Neighborhoods that prepare for emergencies and disaster situations save lives, reduce the severity of injuries and trauma and reduce property damage. Police and emergency personnel often live outside the communities they serve, making citizen response crucial. Open data and open source tools are crucial to community safety - but perceptions around “usability” and “user friendliness” are still obstacles to wider adoption. The Resiliency Maps project, launched in San Francisco, aims to build a city-wide map that: *Makes use of existing open data and open source tools (including OpenStreetMap, Field Papers, QGIS) *Stores information about assets and hazards * Can be printed and stored offline * Can be added to or edited by people across the city to provide information specific to their neighborhood * Does not require a stable group of technical administrators * Creates a replicable process that other cities can use to build their own maps I’ll share insights from our collaboration with the SFFD NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team) program as well as from mapathons in the U.S. and Italy.
Speakers: Nicole Martinelli