Co-Creation Workshop for Road Network Mapping in Karnali, Nepal

Date: 28 March 2024
Title: Planning & Co-Creation Workshop on Mapping Road Network of Karnali
Venue: Care Nepal, Sanepa
Organizer: Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific
Led By: Rabi Shrestha, Sr. Field Mapping Expert & Prajwal Sharma, Jr. Field Mapping Expert

The rugged terrain of Nepal’s Karnali Province tells a story of resilience, isolation, and untapped potential. As the only province where road access remains severely limited—particularly in districts like Jumla—the need for a comprehensive and accurate road network is more urgent than ever. With this in mind, a collaborative Planning and Co-Creation Workshop was conducted to collectively address the challenges, gaps, and opportunities for mapping the road network of Karnali through open-source tools and community engagement.

Setting the Stage: Opening Remarks and Partner Introductions

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On, Friday 3rd Nov 2023 at 11:47 PM NPT midnight a strong earthquake struck the western area of Jajarkot,Nepal with witnesses saying houses in the area collapsed causing several deaths and damaged. The shock was experienced as far as New Delhi, India, shook. 154 confirmed deaths and 364 injuries are reported by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority(NDRRMA). The epicentre lies in Karnali Province, Nepal. 26,557 houses are completely damaged whereas 35,455 houses are partially damaged.

Nepal’s National Seismological Centre said the quake was a magnitude 6.4 but the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) later downgraded the magnitude to 5.7 and the U.S. Geological Survey pegged it as a magnitude 5.6. Earthquakes have been going on continuously for some time now, with the epicenter in different places of western Nepal. Geologists say that there has not been a big earthquake for a long time, so there is a lot of seismic energy.

To summarize the major activities that we have undertaken after the Jajarkot Earthquake 2023:

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Lately I’ve been going for field survey day in day out. These day I spend most of my time on field survey using maps for field verification, collection of Point of interest (POI) data, land use zoning and obviously for public participatory mapping. Since 2018, there is no day that I had not worked or engaged with map. After I was introduced to this beautiful and addictive OpenStreetMap (OSM), I became a consistent OSM Mapper and a volunteer. While looking back, I felt I made right choice engaging in the field of OSM. From beginner curious mapper to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOTOSM) Global Validator & being HOTOSM & OpenStreetMap Foundation(OSMF) Voting member, I’ve came a long way.

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It all started with a dream. A dreamer from Nepal once dreamt of visiting some foreign country and attending an international conference. After years of his contribution and devotion to open data and mapping, he finally gets the call for State of the Map, Italy but unfortunately, he couldn’t make his way to Firenze, Italy because he only received partial funding. He consoled himself that his time will come-may be not today but someday. Eventually, there was a call for sponsorship by Open Mapping Hub, Asia Pacific(OMHAP). The dreamer then waives new dream of fitting himself in for the STATE OF THE MAP 2022 Conference happening in Legazpi, Philippines.

“If you want something you never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” As the statement says, the boy was totally indulged in finding ways to attend the conference and was ready to give everything this time. He chose to digitize the projects launched by OMHAP. And he was willing to do something he had never done before. He usually mapped 2,000 buildings in a day when he wants to map more. But this time he mapped more than 8,000 buildings in a day which he had never done before. While looking back, he still doesn’t believe he had mapped 8k+ buildings but the stats do not lie. A week later, he received a confirmation that he is going to attend STATE OF THE MAP ASIA 2022 Conference. And also his two presentations were selected to present in the conference. He couldn’t believe this. His happiness knew no bounds and he can’t wait to share this with his family. And this happy, indefatigable guy was none other than Mr. Rabi Shrestha- sorry @frozenrabi- this is how OSM community knows me.

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Weekly Reflection of my HOT DQI 2021

Hello everyone! This is my first OSM Diary. All the views and opinions are my own. I have summarized every week of my HOT DQI 2021 and added here. Hope you will like my experience and learnings. Happy reading! Any comments, suggestions and feedbacks are highly appreciated.

September

Week 1 Reflection (2021-09-06 to 10)

It was wonderful feeling to finally start this amazing internship journey from diverse community across the globe. The official kickoff of this internship was done by Sam and Becky. Later, on the same day the training on Introduction to OSM and Id editor were carried out by Mikko and Sam. This week we also learned basics of JOSM editor from Becky. Other comms orientations and contracts works were signed this week. We started mapping using ideditor this week. After years of working on JOSM, I felt a difficult start to get my hands on id editor again. This week was full of excitement rather than learning for me personally.

Week 2 Reflection (2021-09-13 to 17)

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