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OMER SHEIKH: Thank you, Google, for having us here.
Thank you, Jabran, for having us here.
It's interesting.
So I was hearing Brian McClendon, and it appears that
the developing countries have the similar problems as the
developed countries.
So either it's the US or Japan or developing country, which
is Pakistan.
We face the same problems.
As citizens, the key issue that we had, and our
frustrations, stem from the fact that we couldn't locate
where the disasters were taking place in
Pakistan, for example.
And if they were taking place, first of all, where they were.
Then secondly, how do you quantify it?
Is it something really, really big that's happened?
Is it worth ignoring?
Or is it not worth ignoring?
So at the time the tsunami happened in Japan last year,
and we had these mixed reports on television.
And I was just thinking in my heart, oh, Japan, please don't
be wiped out of the face of the earth.
Because we just didn't know how big the magnitude
of that event was.
And lastly, the problem we've been facing was that we didn't
know how to respond to these disasters.
Is anybody doing any work?
Are we required as citizens?
Do they require further help or not?
So we set out to solve that problem.
So the work we did was basically divided into two
distinct phases.
So Jabran and I are mappers.
We work on the product made by Google
called Google Map Maker.
That's why they call us super mappers as well.
So what we had been doing, and we had been creating original
data for roads, settlements, boundaries, et cetera.
But at the times of these disasters, what we did was
accelerate the pace of that work.
So we sent out an appeal to all the community that, hey,
we need to get down in these areas, and we need to map
these areas quickly.
The second thing that we did was providing information to
the public.
So you need to have a public information resource where you
can simply log in, ordinary citizens or maybe government
agencies or responders, whoever, and you should have a
complete picture of what's happening in those areas.
So we started putting relief activities weather data, fresh
satellite imagery, where, if, and when it was available.
[INAUDIBLE]
tracking, for example.
And we tried to match it up and put it up all on the map.
So the first thing that happened in 2010 in Attabad in
the Gilgit-Baltistan region.
So this is where the Karakorams and the Himalayas
are meeting.
There was a huge landslide, and there was a village which
was wiped off the face of the earth.
And what was particularly frightening for me was that,
as a mapper, I could not put the place on a map.
And secondly, I was wondering, so what if I was supposed to
be in such a place?
Would anybody be able to find me and respond to it?
So this is what the map looked like of
that area in the beginning.
We don't know where Attabad is.
So once we sent out an appeal-- and we were in
consultation, Google as well, for fresh satellite imagery--
things started to improve.
And you see that through Map Maker, the base layer of our
data, contributors started coming in and started mapping
out those places.
So in the bottom somewhere, there's Attabad.
That was the place which suffered that landslide.
And on the eastern side of it, you can see that the river
that was flowing down in that valley, it's
starting to get blocked.
And now there's a big blue polygon there.
It's filling up with water.
What happened was that there was a landslide lake, which
was building up.
And this disaster took place in January, and until March we
were hearing, oh, the lake's growing.
The lake's growing.
But we really couldn't put a quantifier, how big the extent
of that data was.
So fortunately, we got in touch with some cool folks at
NASA Natural Hazards, and they had satellite imagery.
And they were able to extract polygon extents of
what that lake was.
And month over month over weeks, they were able to share
those layers with us.
So you can see that in blue, that was in
somewhere in early March.
And then in May, the lake is expanding.
And then it's expanding even further.
So that way, we were able to paint a picture that, oh, this
disaster is this big.
So maybe you need to pay some attention to it.
The second part of our effort was that we were able to get a
lot of information about relief activities, medical
camps, villages which have been wiped out, which have not
been wiped out, which have survived, personal properties,
lost orchards and farms, et cetera, and put
that up on the map.
Just to paint a bigger economic
picture of what was happening.
Fortunately for this, so our website was called
[? www.local.com.pica/hunsa ?].
There was a local GIS expert in that region.
And unfortunately, he lost his entire village to the lake
that was slowly growing.
And from the ground, every day, using mobile cellular
data, that person was able to provide us with updates.
And he would on foot visit all of these camps, and we were
able to put that up all on the map here.
So anybody who wanted to know what's happening, how big, or
how wrong things are going in that area, they'll be able to
log in and simply see using the layers that we have
available on the right hand side.
At the same time, in July, 2010, we spoke about this at a
TEDx talk in Lahore.
And our basic message there was that we need publicly
available data.
We need access to information.
We need either that information contained by or
held by the government or private agencies.
And just while we were discussing that need for data,
then the big flood of 2010 happened.
Jabran will talk about it.
JABRAN RAFIQUE: Thank you very much.
So it wasn't even six months, and we had another situation
which was similar kind of that.
But this time it was a bigger impact.
We had the whole country going through this event, which
actually, according to United Nation statistics, left over
20 million people displaced from their settlements.
And the situation called again for the same things we had in
the previous case study.
Where the impact exactly is, and what is the
extent of the impact?
And what rescue and relief efforts that have been done or
being done to this situation?
So we went through the same method as we did for the
landslide lake.
We called a few of the organizations with the help of
google.org.
And as you can see, this is one of the examples where
[? UNICEF ?]
and [? UNITUR ?]
provided us with the flood extents throughout the country
in a special format, which we overlaid over the map.
And this shows the impact on 25th of August.
And here is the georeference.
And we could exactly identify the areas which
had the impact extent.
And the rescue efforts and the relief efforts, they were very
much facilitated with the help of this information.
Similarly, we approached the local, nationwide
organizations.
