To see projects in progress, click here. 

K-12 Mission in Grant County, Washington
In late May 2009, we received a request for GISCorps volunteers to assist a 4-H club in Grant County, WA. They conducted a variety of tasks including: teaching introductory GIS material to the youth, collecting information by digitizing and also GPSing various facilities and much more... Volunteers recruited for this mission were:  Kelly Stancel, J.J. Bach, Crystal Murphy and Beth Carpenter. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

K-12 Mission with 4-H Club in Ames, IA
On June 1st 2009, we were asked to provide a GISCorps volunteer to assist a 4-H club in Ames, IA. The assistance was needed for critiquing various maps created by the youth. GISCorps volunteer, Brenda Swaim was recruited for this mission. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

Mission with the Peace Corps
GISCorps has been in contact with the Peace Corps for the last few months and as a result, they requested one volunteer to provide GIS training and advisement to their staff. Tom Conry, the GIS Manager of Fairfax County, was recruited for this project and has been working with Peace Corps team members. Peace Corps has initiated a pilot project and will contact GISCorps for additional volunteers in the near future. In March 2009, Shoreh Elhami, GISCorps Co-founder, gave a brief presentation to PC's Country Managers on GISCorps volunteers' capabilities.
Mission Completed. 

Mission with (PRAD) and (FBR) - Thailand
This mission is in partnership with Partners Relief Development (PRAD) and Free Burma Rangers (FBR). The request was for one GIS instructor to teach an introductory ArcGIS course and also assist PRAD/FBR with database design and application development for two weeks. Joe Forrest from North Carolina was selected for this project and went to Mae Sot, Thailand in February 2009. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed. 

Mission with Engineers without Borders: NYU:Poly - Dominican Republic
In February 2009, we received a request for volunteers from Lonna Gordon, a Project Manager at Polytechnic Institute of NYU (NYU: Poly). She asked if our volunteers could teach at their upcoming workshop to cover the basics of Google Earth to 15-25 of their students. The objective was to teach them how to plot NGO water projects’ locations in the Dominican Republic and then further populating them with associated information. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed. 

Mission with Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA) - New Orleans
In November 2008, GISCorps received a request for a GIS instructor from Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA). They asked that the volunteer would go on-site (in New Orleans) and train three of their employees on the use of the advanced use of ArcGIS software. Kathleen Coverick, Urban Planning Fellow at BIA, noted that though the BIA had purchased the software, the staff had only very basic knowledge of its usage and the training was intended to make GIS a much more powerful tool for helping the organization meet the needs of a community hard hit by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed. 

Mission with EnterpriseWorks VITA (EWV) - Kenya and Ethiopia
In late 2008, GISCorps volunteer Melinda Laituri, a Colorado State University professor, and one of her students, Joel Murray, started working on a GISCorps mission. The new mission was commissioned by EnterpriseWorks/VITA (EWV), an international not-for-profit organization based in Washington DC working to combat poverty through economic development programs based on sustainable, enterprise-oriented solutions.  Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.  

Mission with COPAE - Guatemala
On October 20, 2008, GISCorps received a request from a group of volunteers who were assisting a Guatemalan NGO, Pastoral Commission Peace and Ecology (COPAE) to monitor and diagnose damage to indigenous people's homes near the Marlin Mine in the vicinity of Sipacapa, Guatemala. They were interested in obtaining hard copy maps from high resolution imagery and base data. They also wanted the imagery to become accessible to them in Google Earth (GE) environment. GISCorps volunteer, Lars Bromley of Washington D.C. was contacted for this project. He was able to geo-reference and overlay a high resolution imagery which was provided by Digital Globe in GE interface. The image can be viewed here (you have to have GE installed on your pc to view this map). Read more about this project in here. 
Mission Completed. 

Mission with AAAS - Guatemala
The Science and Human Rights Program of American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) requested one volunteer with expertise in cadastral mapping and also fluency in Spanish to assist an ongoing legal case that seeks to protect property rights of an indigenous group in Guatemala. Odra Cardenas of Washington State was recruited for this mission and collected all relevant documents pertaining to the property holdings, as well as a satellite image for reference. At this point, due to details of the ongoing court case in Guatemala, a local surveying firm has been hired to serve the court and provide expertise. Should the Guatemalan case fail, plaintiffs are ready to bring the case to the Organization of American States (OAS). In that case, AAAS and Odra will review the materials and provide advice on possible alternatives for presenting evidence to OAS.
Mission Completed. 

