Collaborative Mapping Of Hurricane Damage With Google Maps

Mapping enthusiasts are using Google Maps and Google Earth and other data to compile maps of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. One Web site, www.scipionus.com, is combating the confusion by encouraging users to annotate a Google Map of New Orleans with information about specific locations. Collectively, the community is creating a collaborative map Wikipedia. Anyone with something to add can enter a street address and leave a marker on the map at that location, providing a few lines of text about conditions at that spot.

1 minute read

September 2, 2005, 8:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @legalaidtech

Mapping enthusiasts are using Google Maps and Google Earth and other data to compile maps of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

One Web site, www.scipionus.com, is combating the confusion by encouraging users to annotate a Google Map of New Orleans with information about specific locations. Collectively, the community is creating a collaborative map Wikipedia. Anyone with something to add can enter a street address and leave a marker on the map at that location, providing a few lines of text about conditions at that spot.

In a separate effort, other Web users have also made use of satellite photographs of the region available through the Google Earth service, a program which allows users to view satellite photos as if they were flying over them, panning, zooming and tilting the image at will. While most of those photos depict the area pre-hurricane, the software allows users to "overlay" other photos and images. So more recent aerial photos--even pictures from news services and solo photographers--can be reshaped and dropped onto a satellite map, illustrating the current conditions.

[Source: Forbes - Google Is Everywhere]

On a related note, aerial and satellite images of disaster locations are available for free from ClobeXplorer.

Abhijeet Chavan

Abhijeet Chavan is the co-founder and former co-editor-in-chief of Planetizen and the executive producer of Planetizen Courses. He was also the chief technology officer of Urban Insight, Inc., the technology consulting firm that operates Planetizen. Abhijeet Chavan has over 20 years of technology consulting experience working with government, higher education, legal services, and non-profit clients.

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