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Sources of Mapping used in Humanitarian Emergencies: The Case of Ebola

José Antonio Barra Martínez
José Antonio Barra Martínez
, 
Francisco José Morales-Yago
Francisco José Morales-Yago
 and 
María Luisa de Lázaro-Torres
María Luisa de Lázaro-Torres
   | Dec 29, 2022
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Published Online: Dec 29, 2022
Page range: 73 - 87
Received: Sep 24, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/quageo-2022-0035
Keywords
© 2022 José Antonio Barra Martínez et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Capture from https://hxlstandard.org United Nations’ HXL (screenshot).Source: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Capture from https://hxlstandard.org United Nations’ HXL (screenshot).Source: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Fig. 2

Maps provided by WHO. a – 2003 epidemic in Mbomo, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazza). b – 2004 epidemic in Yambio, then Sudan, now South Sudan.Source: own elaboration based on https://www.who.int/data/gho/map-gallery-search-results?&maptopics=22730bde-25e7-49e9-ae78-8ee9cdd6f65c (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0).WHO – World Health Organization.
Maps provided by WHO. a – 2003 epidemic in Mbomo, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazza). b – 2004 epidemic in Yambio, then Sudan, now South Sudan.Source: own elaboration based on https://www.who.int/data/gho/map-gallery-search-results?&maptopics=22730bde-25e7-49e9-ae78-8ee9cdd6f65c (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0).WHO – World Health Organization.

Fig. 3

WHO Dashboard for the 2018 epidemic in Bikoro (DRC).Source: data portal and mapping, Ebola outbreak response. https://ebolaoutbreak2018-who.opendata.arcgis.com/ (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0).DRC – Democratic Republic of the Congo; WHO – World Health Organization.
WHO Dashboard for the 2018 epidemic in Bikoro (DRC).Source: data portal and mapping, Ebola outbreak response. https://ebolaoutbreak2018-who.opendata.arcgis.com/ (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0).DRC – Democratic Republic of the Congo; WHO – World Health Organization.

Fig. 4

Map from the WHO SITREP.Source: https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/disease-outbreaks/outbreaks-and-other-emergencies-updates (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0).WHO – World Health Organization.
Map from the WHO SITREP.Source: https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/disease-outbreaks/outbreaks-and-other-emergencies-updates (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0).WHO – World Health Organization.

Fig. 5

Result of a search for the term Ebola in the list of activations of the Emergency Management Service of the Copernicus system (screenshot).Source: European Union https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-activations-rapid.
Result of a search for the term Ebola in the list of activations of the Emergency Management Service of the Copernicus system (screenshot).Source: European Union https://emergency.copernicus.eu/mapping/list-of-activations-rapid.

Fig. 6

Countries with access to Charter services in March 2021 (dark blue).Source: International Charter Space and Major Disasters, p. 54. https://disasterscharter.org/documents/10180/14622/20th-Charter-Annual-Report.pdf.
Countries with access to Charter services in March 2021 (dark blue).Source: International Charter Space and Major Disasters, p. 54. https://disasterscharter.org/documents/10180/14622/20th-Charter-Annual-Report.pdf.

Fig. 7

Preparatory screen in Field Papers to obtain a map in a pdf format of the city of Beni, North Kivu Province (DRC).Source: http://fieldpapers.org/compose#13/0.4983/29.4689.DRC – Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Preparatory screen in Field Papers to obtain a map in a pdf format of the city of Beni, North Kivu Province (DRC).Source: http://fieldpapers.org/compose#13/0.4983/29.4689.DRC – Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fig. 8

Mapping improvement Ebola projects carried out by HOT.Source: HOT https://tasks.hotosm.org/explore.HOT – Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.
Mapping improvement Ebola projects carried out by HOT.Source: HOT https://tasks.hotosm.org/explore.HOT – Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.

Fig. 9

Map provided by MapAction for a sector of Freetown (Sierra Leone) overlaying Ebola cases with building density.Source: https://maps.mapaction.org/dataset/232-3611.
Map provided by MapAction for a sector of Freetown (Sierra Leone) overlaying Ebola cases with building density.Source: https://maps.mapaction.org/dataset/232-3611.

Fig. 10

Affected health zones are given in red.Source: map prepared by the authors based on the sources cited in the text.
Affected health zones are given in red.Source: map prepared by the authors based on the sources cited in the text.

Results of the double search performed with the terms ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo’ and ‘Ebola’ in the HDX database.

Information found Organisation providing data Date of update
Sanitation facilities in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri WHO 19 March 2021
Administrative boundaries of the health areas of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces WHO 7 November 2019
Administrative boundaries of the health zones of the DRC Référentiel Géographique Commun (the now defunct website created at the time by the DRC government to unify georeferenced information about the country) 4 March 2021
Level 1 and 2 health administrative boundaries (zones and health areas) of the DRC WHO open data platform for the May 2018 Ebola outbreak Undated
Administrative boundaries of the health zones of the province of Equateur (DRC) and of the health areas of the districts of Bikoro and Wangata in the same province DRC Delegation in the UNOCHA 6 September 2018

WHO bulletins consulted for locating Ebola mapping.

Report name Organisation that publishes data Content/web link
Weekly Epidemiological Record/Relevé Épidémiologique Hebdomadaire WHO Weekly report that collects information on various infectious diseases and provides an overview of the status of each one. https://www.who.int/publications/journals/weekly-epidemiological-record
External Situation Report, SITREP WHO This contains specific information on the current status of a given epidemic outbreak, and is sometimes updated daily, depending on the severity of the outbreak. It is located on web pages designed to address specific epidemics or, more generally, on the WHO institutional repository (2021), known as the Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS). https://apps.who.int/iris/?locale-attribute=en&
Outbreaks and Emergencies Bulletin WHO (Regional Office for Africa) Weekly updates data on active outbreaks in Africa. https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/disease-outbreaks/outbreaks-and-other-emergencies-updates
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