Starting this winter semester the disastermappers heidelberg initiative is organizing a colloquium to provide a platform for all interested volunteers, students and lecturers to share ideas, experience and knowledge on disaster mapping. The events will consist of guest lectures, in which researchers and practitioners of humanitarian aid organizations will present their work and show ways on how to engage and work in the field of disaster management and humanitarian aid. Moreover, the extracurricular events will be accompanied by hands on workshops and mapping events.
At the latest since the remote disaster mapping efforts to support humanitarian operations after Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines last year, organized by students and lecturers of the GIScience research group, Heidelberg has become a hub for disastermapping.
Since then, members of the GIScience research group contributed in several ways to the field of disaster mapping in research, education and practice, for example:
– Research articles that were discussed within the disastermapping community
– Short movie about disastermapping activities and research at Heidelberg University, which is a part of an exhibition at Reis-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim
– A new research project: OpenFloodRiskMap
– Regular courses and fieldtrips on the topic
The field of disaster mapping offers diverse opportunities for all groups present at our university.
In research, for example, disaster mapping is an ideal testbed to develop new applications and test them in the applied field of disaster management. In lectures and education, disaster mapping can serve as an example to educate students in the field of GIS and mapping.
We see a huge potential in this and we want use this new colloquium as a basis to go on, to find new and innovative ways on how to combine research, education and practice in an exciting and highly dynamic environment.
And we need you! So come over to our Kickoff event on October 29th, 2014: – “Maps can save lives!” – “Really?!”, we look forward to see many of you in the lecture room of BST 48.