Red Cross Geo calls: 2023 summary
Twice a month, British Red Cross (BRC) hosts the Red Cross/Red Crescent Geo Call, a community of practice for people working on geospatial issues in different Red Cross National Societies and the IFRC. The call is a space for people in the RCRC Movement working with geospatial tools and data to come together, share information, get help and learn about how others are doing geospatial work. This post summarises the presentations we had on the call throughout 2023.
Heatwave Vulnerability Assessment in Myanmar
Isabell Klipper of German Red Cross presented on a heat assessment GRC produced as part of an anticipatory action programme on heatwaves with the Myanmar Red Cross. GRC were asked to help map areas most at risk from heatwaves. The process involved mapping vulnerable populations, informal housing and land surface temperatures.
Vulnerability and Capability Assessments in Lebanon
Lebanese Red Cross’s Disaster Risk Reduction team presented a programme they have been working on to inform local authorities about disaster risk through enhanced Vulnerability and Capability Assessments. The team spoke about the eVCA process and the tools they used to collect and analyse data, and how the results have been shared with local stakeholders to inform disaster preparedness. Their approach is documented in this StoryMap.
Red Cross Climate Centre and Early Action Protocols
Dorothy Heinrich from the Red Cross Climate Centre spoke about how the Centre uses geospatial data to inform early action protocols (EAPs). The discussion touched on: lessons from implementing EAPs; common standards for sharing alerts; working with local institutions to create risk models that align with local risks and definitions of extreme weather events; overcoming data gaps; and modelling of multiple and complex risks.
IFRC GIS Training platform
Francesco Coccoli from British Red Cross presented an initiative to develop a QGIS training resource for use throughout the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, developed by BRC, German RC and Netherlands RC. Staff from these National Societies collated materials they have created to run QGIS trainings and have brought in support from HeiGIT to develop it into an online platform, due for launch in 2024. The platform will provide a standardised set of topics and exercises that trainers can use to introduce people to GIS concepts and workflows in QGIS, including working with OpenStreetMap data.
IFRC Local Unit Mapping
David Muchatiza from IFRC’s GO team presented the progress made so far on collating a global dataset showing locations of Red Cross/Red Crescent National Society local units (locations where RC/RC has a presence, e.g., a local branch or volunteer office). Once verified, these locations will be added to the country pages on IFRC GO and made available to use in maps and dashboards. Each National Society will have edit permissions to update the data themselves after the initial upload.
Geospatial API grid search tool
Alex Howes from IFRC presented a Python tool she made to work with geospatial APIs. Her tool is designed to return search results for a large area programmatically, by breaking data into chunks that fit within the number of results that the API returns. If the API response is above the threshold, the tool breaks the search down into smaller areas that won’t saturate the API response, ensuring a complete coverage of results.
If you work in the RCRC Movement and would like to join the calls, email the BRC GIS team at maps@redcross.org.uk. To find out more about collaboration and innovation in GIS & IM in the RC Movemement, visit the Surge Information Management Support (SIMS) website.
