help. Reports are being fed into this site from social media, texts, and phone calls from people in need. If you get reports, put them here. Once you are responding to a need, please leave a comment on the website saying what support you are providing (or do so via SMS to the numbers above), and we will mark the report as such. After you respond, send another message so others can know the need has been met.
• Download OFFLINE maps for all of Nepal on your Android smartphone, or print out paper maps of certain areas. See http://bit.ly/nepalmaps for instructions. If you need a map from somewhere else, request it by filling out the Nepal Quake Paper Map Request and Feedback Form at http://[bit.ly/nepalmapsfeedback](http://bit.ly/nepalmapsfeedback)
• Collect landmark data to help future relief agents. Load http://bit.ly/nepalpoi on your phone when you are online, and you will be able to open the form once you are offline. From the field, please collect data and submit once you are online. This will help us create better maps for future relief workers.

In Nepal, and Can Help

• Volunteer, but in a coordinated way! (On Facebook search: Nepal Earthquake Relief Volunteer Coordination).  Once you’ve identified a way to volunteer, look at the section above on “Providing Direct Relief Work in the Field,” and see how you can use maps and further support future relief workers.
• Also, contribute to http://quakemap.org by identifying needs in your community or area. Or, join your friends outside of Nepal to better map affected communities. See the section below for more information.
• Come join the #KLL Situation Room, or the Bibeksheel Nepali coordination team at Biruwa Ventures in Baluwatar.

Outside of Nepal

• Map, Map, Map! A huge amount of online volunteers have been helping us map the affected areas, which were really unmapped before. We are coordinating these tasks via http://tasks.hotosm.org. Note that this is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT work. We have had an amazing outpouring of support from the International mapping community, but we need to keep this up. We have post-disaster imagery available in an extremely limited ways at the moment. Once more comes online, we will need even more mappers to support us and help do damage assessments, which will help coordinate where teams need to go out for support.
• Donate! We are doing all of this work on very meager resources. While you should also consider donating for direct relief work, please also consider donating for this mapping work, which is vital to coordinating relief.  Donate via http://bit.ly/klldonate

Someone with experience working in Haiti posted a message the other day noting that the second disaster in Haiti was the lack of coordination of untrained volunteers. We are working very hard to avoid this here in Nepal. Please use our tools for coordination, and contribute to them. If they don’t quite meet your needs, please get in touch with through the Feedback and Request form at http://bit.ly/nepalmapsfeedback  with your needs or at 01 620 50000, or come visit us at the #KLL Situation Room if you have the opportunity to volunteer.

caption id="attachment_569" align="aligncenter" width="640"