Kibera is a slum in the southwest of Nairobi, often called the biggest slum in the world; some estimates of the population put it as
high as 1.5m, although the 2009 Kenyan census puts the population at a rather more sober
170k(ish). Now, Kiberans are carrying out two similarly named but unaffiliated projects,
Map Kibera and
Map Kibera Project, to create maps of their home. MKP has a pair of rather slick-looking PDF maps showing the
terrain and
structures in Kibera. MK uses
OpenStreetMap, which means that their cartographers can be rapidly update it to more accurately reflect how quickly things change in Kibera. They also have, inevitably, a
twitter account,
flickr stream and
a blog to keep the world up to date with their work, including their ambition to start mapping another Nairobi slum, Mathare.
Via
the Beeb, which also has a nice wee audio slideshow about MK.
posted by Dim Siawns
on Jan 18, 2011 -
8 comments
