Students race against each other to map a safer Indonesia

Students from five of Indonesia’s biggest universities have taken part in an innovative competition to map their cities.

Funded by the Australian Government through the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR) and the World Bank through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, the competition saw students design maps online using new and existing data over six weeks.

This pilot competition, also supported by the Government of Indonesia and run by the International Non-Profit Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, showed how emerging technologies can help improve maps, which are important tools during natural disasters.

Engineers and scientists can now use the students’ maps to identify high risk communities and decide what action needs to be taken to protect these communities from future natural hazards.

“Detailed maps are critical in preparing communities for natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami, floods and volcanoes,” said Dr. Trevor Dhu, Risk and Vulnerability Manager, AIFDR.

“Maps highlight where the most poor and vulnerable people live and their closest community resources, such hospitals and schools.

“In order to understand the risks we need to know where people live and work and what buildings are made of.”

This week, the winning student from each of the participating universities (University of Indonesia, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Universitas Andalas and Institut Teknologi Surabaya) will travel to Denver in the United States to attend two international mapping conferences.

For more information see the competition website http://kompetisiosm.org/

Media enquiries:
Mia Salim, AusAID Indonesia, 08121070237.