I’ve thought long and hard about what to write for my very first post on Humanitarian GIS. Then, finally this week, I got the proverbial “Kick in the Pants” from a colleague when he found out about my online e-book, and scolded me for not sharing it sooner. I realized that the passion I have for bringing humanitarian data to life through maps isn’t personal – no, it’s a shared passion.
So enough dilly-dallying, and here we go – a headlong dive into this project, and let’s see where it takes us.
What can you expect from Humanitarian GIS?
- Weekly Blog Posts every Saturday: If you sign up for this website (which you should do right now – you get a free e-book on how to make a map!), you can expect an update email every Saturday with a new tip or trick about using GIS as a humanitarian.
- Responsiveness to your Comments: I’ll commit to responding to every question and comment as best I can – even if it means pointing you to someone more knowledgeable somewhere else on the inter-web.
- Keeping the Content Focused on Beginners: I’ll commit to you as a beginner and a humanitarian – there are lots of tools and tricks out there for GIS geeks – this website is for the aid-based project manager that’s new to GIS and is eager to learn.
- Relevant Training Material: Including new e-books, online training opportunities, and live training opportunities from time to time, you can expect periodic updates to training materials here.
Topics of Weekly Blog Posts:
- Map-making: First off, a lot of us prefer to look at numbers and data on maps rather than static tables. As a basic skill, you can expect more than a few blog posts on this topic – how to make your own maps.
- Data collection for GIS: As aid workers, we all like to collect data. But it’s harder to use and share that data if it just sits in a bunch of paper reports and never POPS out at you on a map. So these posts will help you collect the right data, using the right tools, and link it with GIS.
- Data cleaning and analysis using GIS: You need to be a great data manager to most effectively use GIS, so we’ll spend some time looking at how to keep your data organized and easy to map.
- Data visualization: One of the biggest benefits of visual data is that it triggers your brain to ask different questions – questions you might not have ever asked before seeing it visually.
- Improving Humanitarian Project Management using GIS: GIS has lots of benefits. One of the biggest benefits is using GIS to make better decisions in the aid sector. Whether those decisions are about security, accountability, or strategy, maps will help you out.
My First Suggestion: Go Download QGIS
Head on over to QGIS and download it. The software is open-source and free. For that reason, I’ll always try to use QGIS in these posts so that it stays accessible to everyone.
My Second Suggestion: Get my free e-book
I’ve put a lot of work into creating a detailed, step-by-step how-to guide on making your very first map. Without any help from a GIS expert, you will learn the basics of QGIS and have a map product by the end. All I ask for in return is your email address so we can stay connected.
And with that, have a great week, and “talk” to you again next Saturday.