TBU Students Will Map Areas Affected by the Outbreak of Coronavirus
6. April 2020Students of the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management of Tomas Bata University in Zlín have joined the organized mapping, the so-called mapathon. It is a unique and interesting opportunity for them to help digitize and map the world’s most vulnerable developing areas affected by the outbreak of Coronavirus disease.
Teams of Doctors without Borders and other humanitarian organizations often help in poorly mapped areas. However, without detailed maps, it is impossible to plan vaccination campaigns, assess medical data or carry out epidemiological analyses.
For this reason, the Missing Maps project was set up, within which humanitarian organizations in cooperation with volunteers all over the world create maps of areas threatened by crisis using satellite images. Wherever they are, volunteers sitting at their computers can significantly contribute to the work that may help save millions of lives. And students of Tomas Bata University also got involved in this project.
Humanitarian and crisis mapping is implemented regularly by the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management, particularly by the Department of Environmental Security.
“We regularly organize mapathons for students as well as for the general public. Therefore, we put the world’s most vulnerable places on the map, i.e. we map the areas that are literally “missing” from any map, but are densely populated. These areas include countries in which environment is threatened, countries fighting frequent pandemic disease outbreaks, illegal business activities, civil wars, etc.,” describes Assoc. Prof. Zuzana Tučková, Dean of the Faculty of Logistics and Crisis Management.
These detailed maps and data can later help local and international non-profit organizations deal with crisis situations affecting these areas.
The participation of volunteers in the sphere of digitizing is absolutely essential for many humanitarian organizations operating all over the world and aiming to remedy the consequences of various disasters.