State of the Map Africa 2021

The emerging trend of crowdsourced mapping in developing countries of Africa and Nigeria in particular is a paradigm shift for a proactive response to the critical needs of geospatial data infrastructure by the citizenry. The global impact of the OpenStreetMap project as a geospatial database of the people, created by the people and for the people is a measurable driving force for community engagement at local levels. In Nigeria, flood disaster is seasonal, ravaging vulnerable communities annually. This year 2021, about 121 local government areas in 27 states of Nigeria were declared highly vulnerable flood risk communities by the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency. These communities need urgent response to save lives and properties before the peak of the disastrous flood season. Without critical geospatial data that unveils the estimated population by household at risk to the imminent flood, a proactive rapid response would not be achieved. This paper, therefore, provides an analysis of building footprints contributed by volunteer mappers using the HOT Tasking Manager project as well as its challenges and opportunities for sustainable geographic data infrastructure in Nigeria. The Unique Mappers Network mandate for open map data development in Nigeria using the OpenStreetMap Project is a sustainable development action to be leveraged upon by all stakeholders for disaster risk reduction in Nigeria.