UN-SPIDER highlights the growing importance and value of crowdsource mapping for disaster and disaster-risk management in an article for Imaging Notes Magazine, a publication that targets remote sensing professionals. The 2012 Issue of Imaging Notes Magazine is dedicated to urgent, interrelated issues of Earth remote sensing for security, energy and the environment. The article explains how UN-SPIDER and Secure World Foundation have been conducting a variety of activities during the past two years to identify specific actions that could ensure closer cooperation among the crowdsource mapping, disaster/disaster-risk management and space technology communities. During such meetings, experts from the space as well as from the Volunteer and Technical Community (VTC) recommended the need to raise awareness within the disaster management community regarding the innovative services provided by VTC. These meetings also contributed to the development of an understanding of the strengths and challenges of these three different communities and to the exploration of ways to proceed jointly.
