Mapping Life in Syria

The situation in Syria remains desperate, particular for ordinary Syrians. A lack of food, safe drinking water and basic health care are affecting huge numbers. The situation is also deteriorating in terms of access to shelter and access to education.

You can learn more about the problems Syrians are facing in this story map examining the findings of the ACU's Dynamic Monitoring Report No. 5. The Assistance Coordination Unit is an aid organisation dedicated to helping Syrians 'without discrimination regardless of gender, race, religion or political beliefs'. The Dynamo map plots the situation facing Syrians in a total of 94 districts, in a number of areas related to quality of life and health.

The Dynamo story map presents a number of choropleth maps which present the state of the health sector, food security, education, drinking water and shelter in each of the 94 different districts.

Mapping Attacks on Aid Workers

Despite their charitable purpose aid workers face increasing levels of threat when carrying out their work. IRIN and Humanitarian Outcomes have mapped global aid worker attacks from 2000 until the end of May 2015. In those 15 years, over 3,000 aid workers have been killed, injured or kidnapped. The Aid Worker Attacks map allows you to explore where and when aid workers have been attacked since 2000.

When the map first opens you are presented with an animated timeline of aid attacks over time. The map attempts to avoid the 'flashing dots' syndrome of a lot of animated timeline maps by zooming in on temporal hotspots of aid worker attacks. For example, when the timeline reaches 2007, the map zooms in on Somalia to explain how the rise of the Al Shabaab extremist group resulted in an increase in aid worker attacks.

As the timeline animation plays a bar chart at the bottom of the map also shows the number of aid worker attacks by quarter. Once the animation has finished you can explore the choropleth map of global aid worker attacks for the whole 15 years. If you click on a country the map will zoom in and the bar graph will update to show the number of attacks in the country by quarter for the entire 15 years.

Explore the Rainforest in 3D

This year Norwegian television channel NRK's annual telethon was dedicated to saving an area of rainforest larger than Denmark and Norway combined. To support the telethon NRK created a wonderful 3D map of a small section of rainforest, which you can explore to learn more about the forest and its inhabitants.

The Save the Rainforest 3d map includes aerial imagery and terrain of the forest. A number of map markers are also displayed on the map. The circular photos allows you to explore life in the forest using Street View type panoramic images, videos and photos.

The map also includes white map markers which contain the names of some of the individuals who signed up to help try and save the rainforest. The NRK telethon was held on October 18th. It is therefore too late to donate to the campaign but you can still explore the map to learn more about the forest and the people and wildlife that live there.

The Race a Tiger Map

Do you think you could beat a tiger in a foot race? This new WWF Tiger Challenge map lets you find out.

The Worldwide Wildlife Fund are tracking the daily movements of a tiger in Russia. His daily track is visualized on a Google Map and shows the total distance traveled and his average speed over the course of the day.

To find out if you could beat the tiger in a running race you can connect your own data from a number of sports tracking apps (including Runkeeper, Nike+, Strava & Map My Run). Once you've added your data you will then discover whether you are as fast as a tiger or not. My advice is to cheat and at least use a bike when racing a tiger.

Water Solutions for the Ecuadorian Amazon

Digital Democracy's ClearWater is a great story map exploring the organisation's work in providing clean water solutions for indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The ClearWater Project is an indigenous-led effort to bring clean water to thousands of people suffering from water contaminated by oil drilling in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region. As you progress through the ClearWater story map you can learn about how rainwater catchment systems have been developed in different Ecuadorian communities.

The map introduces you to some of the people and communities involved in the project, the training of community technicians and the numbers of people who have benefited from the organization's work.

The ClearWater project map is a nicely designed map. A story map really is an engaging and informative way for the charity to explain and demonstrate their work in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The Great Mapped Poppy Run

Ben McBean was a Royal Marine who lost a leg and an arm when he stepped on a landmine while serving in Afghanistan. To help raise money for the Royal British Legion and to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the start of The First World War Ben recently completed a sponsored run around London.

