Welcome to Humanitarian GIS! Wherever you’re signing in from, I hope these pages can provide you with valuable support. I write primarily for field-based aid workers to provide resources and tips for using GIS, mapping, and visual communication tools in humanitarian contexts.
I am a fellow aid worker and have been using GIS for almost 10 years in both humanitarian and Canadian contexts to support ongoing decision-making, to evaluate program performance, and to design for the future. There are lots of GIS professionals out there as well as plenty of knowledgeable aid workers – by blending both sectors, my goal is to help you improve your project service delivery and efficiency using GIS.
Here are a few of the topics I try to address:
- GIS for the humanitarian beginner (Check this out…how to make your own programme map in half an hour.)
- GIS for remote programme management
- GIS for better security decision-making
- GIS for wowing your donors AND your beneficiaries with easy-to-communicate visuals
- GIS for mapping remote roads, villages, people and projects – wherever you are
- GIS for going paperless
So…why?
When I arrived at my very first field location as a newbie WASH manager, I was overwhelmed with all there was to learn. But one of my biggest frustrations was this: there were no maps! I would blindly climb into the Land Cruiser with my teammates, and off we would drive into the dusty desert, bumping along for hours on end, until we would arrive at a remote village where, apparently, our organization was working.
And then there came the days when insecurity prevented me from traveling at all, and I was left with the oh-so-difficult task of remote programme management.
These experiences left me with a few questions:
- Where is our office in relation to the villages where I was working?
- Which road would I use if I needed to evacuate my team quickly?
- What was our actual programming impact in the villages where we were working?
- Why had we chosen these villages instead of other ones?
- How do I ensure accountability even when I can’t get out to villages we’re programming in?
And on and on…do you know the feeling?
So began my journey of finding resources and methods of creating the mapped information I lacked. I was fortunate to have a background in GIS as an engineer and have continued learning since then. What resulted are the beginnings of what you’ll find in the pages of Humanitarian GIS. You’ll find here ideas and suggestions to help you bring some sort of sanity out of all the programme data you have lying around.
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If any of this has resonated with you, I want you to subscribe! This website will only be as relevant as the members who critique and contribute to it! Join now, and let’s get started making mapping magic.
My bio
I am a water resources engineer with over six years of technical and project management experience in promoting responsible humanitarian action, improving local water resources health, and building more resilient communities globally. I graduated from the University of Guelph in 2008 with a degree in water resources engineering, and became a professionally licensed engineer in Canada in 2013. I have built computer models and used Geographic Information Systems in both humanitarian and Canadian contexts to support ongoing decision-making, to evaluate program performance, and to design for the future. I’ve built models and waded through enormous databases to complete watershed characterizations, to analyze and map flood areas, to assess water supply, to manage droughts, and to assess water quality risks.
I met my amazing husband, Steve, working in North Sudan on a humanitarian response team. He’s finalizing his Master’s in Aid and Development Practice, and he has one of the most organized, conscientious minds on the planet – so he’s constantly making me think up better ways to approach problems we both face in the field.
I’d love to hear from you! Whether you’re someone who dreams of one day working as an aid worker, or whether you’re already out there on the ground send me an email: janna@humanitariangis.net. Talk to you soon,
Janna
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