AMBIENTE M. Minghini* Collaborative mapping L. Delucchi** A. Sarretta*** response to disasters through F. Lupia**** M. Napolitano***** openstreetmap: the case of A. Palmas****** the 2016 italian earthquake * Politecnico di Milano, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Milano, Italy ** Fondazione Edmund Mach, Research and Innovation Centre, Department of Digital humanitarians represent the current generation of volunteers, providing timely contributions Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, in the form of digital map data in the aftermath of natural disasters. Starting from the tragic 2010 San Michele all’Adige, Italy earthquake in Haiti and thanks to the success of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project, the presence *** Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and coordination of these volunteers have grown incredibly over the past years. This work investiga- (CNR) – Istituto di Scienze Marine tes the dynamics of the mapping process and the nature of the OSM volunteers who contributed (ISMAR), Venezia, Italy map data after the 2016 earthquake in Central Italy. The analyses show that existing OSM users **** Consiglio per la ricerca were the majority of those contributing to the mapping activity, with less edits performed by new in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia users. The collaborative mapping process was efficiently coordinated through a dedicated platform agraria, Roma, Italy and the area hit by the earthquake was significantly edited in OSM after the disaster. ***** Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Keywords: collaborative mapping, disaster management, earthquake, OpenStreetMap Trento, Italy ****** Wikimedia Italia, Milano, Italy Risposta collaborativa alla mappatura di eventi disastrosi tramite openstreetmap: il caso del terremoto in italia del 2016. I digital humanitarians rappresentano la nuova genera- zione di volontari, capaci di fornire contributi tempestivi sotto forma di dati geografici all’indomani di org), the world’s openly-licensed disastri naturali. A partire dal tragico terremoto di Haiti nel 2010 e grazie al successo del progetto OpenStreetMap (OSM), la presenza e il coordinamento di questi volontari sono cresciuti incredibil- geospatial database created by vo- mente negli ultimi anni. Il presente lavoro ha studiato le dinamiche del processo di mappatura e lunteers, which is nowadays used by la natura dei volontari di OSM che hanno contribuito dati geografici dopo il terremoto nel Centro a myriad of actors and applications Italia del 2016. Le analisi mostrano che gli utenti OSM già esistenti prima dell’evento sono stati la (Mooney and Minghini, in press). maggioranza dei contributori, mentre quelli registrati al progetto dopo l’evento hanno contribuito in The open nature of OSM makes it misura minore. Il processo di mappatura collaborativa è stato efficacemente coordinato attraverso highly suitable for disaster mapping, una piattaforma dedicata e l’area colpita dal disastro è stata editata significativamente in OSM. as shown by the response after the Parole chiave: mappatura collaborativa, gestione dei disastri, terremoto, OpenStreetMap earthquakes in Haiti in 2010 and Nepal in 2015 (see e.g. Soden and Palen, 2014; Poiani et al., 2016). 1. Introduction based on citizens’ provision of geo- However, OSM mapping in countri- spatial datasets, which have been es prone to many natural hazards is Natural disasters have always described with a variety of terms challenged, among other reasons, marked the history of humankind. including crowdsourcing, Voluntee- by limited broadband connection, Recent years have witnessed an in- red Geographic Information (VGI), lack of GPS devices, technical skills crease in both their frequency and Participatory Sensing and Citizen and support from organizations, go- magnitude at a global level, often Science (See et al., 2016). In the vernments and academia (Latif et with tragic consequences when specific context of disaster manage- al., 2011). In the context of natural events strike in developing or under- ment, these practices have seen a disasters, the coordination of volun- developed countries where autho- new player entering the scene: the teers’ mapping efforts is operated by ritative geographic information is so-called digital humanitarians, i.e. the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap either not available or not accurate the networks of technology volun- Team (HOT, https://www.hotosm. and up-to-date (Poiani et al., 2016). teers crowdsourcing timely informa- org), which was formed right after However, in contrast to the past, the tion during crises response (Meier, the Haiti earthquake. The HOT’s activities falling under the umbrella 2015). Tasking Manager (TM, http://tasks. of disaster management (Hodgkin- The main platform around which hotosm.org) is the software platform son and Stewart, 1991) can cur- humanitarian efforts revolve before used everyday by hundreds of volun- rently benefit from the flourishing and after disasters is OpenStreetMap teers to perform remote mapping by of collaborative mapping practices (OSM, http://www.openstreetmap. digitizing geospatial objects (mainly Geoingegneria Ambientale e Mineraria, Anno LIV, n. 2, agosto 2017, 21-26 21 ENVIRONMENT roads and buildings) on top of satelli- for facing future threats (Shemak, nized by the American Red Cross te imagery. This remote work clearly 2014; Soden and Palen, 2014). and HOT to fight the 2014 Ebola complements the local knowledge Similarly to the work presented in outbreak in Western Africa (Moel- of people who are physically pre- this paper, by extracting information ler and Furhmann, 2015). Recently, sent in the disaster area. With these from the OSM database, Poiani et a partnership between HOT and Di- premises, the purpose of this study is al., 2016) studied how the collabo- gital Globe has launched a malaria to investigate the OSM collabora- rative mapping was coordinated be- elimination campaign in Southern tive mapping process that took pla- fore and after the Nepal earthquake Africa, Southeast Asia and Central ce after the earthquake occurred in in 2015. Due to the major dimension America (https://www.hotosm.org/ Central Italy in August 2016. This of the event and the coordination projects/malaria_elimination_cam- is done by analysing the number, led by HOT, the study highlighted paign). nature, provenance and amount of huge amounts of edits performed by contributions of the active OSM vo- both new OSM mappers and parti- lunteers. cipants to the so-called mapathons. The remainder of the paper is These are short social events whe- 3. The Italian case study structured as follows. Section 2 exa- re both experienced OSM mappers mines related work in the field of and beginners meet and contribute On August 24, 2016, at 03:36 OSM collaborative disaster map- data to the project (Ebrahim et al., AM (local time) a ML 6.0 earthqua- ping. Section 3 introduces the Ita- 2016). In a study carried out on 26 ke (MW 6.0) struck an extensive lian case study and describes the ex- HOT campaigns, Dittus et al., 2016) portion of the Central Apennines perimental work performed through highlighted that usually most of the between the towns of Norcia and the analysis of the OSM database hi- contributors are already active at Amatrice (see Figure 1). The epi- story and the related results. Section the time of the disaster, a small per- centre was located near the town 4 concludes the paper and provides centage of experienced mappers are of Accumoli. The area was struck recommendations on how contribu- reactivated because of the event, by several earthquakes in histori- tors’ response can be facilitated and and first-time mappers provide ma- cal times (1627, 1639, 1672, 1703) increased. jor contributions which are often (INGV Working Group on Ama- biased by quality issues. As a further trice earthquake, 2016). The 2016 example, Palen et al., 2015) studied earthquake caused 299 victims and the OSM volunteers’ contributions almost 400 injured people. Several 2. Related work after the onset of the 2013 Typhoon other shocks occurred during the fol- Yolanda (or Haiyan) in the Philip- lowing weeks and other earthquakes Started after the Gaza crises in pines. The authors found a 3-fold struck adjacent areas in the Central 2009, the use of OSM for collabo- increase in the number of mappers Italy during the following months rative disaster mapping has raised since the Haiti event, which could on October 26 (ML 5.4), October interest in the academic community be explained by both the growth of 30 (ML 6.5) and January 18, 2017 (4 since the Haiti earthquake in 2010. the OSM community and HOT’s main subsequent shocks, M 5.1, 5.5, In the aftermath of that disaster, the organizing effort, e.g. thanks to the 5.4, 5.0). contribution of volunteers’ mapping introduction of the TM that reduced The data analysed and discussed was shown to be pivotal to deliver the overlapping and conflict of edits. in this article refer only to the first relief efforts in a place where data- HOT’s cooperation with other event (August 24, 2016). In fact, bases on population, infrastructure, organizations has led to projects this was the main driver for the ac- location and assets were lacking. aimed at preventive mapping in tivation of the Italian OSM com- Thanks to the distribution of up-to- countries that are high vulnerable munity’s mapping efforts. The first date imagery and the mobilization to epidemics, political crises and edit in the map was made at 05:44 of remote mappers from around the natural hazards and where maps do AM, while the first message