humanitarian.info

Immediately after we launched the Darfur layers, somebody pointed out that Google Earth isn’t accessible in Sudan. It’s not because of the Sudanese government (for a change) but because of US sanctions – much more detail at the Export Law Blog, and of course at Ogle Earth. This was something that I had mentioned earlier in the development of the project, but hopefully more people now realise how much OFAC sanctions affect very basic humanitarian projects.

A couple of other interesting Google Earth humanitarian projects are also out there, using the tools in slightly different ways. A new paper on Genomic Analysis and Geographic Visualization of the Spread of Avian Influenza (H5N1) is accompanied by a kmz file from the Society of Systematic Biologists that shows the spread of Avian Flu – not just over space, but over time as well, which creates a startling visualisation of the spread pattern. More information is at Physorg.com.

The Earth is Square blog has add-ons for both World Wind and Google Earth, showing Mogadishu Refugee Migration based on statistics from UNHCR. Yes, I know – it’s UNHCR, the agency with a tendency to make numbers up. Still, the project is an interesting one – there’s a wiki page that acts as a portal with background, screenshots and downloads. Chad at TEiS says, “This add-on is just as important as the Crisis in Darfur layer in Google Earth. Maybe even more important because fewer people seem to know about what is happening in Somalia”, but I think that they’re equally important in spreading the word and showing what can be done with this approach.