Ben's 31 mile London run was designed to draw the outline of a poppy on the map of London. By completing the run while wearing a GPS connected smartphone Ben was able to complete the geoglyph of a huge poppy on Google Maps.

Now Ben needs other runners to color the poppy in while raising money for the British Legion. To take part in the Big Poppy Run you just need to download Strava, RunKeeper or MapMyRun to your phone and then run any of the streets inside Ben's poppy outline.

The Big Poppy Run is continuing until the 9th November, so you still have time to help complete the big Google Maps poppy or to donate to the Royal British Legion (the UK's leading Armed Forces charity).

International Animal Resue

For 50 years World Animal Protection has been working to support and promote animal welfare around the world. Since 1964 the charity has directly treated over 3.5 million animals in 350 disasters.

To mark their 50th anniversary World Animal Protection has launched an interactive map highlighting some of the disaster work carried out by the organization around the globe. The World Animal Protection Map showcases some of the disaster responses undertaken by the charity in every year of its existence.

You can select a year from the map timeline and then choose an individual disaster response from the selected year. The map will then zoom to the chosen location and display photos, videos and information about the disaster and the World Animation Protection's response.

US NGO's on Google Maps

InterAction, the largest coalition of U.S. based NGOs, has created a series of Google Maps to highlight the work being done by their partners around the world.

The NGO Aid Map currently consists of 6 maps, the Mexico Aid Map, the Haiti Aid Map, the India Aid Map, the China Aid Map, the Horn of Africa Aid Map and the Food Security Aid Map. Each map displays the locations where the NGO organizations are working around the world.

Users of the map can filter the results shown on each map by country, sector and organization. If the user clicks on a marker on a map they can read a detailed description of the project being undertaken at that location. 

Helping Local Communities with Maps

Mapping for Change has a mission to "empower individuals and communities to make a difference to their local area through the use of mapping and the applications of geographical information". To help realise this mission Mapping for Change is working to provide maps and techniques that will help communities to improve their environments.

You can explore the maps developed by Mapping for Change on the 'Projects' page of their website. The projects include two Google Maps developed by community groups, the UK Climate Map and the Northfleet Big Local. The 'Projects' page also includes detailed information about each project and how Mapping for Change worked with each community group to help them develop their mapping skills.

Plans Verden - Helping Children Worldwide

Plans Verden is a Norwegian charity which helps donors sponsor children in need around the world. The charity is currently involved in helping children in over 50 countries worldwide.

The Plans Verden website includes a really nicely designed Google Map to help promote the charity's projects across the globe. The map highlights the countries where sponsors come from and also the countries where children are being sponsored.

When the user selects a marker from the map an information window opens which helps to explain the needs of children in that country and the work that Plans Verden is undertaking in that country, including the number of children and communities being helped by the charity.

Living Streets on Google Maps

Living Streets is a UK charity that promotes the idea of "safe, attractive, enjoyable streets where it’s great to walk". Since 1929 the charity has promoted the rights of pedestrians and campaigned on issues to promote pedestrian safety.

The Living Streets websites features a prominent Google Maps application that allows users to view their own street in Street View. The Street View feature is a great way for the charity to personalise the user's experience of the Living Streets website and I'm sure helps convert casual visitors to the website into registered users.

The Pure Charity Google Map

Pure Charity is a global charitable giving platform. Non-profit organisations can submit their charitable projects to Pure Charity and potential donors can browse the accepted projects for charities they wish to support.

One way to browse the charitable projects is on the Pure Charity Google Map. The map highlights the non-profit organisations supported by Pure Charity around the world. Users can click on the project map markers and learn more about each project, such as the project's aims, the amount of money needed to complete he project and how much money still needs to be raised.

Drilling Water Wells with Google Maps

Charity: water has created a Google Map that is tracking in real-time a Yellow Thunder Drilling Rig as it drills water wells in Ethiopia.

