MapSwipe

With your mobile phone, you can play a part in helping communities around the world, one swipe at a time.

Around the world, millions of individuals are affected by disasters, disease, and conflict. First responders working with these communities often have to cover large areas, but lack the data necessary for an efficient, effective response. Through MapSwipe, volunteers pinpoint where critical infrastructure and populations are located, allowing mappers to focus only on areas where they know features need to be mapped.

MapSwipe is an open-source mobile app that is making mapping around the world more coordinated and efficient. Volunteers swipe through satellite images looking for features (ie: buildings, roadways, waterways, etc.) and tap once when they have located them. Each set of imagery is viewed by at least three different individuals to create a mechanism for internal validation of results. We believe that anyone, anywhere should be able to contribute to the Missing Maps project.

MapSwipe is very intuitive. Mappers follow these steps:

1. Choose your 'mission'. Each mission will indicate what you are looking for (for example, buildings and roads).
2. Swipe left to see the next tile.
3. Tap once on a square to identify a feature. The square will turn green.
4. Tap twice if you are not sure, but you think there is a feature. The square will turn orange.
5. Tap three times to identify bad / no imagery or cloud cover. The square will turn red.

Since its start in 2015, MapSwipe has scaled to 29,000 users mapping 600,000 km2 (larger than the area of Kenya). MapSwipe is volunteer-driven and community-led. Any organization or mapping community can request to use MapSwipe to help with their activities on the ground. To learn more check out the MapSwipe website . If you’d like to request a project, email info@mapswipe.org. Happy swiping!