Resilience Starts with a Map: Community-Led OSM Action in Dhaka’s Climate-Vulnerable Settlements

Room: Talks II

Saturday, 17:30
Duration: 20 minutes (plus Q&A)

This event will not be recorded.

• Faiza Waziha

Dhaka, one of the most climate-affected cities in South Asia, is home to millions of migrants living in informal urban settlements. These densely populated areas are increasingly exposed to environmental and health hazards, particularly seasonal waterlogging and recurring dengue outbreaks. Despite the severity of these issues, many of these settlements remain underrepresented in official datasets, limiting the ability to implement targeted and effective resilience measures.

As part of our Capstone Project under the Climate Resilience Fellowship (CRF), this initiative leveraged OpenStreetMap (OSM) to conduct a community-led, GIS-based multi-hazard assessment in some of Dhaka’s most climate-vulnerable settlements. Our work followed a two-phase approach:

Field-based data collection and mapping, where youth and women from local communities actively identified water accumulation zones and dengue breeding hotspots using OSM tools.

Awareness building and local preparedness activities, using the mapped data to facilitate community dialogues and promote action for health and disaster resilience.

Through this participatory mapping effort, we not only generated critical geospatial data but also strengthened local capacity to respond to climate and health risks. OSM served as both a data platform and a tool for empowerment, enabling residents to visualize their vulnerabilities and advocate for solutions.

This talk will showcase how open mapping, when integrated with community engagement and local knowledge, can effectively support disaster risk reduction, public health planning, and climate adaptation in marginalized urban areas. We will also reflect on the potential for replicating this model in other cities facing similar climate and health challenges.