Bandung, 16 December 2017 – Comprehensive, clear and up-to-date map is key to mitigate the impact of natural disaster. To achieve the goal to make Indonesia a disaster-resilient nation and to support the country’s drive to become Southeast Asia’s largest digital economy, Grab, a leading on-demand transportation and mobile payment platform in Southeast Asia, in collaboration with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Indonesia, held a mapathon with university students in Bandung on 16 December 2017.

Mapathon, also known as mapping party, is one of the most efficient method to add map and geospatial data to OpenStreetMap, a participatory mapping platform. More than  50 mapathon participants from universities across Bandung gathered at Eduplex, Dago, and dedicated their time from 9 AM to 4 PM to learn how to do mapping and practice the actual mapping of areas that had previously set by Tasking Manager, a tool that can coordinate long-distance collaborative mapping.

“This mapathon is Grab’s effort to contribute more in improving the quality of lives of people in Indonesia. As a company providing transportation services, we deeply understand the importance of high-quality and clear map to support various people’s activities in the digital era, including in mitigating the risks and impacts of natural disaster,” said Tri Sukma Anreianno, Head of Public Affairs Grab Indonesia.  

Bandung is the second city in Indonesia where Grab held mapathon. The first pilot mapathon took place in Jakarta on 4 November 2017 where 17 mappers joined the event and successfully mapped 240 highways with the total length of 270 kilometers in Bekasi City, Bekasi Regency, Tangerang and Depok only in three hours.

Considering many cities in Southeast Asia, where Grab operates, are disaster-prone areas, Grab made mapathon a regional movement to improve the quality of lives and safety of people in those cities. On 25 November 2017, Grab also held a mapathon in Manila, Philippines, with more than 50 mappers joining the event. The mappers successfully made more than 25,000 map edits in the whole day event.

“In the future, Grab will hold more mapathons in other cities in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. We are very proud that we can collaborate with HOT and OpenStreetMap communities who have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of map and location data that have become a fundamental part of people’s lives,” Tri continued.

Yantisa Akhadi, Project Manager of HOT Indonesia, said Grab was now present in 100 cities in Indonesia and many of these cities overlapped with priority cities identified by the National Board for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) and HOT as highly vulnerable to disasters. Grab’s tech leadership in the region and hyperlocal presence places it in a unique position to help scale and improve the maps of these cities.

“Collaboration between private companies and non-government organizations are crucial to build the capacity of these cities to respond to disasters and mapathons are a great way to involve different community members in these efforts,” Yantisa explained.

In addition to mapathons, Grab also collaborated with HOT and BNPB to map and collect data of evacuation camps and other public facilities in Karangasem Regency, Bali, in the light of Mount Agung eruption. The activities ran from 5 to 16 October 2017 and involved around 50 GrabBike driver partners. Within that time span, GrabBike driver partners successfully mapped dan collect data of 156 evacuation camps, 15 health facilities and five cattle camps.

###

About Grab

Grab is Southeast Asia’s leading on-demand transportation and mobile payments platform. Grab solves critical transportation challenges to make transport freedom a reality for 620 million people in Southeast Asia. Grab’s core product platform includes transport solutions for drivers and passengers with an emphasis on convenience, safety and reliability, as well as its proprietary mobile payments platform, GrabPay, which is increasing access to mobile payment solutions for millions of Grab riders and drivers across Southeast Asia and deepening financial inclusion in the region. In Indonesia, Grab’s network of 500,000 agents is helping the unbanked and underbanked utilize GrabPay’s platform to participate in the digital revolution. Grab currently offers services in Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. For more information, please visit: http://www.grab.com.

About Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)

HOT is a non-profit international organization that applies open source technologies and principles for humanitarian response and economic development, using a digital map, called OpenStreetMap. HOT establishes and mobilises a network of communities and volunteers to maintain crowdsourced spatial data; it also coordinates comprehensive and structured large-scaled mapping, that includes building footprints, road networks, and waterways, both in urban cities, and even in the most remote areas. Working in partnership with other humanitarian organizations, such as the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, World Bank, the United Nations, and government agencies, such as BNPB, HOT integrates spatial data approaches to support decision making and development monitoring and problem solving, with innovative and cost effective methodologies. HOT’s projects build the capacities of local communities and government officials to independently create their own maps to tackle issues related to disaster preparedness, refugees, health, sustainable development, inclusivity, and access to education and financial facilities. Learn more about OpenStreetMap Indonesia communities from openstreetmap.id dan hotosm.org.