Ecuador - Mt. Cotopaxi - Disaster Management

Final Project Presentation

Our Study Area

Country Profile

General information about your country, statistics, relevant background.

Kat Cade

The South American county of Ecuador is located between northern Peru, southern Colombia and whose eastern border consists of Pacific coast line, including the Galapagos Islands. The country, once home to the former Incan empire, is relatively the size of Nevada and who hosts a population of 15,868,396. Ecuador has a high poverty level, which the government has worked to decrease with social programs. Along with high poverty, Ecuadorians also pose a high risk to infectious diseases such as malaria, Typhoid Fever, bacterial diarrhea and Hepatitis A. Ecuador consists of a tropical climate near the east coast, which dissolves into cooler climates as you move into the center of the county where the Andes Mountains run from the northern to southern border. Rolling plains dissolve into dense Rain forests as you head west towards the western boarder shared with Peru. Mountainous central Ecuador is home to a large amount of the population and the capital city of Quito. Rising over Quito is Mt. Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the Andes Range. Ecuador’s most immediate threat is volcanic activity. Several active volcanoes live along the Andes Mountain range, with recent eruptions in 2009 and 2010. Ecuador’s other natural disasters consist of landslides, earthquakes, periodic droughts and flooding.

CIA World Factbook. Ecuador. Febuary 25, 2016. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ec.html>.

What is of interest to USAID about this country; what is USAID doing in this country or what strategic programs are operating?

Hayden Dunning

According to the USAID website, [ https://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/latin-american-and-caribbean/Ecuador ] they have been active in the country for over 50 years. They claim to have built schools, improved the country’s infrastructure and various environmental projects. The website also says they, “have done this work in partnership with public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations, small producers, entrepreneurs, communities, and many others.” So they weren’t alone in their efforts.

Two years ago, USAID pulled out of Ecuador facing “pressure from Ecuador’s left-wing government,” according to an NBC News article written in October 2014 around the time they pulled out. This makes USAIDs current intentions in Ecuador unknown. “Although USAID remains popular in many countries, it has been coming under increasing fire from left-wing governments across Latin America, in part because the agency’s mandate includes advancing US foreign policy” (NBC News). As of now though it seems OpenStreetMap and the Youth Mappers program is USAID’s best bet to assisting Ecuador and hopefully can reconstruct our relationship with them.

"After More Than 50 Years, USAID Is Leaving Ecuador - NBC News." NBC News. N.p., 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/after-more-50-years-usaid-leaving-ecuador-n215621>.

"Ecuador." Ecuador. USAID, 8 July 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. <https://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/latin-american-and-caribbean/ecuador>.

What is the state of the OpenStreetMap for this country? How much open spatial data does there seem to be, especially in your task area? How does that compare to other locations?

Nathan Lickteig

The extent of mapping in our country seems to be extensive especially in the urban areas, especially the capital city of Quito. The rural areas need some roads, buildings, and rivers outlined and named. For the most part our project country has a good handle on mapping thanks to the other universities and outside help we have received. It seems like our country has a good head start.

Our Tasking Manager

Urban area that has been digitized

Rural area that has been digitized

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Task #1493 – Ecuador – Mt. Cotopaxi, Latacunga. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://tasks.hotosm.org/project/1493#task/54

Who is the OSM community in this country?

Zachery Byars

The OSM community for Ecuador has a decent amount of people contributing to the mapping of the country. On the wiki page there are 14 active users as well as many external links that lead to Ecuador maps where contributions are accepted. The youthmappers at Texas Tech put together a team of 8 to assist the mapping of buildings and roads for the purpose of emergency evacuation procedures. There are parts of Ecuador that are mapped thoroughly with roads, buildings, water features, etc., but there are also parts like the rural areas that are being added to by these individuals and will need much more work.

OpenStreetMap Wiki. List of Territory based Projects. <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/List_of_territory_based_projects>

NOVA. Volcano’s Deadly Warning. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/volcano/team.html>

Issue Briefing: Disaster Management

What is this problem about? What are the dimensions of this problem worldwide? In your country? What are the risks?

Michael Carlisle

The issue in Ecuador is the lack of mapping data available in cities around the active volcano Mt. Cotopaxi. This region of Ecuador around Mt. Cotopaxi was declared in a state of emergency in August 2015 after the volcano suddenly shot ash and steam nearly 7 miles into the air. As it continues to spew ash and steam, there is growing concern for the surrounding cities. With the lack of available mapping data covering the region, it is difficult to create an evacuation plan. That is where we come in. By identifying different features using satellite imagery, we are able to help those on the ground better discern which areas are at higher risk due to population based on number of buildings in the area, and show roads and rivers that would aid or hinder a mass evacuation when the volcano blows.

Worldwide, there are countless other regions across the Pacific Ring of Fire that have no evacuation plans in the event their volcano erupts. These include small cities and villages on remote islands in the West Pacific, and other regions along the Pacific coast of Central America and South America. Within the confines of Ecuador, the region we are working on is broken up into boxed regions, each of which covers about 2.5 square kilometers. With 117 squares, the region we are working on covers roughly 292 square kilometers. Comparatively, the region we are mapping is just smaller than the city of Lubbock, Texas.

The risk of our project is that we, or the government in Ecuador, may not finish before the volcano erupts which would result in countless deaths in the affected region.

Mt. Cotopaxi and Surrounding Cities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from <http://hotosm.github.io/tracing-guides/guide/Cotopaxi-Ecuador.html>

(n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2016, from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_area>

What solutions are offered to address / mitigate / recover from this problem? What does this mean for resilience?

Nichole Grella

Mount Cotopaxi has been showing a lot of activity and due to that the Ecuadorian government has raised the priority. It was announced that the emergency plans are now a national priority and the government shall be taking over the overseeing of the plans (CuencaHighLife, 2015). They are mostly worried about the surrounding rivers and waterways getting flooded with lava. They are about to work with local governments on evacuation plans and emergency actions.

CuencaHighLife. (2015, August 19). Government to oversee emergency operations in areas west of Cotopaxi | CuencaHighLife. Retrieved March 29, 2016, from https://www.cuencahighlife.com/government-to-oversee-emergency-operation-in-areas-west-of-the-cotopaxi-volcano/

What is happening in the specific country you are working on with respect to this problem? Who is affected and how?

Fernando Angel

The area affected by the volcanic eruption includes a lot of farming land, small towns surrounding the capital, the city of Latacunga, and the capital itself, Quito. The volcano is unfortunately well centered, so it has the potential to spew ash in any direction. The volcano has a history of having short cycles of eruptions, but stopped in 1940. In 2015 it started having activity and has been continuously pluming smoke, which is a cause for concern. The last significant eruption was in 1904, but the most devastating occurred in 1877, where lahars, or mudflows, spread in all directions 100 kilometers to the Pacific Ocean and to the other side towards the Amazon basin. If this were to happen again, with the current population, there would be massive destruction both in lives lost and in property damaged.

Smithsonian Institution. (n.d.). Cotopaxi. Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=352050#January2016

What are you mapping and how can mapping these features help make communities more resilient in light of this problem or in areas affected by this problem?

Keaton Castillo

According to OSM "In August 2015, Ecuador declared a state of emergency after Cotopaxi shot ash 7 miles into the air on August 2015. The volcano has since continued spewing ash and steam, causing continued concern for those living in the vulnerable areas nearby." Currently this region does not have sufficient data in regards to roads, buildings, inland water, and bridges so our ultimate goal is to map and provide these features to this area. Mapping these features creates crucial resilience for it provides opportunity to plan for evacuations if/when Mt. Cotopaxi erupts. In order to formulate a successful evacuation, plan the routes must be set up in a way that allow the most amount of people to safely leave the area in the shortest amount of time. When a region is prone to a natural disaster it is paramount to have plans set in place to minimize casualties as well as have a visual representation of infrastructure that will be effected in order to maximize overall resilience. Providing this data will also shine light on routes that should be avoided for they may be too dangerous post disaster. Areas such as the center of Latacunga are in a high priority zone based on the fact that the population is very dense and evacuation calls for more precise planning.

Freeman, K. (2015, August 21). Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano roars back to life, sparking fears of lava flows. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-22/ecuador's-cotopaxi-volcano-roars-back-to-life/6717084

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