How are the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals influencing the objectives of humanitarian mapping and are they being met?
Humanitarian mapping has become a growing field since its initial success during the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. The emergence of Web 2.0 and the geospatial Web allowed nonprofessionals to contribute to platforms like OpenStreetMap to assist in disaster relief and present first responders, humanitarian aid, and governments with the data needed to make informed decisions. Preemptive efforts have also been made to map the missing places of the world to increase the visibility of communities that have little to no base map available and are overlooked by governments and humanitarian aid. This has stemmed from ethical questions regarding the underrepresentation of the global South due to most humanitarian aid contributors residing in the global North on platforms such as OpenStreetMap. The recent integration of big data and artificial intelligence has shown great potential in the ability to process larger amounts of data at a faster rate. However, there are still ethical concerns and implications regarding the algorithms and modeling. This chapter covers the origins of humanitarian mapping, its progression over the last decade, the organizations at the forefront of innovation in the field, and the ethical implications that must be considered when shaping the directives of humanitarian mapping.