Pakistan Red Crescent Society is actually Red Cross, which
works in Pakistan with this name.
They kindly agreed to share their data, because they were
providing relief efforts throughout the country.
And as you can see, when we had this data overlaid on the
map, and we could see how much of the food or medical
supplies had been already supplied to the affected area.
So this also actually extends to the results where two
organizations working on the same place, and not overdo the
relief efforts more than what is being needed.
So they can divert to other places
where it is more needed.
So it really called for not duplicating the
efforts at one place.
Similarly, because it became one of the best sources for
the data, and it was the first kind of information sharing in
the country.
So Google Crisis Response took it on their crisis response
page as one of the main stories.
Because Map Maker data was the base of all the
system, all the idea.
So Google Response Team, they actually directly contacted
with the government and the Pakistan army, who were the
forefront in the relief efforts.
And they shared mathematical data with them, which saved
over 100,000 lives from the remote areas which were not
identified before.
The whole press release which can be found on this link was
released, identifying the use of the maps, the use of the
detail maps, basically, and their extent to the rescue and
relief efforts.
Overall summary of this work is basically to make data
available, especially the disaster data available, to
the public as much as it can be.
So the people know where exactly the disaster is
happening and what is the extent of the disaster so the
rescue and relief efforts can be made accordingly.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
JABRAN RAFIQUE: [INAUDIBLE]
WANSOO IM: You know, in 2005 actually, I
had a personal crisis.
When I was visiting New York, I couldn't find a bathroom
with my daughters.
And I said, wow, there's got to be something that
I can do with my--
so what I did was, I created this New York restroom.
So this is actually the start of the PPGIS.
People can add--
it's one of the first trials of the crowdsourcing.
So I was once famous, actually, featured in The New
Yorker and the New York Times.
Now, the meaning of the technology, now you can get
this kind of information by using this mobile phone, but
not just getting information, but you can also contribute
the data, too.
You don't need to use a computer, or you don't need to
write in a computer.
You can just use a mobile phone.
So mapping is a really effective visualization tool,
and it will draw lots of attention.
And then GIS, in 1990 and early 2000, it was only can be
used by the consulting company, education institute,
and some research center because of the hardware,
software, and then data.
Thanks to Google Maps and some hardware price and open
government data, this is not an issue anymore.
So this is a project that I did with the
middle school students.
They mapped their [INAUDIBLE].
That died, killed, or alive, right?
So look at this [? comment. ?]
This is a kid's-- by the middle school kid.
Splattered all over the road, the blood extended
about half a mile.
I wish I had a picture.
It was done in 2006.
And then this is a form.
But what students did, was they collected this data
within [INAUDIBLE].
And they look at the pattern.
And that they begin to ask, what is happening?
What can be done?
So they can kind of do a planning and mediation.
Maybe we can put a speed bump or some warning signs.
And then once they do the implementation, what they can
do is they can collect the same data for the next year,
and they can evaluate.
Can you see how the middle school students are using this
kind of mapping in 2006 to use the GIS?
This is my project that I did with my college students.
What we did was--
data is one thing, but also hoping that you need to get
the data from the local perspective.
This is data about the female students, about their
perception about the safety around the campus.
So technology's amazing.
By using the Mappler, it's a program that we developed,
students are able to create this Android and iPhone
interface for the survey within an hour.
It took an hour.
And then we get together.
You can see me here with coffee.
And then they collect this data within an hour--
all the safety and perception of the students.
Once they collect by using Android and iPhone, you got
this data-related process.
So by the time we come back to the classroom, we're able to
look at what has been done.
All the statistics is already organized, so we are able to
discuss what can be done.
But look at this.
This is one of my students.
Not just perception.
IPhone and Android has a sensor.
You can measure sound, and the light.
So we can actually measure the light index and then see how
bright or how dark it is, right?
This is more like actual scientific measurement,
compared to perception.
And then we have our other students look at the crime
data, like arrest data, with the street light.
That it's broken or it's working.
Can you believe all these three kinds of data was not
there before?
And it can be collected within a day or within a couple of
hours by using just the existing technology.
This is a project.
Every summer, I do commuter mapping in my town.
And this is all the Hispanic students.
And we go out, and we map the risk factor of the safe walk
to school--
sidewalk condition, crosswalk conditions,
and all those things.
This is, like, some of the road
condition is really horrible.
And then we come back to the computer lab.
We look at it.
But it's not about the collecting
data and sharing data.
I found out it actually changed the youth.
They were surprised that they can make a
difference in their community.
And also, they have a hope that they can do something.
And also, they now have a hope that they want to go to the
good college.
One of the sad thing happen.
One of the kids who were participating in community
mapping actually, ironically, got killed
by a car last month.
And I have his video here.
Can you put the sound?
You can see it.
It's OK.
You can--
at least we have a caption, right?
Did you see?
I was really surprised.
What kind of thing and how we impact.
In the beginning, Mr. Suzuki mentioned about the importance
of the education in disaster management.
And then [? Dr. Shun ?]
mentioned about this mobile technology.
Technologies are available.
There is so many things can be done at the community level.
And then we have been talking about the community level
interventions, community level of the risk management.
Everything, the technology is there.
And so I kind of summarized my commuter mapping and recorded
and archived community information by using the local
perspective, encouraging community engagement and
collaboration, raised awareness on community issues,
promoting a sense of connection to the community,
empower community to advocate for change, and also, all the
data they're collecting can be used to help local government
to be more efficient, and then even apply for the grant.
So my mission statement has been connecting people and
connecting communities.
Thank you.