The Drilling Rig was funded by users of charity: water and the map allows those donors to visualise the results of their generosity actually in action on the ground. As well as the live Google Map the Yellow Thunder Drilling Rig page includes videos of the drilling rig drilling a water well and links to the rig's own Twitter stream.

Google Maps Directions for Guide Dogs

KNGF Geleidehonden (The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation) trains puppies to be guide or seeing eye dogs. To help promote the charity and help raise some of the mobility issues faced by the visually impaired KNGF have created KNGF Maps.

The map is a pretty impressive iteration of Google Maps driving directions. The map includes the usual driving, public transit and walking directions but also includes some novel seeing eye dog directions.

If the user selects the seeing eye dog directions they are presented with a blanked out map. When the user asks for directions a seeing eye dog walks the route and lights up the way on the map.

The map serves as a useful metaphor for the invaluable help provided by seeing eye dogs to the visually impaired. The map also includes the usual text based steps of the walking directions and can therefore also be read by screen readers.

Fill the Kettle with Google Maps

The Canadian Salvation Army Christmas Fill the Kettle Campaign is a fundraising effort that occurs each year during the Christmas season. Kettles are found in nearly 2000 locations across Canada and are an opportunity for the public to donate whatever funds they can to support the work of The Salvation Army.

This year the Salvation Army have again created a Google Map showing the location of the nearly 2000 Kettle locations across Canada. Using the map you can find the nearest kettle to your location. And, if there isn't a kettle nearby, you can always donate online.

The Drinking Water Charity Google Map

Charity:Water is a non-profit organisation working towards bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The organisation has produced a Google Map to show where water projects have been completed. The map shows all 2,651 completed Charity: Water projects to date.

Rather than use the Google Maps Styling option the map uses a semi-transparent overlay to provide a unique look to the map. This could be an option worth considering for map developers as the usage limits for free styled Google Maps is set to be 2,500, which is significantly lower than the 25,000 for the usage limits for non-styled Google Maps.

The Charity:Water map also uses well designed custom built information windows.

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Snowtober to Movember

Forget about Snowtober tomorrow is all about Movember, when men around the world put aside their razors and start growing moustaches in order to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health.

If you want to get involved in this year's fund-raising event then you can find out what is going on around you on the Movember Google Map. The map shows all the Movember events taking place around the world and the locations of the top fund-raisers.

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Not the Da Vinci Code

This Google Map from Spain's Opus Dei shows some of the social initiatives undertaken by the organisation around the world.

You can filter the initiatives shown on the map by category. The social initiatives are divided into four categories, 'youth', 'health', 'education' and 'social promotion'.

If you click on a map marker you can read details about the initiative shown. Many of the markers include videos about work being done by Opus Dei at that location. Each information window also contains a link to read further details on Spain's Opus Dei website.

Opus Dei - Iniciativas Sociales

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Oxfam's Food Price Pressure Points Map

This new Google Map, created by Oxfam, shows how poor communities across the world are being hurt by high and volatile food prices. The map displays countries that are highly vulnerable to price spikes, have seen price spikes contribute to violence or unrest, or have suffered extreme weather events that have contributed to price hikes.

If you click on any of marked food pressure points you can read about the cause of the problem at that location and the impact that it is having on people's lives.

The map is available in English, Spanish and French and can be embedded in any website.

Oxfam's Food Price Pressure Points Map

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Offer Shelter with Google Maps

Sparkrelief: Housing

Sparkrelief: Housing is a Google Maps based system for offering and finding shelter in times of emergency.

Due to the recent tornadoes in America and the earthquakes in Japan images of displaced people seem to be never far from our television screens. Sparkrelief have created this Google Map so that people can offer spare rooms in their houses to those who have lost their homes because of natural disasters.

It is possible to search the map by relief efforts. For example, at the moment you can search the map by the 'Alberta wildfire', the Mississippi flood, the Alabama tornadoes, the Texas wildfire and the Japanese earthquakes.

It is also possible to search the map for available shelter by location and the number of people needing shelter. If you wish to offer your rooms in your house as shelter you can do so by completing a short form.

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