Description
Effective, and timely, response to crisis situations depends upon detailed and meticulous geospatial information being shared by first responders within a community. Often cartographic data are outdated, inaccurate and do not reveal near, real-time information that could, and should, be used during the critical event. Such deficiencies adversely affect response times, situational awareness, and decision-making with resultant less than optimal outcomes. Through the collaborative efforts of crowd-sourced, publically available data to OpenStreetMap and Walking Papers, first responders in both governmental and community-based agencies are able to obtain real or near-real time data specific to their needs. Concerns, regarding reliability and security of those data, are relieved by the knowledge that private data are held as separate files from those of the public, then used as a partial component of the final mash-up using private data that might only be available on someone's secured computer. Value of these methods have already been demonstrated and proven during a number of emergency situations including the Haiti 2010 - 2011 earthquake and chloera crises. Training for OpenStreetMap and Walking Papers is easily achieved through both traditional and non-traditional methods with a minimum of expense and extensive benefits to first responders.
