30 Days of Giving 2018 – Day 15: Monroe Community College Develops Humanitarian Mapping

Monroe Community College students sit at a table working on laptops.

Over 20 students, faculty, and staff recently participated in Monroe Community College ’s third annual mapping party. As part of their contributions to openstreetmap, a free and editable map of the world that activists use to support humanitarian efforts and community development, attendees mapped buildings in Senegal to collect data on buildings, roads, and drainage needed to address impacts from erosion as a result of sea level rise and flood events.

Senegal is especially vulnerable to coastal erosion and flooding annually affects 200,000 inhabitants. Rising sea levels and increasingly hazardous storms are risks to Senegal housing, where 74% of housing is vulnerable to flood risk.

Monroe’s third annual mapping party findings from the mapping task will reduce the country’s vulnerability to natural hazards. The event was hosted by MCC’s Mapping Club, Geography/Geo-spatial program, the Global Education and International Services Office, and the Student Events and Governance Association. Monroe Community College’s Mapping Club focuses on humanitarian mapping, where people come together in times of a crisis such as a natural disaster and provide and analyze data needed to rebuild the community.