Humanitarian GIS

: In this lesson, we will debate applications, limitations, and ethical issues in Humanitarian GIS.

Friday, April 30

Prior to class, please read:

Crawford, K., and M. Finn. 2014. The limits of crisis data: analytical and ethical challenges of using social and mobile data to understand disasters. GeoJournal 80 (4):491–502. DOI:10.1007/s10708-014-9597-z

Prepare a blog post based upon this prompt:

Consider the Craford & Finn (2014) article and any of the crowd-sourced / volunteered geographic information (VGI) you have already worked with personally (e.g. Twitter, OpenStreetMap) in relation to Longley et al’s framework of uncertainty filters in the process of geograaphic research.

• What types of uncertainty are most prevalant in the use of VGI for research on disasters and humanitarian crises?
• Do you think that there is any ethical obligation in relation to uncertainty?

• Or, do you think that there are ethical concerns in using VGI that complicate uncertainty?

• slides for geog 323 students only
• merge changes from main branch to your copy on GitHub

Examples of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)

• eBird
• Hot OSM
• Map Kibera
• Waze
• Ushahidi

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