What if all the data needed to respond to a humanitarian crisis already existed — but was scattered, siloed, and hard to use?

In this episode of 15-Minute Maps, I’m joined by Saïd Abou Kharroub, a GIS specialist turned information management expert, former CEO of Civ API, and current board member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

Saïd’s dream map isn’t a single map at all, but a one-stop, layered view of the world’s crises — aggregating data on conflict, displacement, funding, infrastructure, population, and satellite imagery into a single, accessible platform for decision-making.

We discuss:

• What information management really means in humanitarian contexts — beyond tools and technology
• Why decision-making often struggles to connect field realities with available data
• How aggregating existing datasets can unlock faster, smarter responses to crises
• The role of APIs, open source data, and platforms like HOT and Civ API
• Why better data doesn’t replace human judgment — but strengthens it

This episode is a deep dive into how data becomes information, and how information becomes action — especially when lives are at stake.

Urban crises are some of the hardest environments to map — and yet that’s where millions of the world’s most vulnerable people live.

In this episode of 15-Minute Maps, Hugo Powell is joined by Yann Rebois, Earth Observation Strategist at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and former Head of Geodata & Analytics at the ICRC. Drawing on decades of field experience and satellite analysis, Yann shares his vision for a map that can finally make urban vulnerability visible.

Yann’s dream map focuses on one of humanitarian response’s biggest blind spots: understanding who lives where in dense, damaged, and rapidly changing cities — and what “habitability” really means after conflict or disaster.

Together, they discuss:

• Why population estimates break down in urban crises
• The limits of building footprints and satellite imagery in cities
• How proxies like water tanks and solar panels can reveal where people have returned
• Why “destroyed” doesn’t always mean “uninhabited”
• How GIS and Earth observation directly shape medical, water, and vaccination responses
• The challenge of detecting flooding and damage in dense urban environments

This episode offers a rare inside look at how satellite data, field knowledge, and humanitarian logistics come together — and why better urban maps are essential for effective aid.

What if our most trusted maps are quietly lying to us?

This week on 15 Minute Maps, GIS technical advisor Cornelia Schultz (Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre) joins Hugo to reveal a hidden truth about the world’s most vulnerable places: the places we think are empty may simply be unmapped.

Working at the intersection of climate change, conflict, and humanitarian response, Cornelia explains why entire communities — especially remote, nomadic, or conflict-affected populations — are missing from global mapping platforms. And when disaster hits, that invisibility can mean the difference between receiving aid and being overlooked entirely.

In this episode, Cornelia unveils her “Dragon’s Map,” inspired by the ancient cartographer’s warning Hic sunt dracones (“Here be dragons”). The idea: a map that finally shows us where the blind spots are — not where nothing exists, but where our data ends.

We discuss:
– Why many regions show up as “blank” not because they’re empty, but because no one mapped them.
– How climate disasters reveal entire communities that digital maps fail to show.
– The risks of humanitarian planning in a world where only data-rich places get attention.
– How the digital divide — and the economics of mapping — leave the world’s most vulnerable people invisible.
– Why highlighting what we don’t know can transform emergency response.

A must-listen for anyone working in GIS, climate, humanitarian response, or global development — and for anyone who’s ever assumed that “no data” means “no people.”

Links

Red Cross Red Crescent Map Library

Cornelia's LinkedIn