The rise of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) opened up a completely new chapter the realm of  geospatial data from its collection and processing to final utilisation by both the general public and institutions, including governments. Since the start of this revolution crowdsourced geographic data turned into information products has been widely used by a wide variety of actors spanning from humanitarian organisations handling disaster relief operations to private sector and common citizens mapping their neighbourhoods and hiking trails.

While the general public and the private sector were quick to embrace the innovations in geospatial data collection and use, thanks both to the advances in telecommunications, ever increasing usage of GPS enabled smartphones and the lack of restrictive mechanisms to impede such a progress – some  governments demonstrated more conservative attitudes and mistrust towards user generated geographic content. This reluctance is especially pronounced among the states that were part of the former Soviet Union with historically strong central control structure and in some cases regulated state monopoly over production of maps.

The presentation will present and analyse the current state of open data in Armenia (a former USSR republic) as well as the challenges and innovative approaches in addressing the technical, legal, economic and institutional issues in promoting technological and methodological innovations in the generation of Volunteered Geographic Information, crowdsourcing, and citizen participation (Open Street Mapping, Ushahidi, UAVs) specifically in the field of Disaster Management / Disaster Risk Reduction. The use of VGI by the respective state institutions (departments of the ministry of emergency situations, including rescuers), holds a great potential in terms of a) tapping in to vast pool of geospatial content generators and b) forming a productive relationship with the VGI community (for example OSM mappers, UAV owners) to the benefits of the society. The development of appropriate methods and approaches in the utilisation of VGI with due consideration of the local specifics and institutional and regulatory arrangements will greatly enhance the efficiency of DRM and DRR efforts jointly exercised by the governments, humanitarian organisations and the general public.

This presentation will also showcase a case study on the “Applying Space-Based Technology and Information and Communication Technology to Strengthen Disaster Resilience” project implemented currently in Armenia, Bangladesh, Philippines and Fiji with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank.