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Missions in Progress
GISCorps volunteers assist in three disaster response missions in the US: Eight of our volunteers have been deployed to St Louis, Oklahoma and Alabama to assist in various post disaster tasks. These projects are in collaboration with CrisisCommons, Central Oklahoma Red Cross, and St. Louis County EOC. To learn more about each of these missions, click here.
Two volunteers are deployed to a project in Panama: Azuero Earth Project, a US based non profit organization requested the assistance of two GIS Specialists in developing a comprehensive hydrology dataset. Two GIS Specialists: Josh Garver of Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) in Ohio, and Emily Cheadle of the town of Babylon Department of Planning and Development in New York were selected for this mission and will be working on this project for the next three months.
Seven GISCorps Volunteers recruited for a project with MapAction - Caribbean: Seven GISCorps volunteers have been deployed to a remote mission in the Caribbean. The request for volunteers was made by MapAction; a UK based nonprofit volunteer organization. The volunteers are currently involved in data mining, cleansing and standardization of several GIS datasets related to Saint Lucia, Belize, and Bermuda. They work directly with the MapAction teams in the UK and Caribbean. The GISCorps volunteers involved in this phase are: Anneka Imkamp, California, Kyung Kim, Virginia, Kevin Mayall, Bermuda, Tia Morita, California, Keith Olson, Colorado, Nathan Pugh, Utah, Jacob Spuck, Florida.
A second volunteer is recruited for GRDC project - Nigeria: We recruited a second volunteer for Geographical Resources for Development Centre (GRDC), a non profit organization in Nigeria earlier in the year. Hassan Adekoya, a GIS professional from New York is now working with Alison Fischer, the first GISCorps volunteer who worked on this project, as well as with GRDC team. Hassan is adding more functionality to the website and will also train the GRDC team. To learn about the first phase, click here.
GISCorps volunteer is recruited for a project in Montgomery County, MD: GISCorps has recruited Robert George, a GISCorps volunteer from Pennsylvania, for a project in Montgomery County, MD. This project is in partnership with Identity, Inc, a US based nonprofit organization. Rob will assist Identity Inc. team with analyzing and mapping a variety of demographic and financial data of both upper and lower income school communities in Montgomery County.
A second volunteer is recruited for NHS/UNO-PLUS mission - New Orleans: A second volunteer has been recruited for the University of New Orleans - Department of Planning & Urban Studies (UNO-PLUS) and Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) mission. Smitha Peethambaram, a GIS Analyst with Mactec E & C in California, will be assisting UNO-PLUS/NHS in further enhancing the WhoData.org, an online application that GISCorps' first volunteer, Rafael Ferraro developed about a year ago. To learn about the first phase, click here.
Conducting GIS Needs Assessment and Training - Mozambique: The Niassa National Reserve, a non profit organization located in northern Mozambique requested assistance in two areas: 1) conducting a GIS Needs Assessment of their existing GIS (remotely), and 2) training their local staff on the use of ArcGIS software for 3 weeks. The recruitment resulted in selecting Marci Meixler, a visiting professor at Rutgers University and two of her students: Carly Aulicky and Mike Tanis. Read more here.
Assisting a Micro loan Organization - Haiti: Fonkoze, a US based non profit organization, requested the assistance of a GISCorps volunteer in implementing a complete GPS data collection and web mapping of all of their "credit centers"; the 2000 locations that their clients meet at to repay loans, receive health and education services. Following a search, Joe Dickinson, a GISCorps volunteer from Seattle, WA was recruited for this project and is currently working with Fonkoze representatives. Read more here.
GISCorps Watershed Specialist recruited for a project - Malawi: Christiana Pollack, a GIS specialist with Princeton Hydro in New Jersey was recruited for a project in Malawi. The project is commissioned by WALA, a five year livelihoods program beginning in 2009 to improve food security for chronically food insecure households in Malawi, Africa. Christiana's initial attempt for delineating the boundaries of the first watershed has required further field work which is forthcoming.
Mission with Ministry of Tourism- Mozambique: The Ministry of Tourism requested the assistance of a remote sensing specialist. Kerry Brooks, a professor at Washington State University has conducted change detection on a section of the region and is now working on securing higher quality images for the remainder of the region.
Mission with iMMAP/WFP - North Korea: The third round of recruitment and the project in general is going very well and more map sheets are digitized by the volunteers. The original request for volunteers came from the World Food Program (WFP) and Information Management and Mining Action Program (iMMAP). Volunteers are charged with the task of digitizing 400 map sheets and will create several data layers such as: settlement points, transportation (roads, foot path, and railroads), rivers and lakes. To see the latest status map and read more about this project, click here.
Mission with South Luangwa Conservation Society- Zambia: GISCorps volunteer, Lisa Matthies, a GIS and Geography Instructor at Erie Community College in Williamsville, NY has been supporting SLCS' GIS needs since spring of 2009. Read more about her ongoing support in here.
Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Small Grants Program's 2010-2011 Projects: The 2010/2011 project resulted in providing a second volunteer to the Geographical Resources for Development Centre (GRDC); a Nigerian based non profit organization. More detail is listed under GRDC project description. Read about previous GSDI projects here.
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