Background

The Commonwealth of Dominica is also known as “the Nature Isle” due to its lush forest nestled in rugged terrain. Recent extreme storm events have severely impacted and threatened the inhabitants’ way of life as well as the environment. The scars and impacts of legacy storms, including Hurricane Maria (2017) also still present.

The increase in storms has resulted in a search for more sustainable methods of living and development over the long term. Research activity has often concentrated around high-impact, high-visibility events. Therefore, there is a lack of comprehensive observed flood hazards for household and community resilience planning.

Approach

To fill data gaps on flood risk to buildings, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and local implementing partner Open Solutions for Business worked with mappers from Youth Emergency Action to update building footprints in OpenStreetMap and collect observed historical flood data per building. Following HOT training, communities were surveyed to report the damage to each building for each historic flood, as well as other relevant information about the building and local flooding.

Community-reported flood extents were compared to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) regional flood modeling risks, the standard in the region.

Using a combination of mobile mapping apps Vespucci and HOT's pilot version of Field Mapping Tasking Manager, all mapping was community-based and accessible via mobile phones.

Impact

In total, 24 maps and survey collection forms were created for current and future use in flood resilience planning in Dominica. A total of 260 building footprints were added to OSM, and hundreds of historic flood data, organized by building, was provided to the Dominican government.

A secondary outcome was the development of a mapping culture in the community via remote mapping and aerial mapping. The creation of this culture would foster greater open data use throughout the rest of the island, bolstering data available for future climate hazard preparations, and act as a pilot for similar small island developing states in the Caribbean region.

Lessons Learned

To make remote mapping more accessible and not rely on high-performance desktop computers, all mapping was done via mobile phones. Mobile app Vespucci was first used to update building footprints in OSM. Then, HOT led a successful pilot of the Field Mapping Tasking Manager to coordinate the mapping of multiple data editors using mobile phones. The application is similar to HOT's Tasking Manager, but optimized for mobile use in collecting GPS points in person.

Both apps allow for remote mapping, but cloud-free aerial imagery is often a challenge in the Caribbean. Future projects should consider the availability of clear aerial imagery in choosing the applications they use for mapping.