This hands-on workshop will guide participants through the complete geospatial data pipeline, starting from drone imagery generation to processing high-precision imagery, generating building predictions using AI, and validating results via field mapping tools.
Participants will work through:
Setting up a drone mission to generate high precision imagery
Using OpenDroneMap (ODM) for imagery post-processing
Uploading results to OpenAerialMap
Applying fAIr to generate predicted buildings
Running a field mapping exercise using FMTM (Field Mapping Tasking Manager) and ODK

Participants will leave with the knowledge and open-source tools needed to replicate similar workflows in their own communities.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will:
Understand the components of a high-precision drone mapping setup
Learn how to plan drone flights using Drone Tasking Manager
Gain hands-on experience with ODM, OpenAerialMap, and fAIr
Practice setting up and using FMTM with custom GeoJSON extracts
Explore form configuration and field data collection via ODK / KoboCollect

Target Audience
Humanitarian mappers
drone pilots
Disaster response and planning teams
Educators, researchers, and technologists
Open-source mapping practitioners

During disasters, there is a need for accurate, rapid, and reliable mapping, validation, and damage assessment to inform humanitarian response and recovery efforts. However, as disasters are often extensive in scale, it is important that these methodologies are scalable and can be employed for multiple affected areas at any point in time.

Crowdsourced mapping, validation, and damage assessment, when combined with multiple layers of validation with local knowledge, enables humanitarian actors to quickly reach multiple affected areas at once - ensuring that no one is left behind. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) will cover the crowdsourced methodology piloted for the 2025 Myanmar Earthquake response, the outcomes, and the lessons learned.

There are pros and cons in applying different methodologies - AI-generated, expert-led, or crowdsourced - during a disaster. HOT sees value in employing a mixed-methods approach. This session will also explore the methodologies' benefits and limitations, and HOT's preliminary assessment of a mixed-methods model for future disaster response.

The Open Mapping Gurus are more than skilled mappers—they are changemakers rooted in their local contexts, driven by purpose, and committed to building resilient communities through open data. As mapping needs shift from short-term project engagement to long-term sustainability and impact, we need to equip these local champions not just with tools—but with vision, leadership, and strategy.

This workshop explores how Open Mapping Gurus can play a central role in implementing and co-owning regional and national community-building strategies. Drawing from the Asia-Pacific Open Mapping Hub’s 2025–2030 Community Building Strategy, this session will present pathways for local leadership, inclusive participation, and cross-border collaboration. Participants will unpack the strategy’s key objectives—such as strengthening grassroots mapping, integrating community-centered monitoring and evaluation (MEL), and scaling open mapping through partnerships—and localize these goals through the lens of their own communities.

Using interactive frameworks, reflection tools, and real-world examples, the workshop will help Gurus:

1) Identify their unique leadership role and local impact potential
2) Map opportunities for growing their local communities or projects
3) Align their ongoing work with regional strategy goals
4) Collaborate with other Gurus and partners to solve shared challenges

By the end of this session, Gurus will leave with a clearer roadmap of how their grassroots work fits into a broader open mapping movement—where their contributions are seen, supported, and celebrated. This is not just a workshop; it's an invitation to step more confidently into your leadership role within the open mapping ecosystem.