Mission with iMMAP - Iraq
This mission was in partnership with Information Management & Mine Action Programs (iMMAP) and was completed in October 08. Four GISCorps volunteers; Shane Bergman from Colorado, Clio Andris from South Carolina, Chris Van Nice from Texas, and Matthew Redmond from England worked on this project. The project involved reading various narratives from Iraq security reports dating from June 2003 and entering those events into spreadsheets to be eventually mapped.  iMMAP formerly part of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, became an independent NGO in June 2007. They are the leading information management service provider in the humanitarian aid community. Previously GISCorps partnered with iMMAP to send five volunteers to Post Tsunami efforts in Indonesia.
Mission Completed. 

Mission with HealthCare Volunteers (HCV)
HealthCare Volunteers is a non-profit organization headquartered in California with the main goal of connecting any volunteers with a health-related volunteering opportunity. They asked if our volunteers could help them geo-code their existing database and then publish it in an online application such as Google Earth. GISCorps volunteer Tara Athan, from Alternative to Invasive Species Inc. in California, volunteered for this project. Read more about this mission here.
Mission Completed. 

Mission with Kabul Polytechnic University (KPU) - Afghanistan
In Spring of 2008, KPU requested an instructor to teach two ArcGIS courses (introductory and advanced) to their faculty. An email broadcast went out earlier this month and 11 volunteers expressed interest in the mission. Carl Kinkade of BearingPoint of Atlanta, GA was selected for the project. Carl arrived in Kabul on July 3rd and returned on July 16th. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.  

GISCorps Volunteers Provide Assistance to Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone's Mission
In May and June of 2008, 31 volunteers were deployed for two missions at the request of United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT). Read more about the project in here.
Missions completed.  

GISCorps Volunteer Assists in the Aftermath of the Missouri Flood
In March 2008, GISCorps volunteer Heather Milton of URS Corp in St Louis provided GIS technical assistance to St Louis County Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.  

Five GISCorps Volunteers Geo-Coded Events in Darfur and East Chad
In July of 2007, GISCorps received a request from Lars Bromley a Project Manager with AAAS to provide five volunteers to help them in geocoding events in Darfur and East Chad. Five volunteers from US and Canada were recruited for this project. They were: Nicholas Hauk from Calgary, Peggy Wu from Pennsylvania, Brian Mladenich from Oregon, Megan Winnenberg from Ohio, and Ryan Kemna from Washington DC. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

GISCorps Volunteer assists Local 4-H'ers in using GPS/GIS to map Barn Quilts of Sac County, Iowa
GISCorps volunteer Brandon Haas of NewCom Technologies, Inc. was recruited for a K-12 project in Sac County, Iowa in September 2007. Brandon provided GIS assistance for a project called Barn Quilts. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

GISCorps Volunteer Conducts GIS Needs Assessment in Mozambique
In early November 2007, GISCorps volunteer Fernando Sedano of Berkeley, California headed to Mozambique to conduct a GIS Needs Assessment. This project is in partnership with Agriculture Development International and Volunteers in Oversees Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA). Frenando's mission concluded at the end of November. To learn more about his mission click here.
Mission completed.

GISCorps Volunteers Assist a K-12 Project in Ohio
Four GISCorps volunteers: Tara Havens, Lucia Barbato, Megan Winnenberg, and Patricia Moehring assisted Caching Our World, a K-12 non profit organization, in conducting several events during the Geography Awareness Week. The event was held on November 13-15, 2007 at the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

GISCorps Volunteer provides GIS assistance to Collier County 4-H in Florida
GISCorps Volunteer Darryl Clare, in November 2007, concluded a K-12/4-H project in Collier County, Florida. The Collier County GIS Community Development Project is a collaborative project of 4-H of Collier County University of Florida IFAS Extension Services, Collier County School Board, the City of Naples City Council. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

Teaching at Kabul Polytechnic University (KPU) via Engineers without Borders - International
Juna Papajorgji taught a GIS course to faculty and students of the Kabul Polytechic University and of the Kabul University. The course took place at the KPU, during the week of September 1-6, 2007.
Mission completed.

GISCorps Volunteer teaches at Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, MS
David W. Allen, GIS Manager of City of Euless, TX was recruited for teaching an ArcGIS course to Gulf Coast Community Design Studio (GCCDS) team in August 2007. GCCDS is a non profit organizationin Biloxi, MS. Read more about the project in here.
Mission completed.

Mentoring/Advising Project for Pakistan is Completed
Miguel Garriga of Geographic Systems, LLC was recruited for mentoring/advising Bernadette Baird-Zars in May of 2007. The project involved providing technical support in building a geodatabase for historical sites in the Hunza Valley in Northern Pakistan. Read Miguel's personal accounts of the project in here.
Mission completed.

Second Afghanistan Mission is completed
On April 5th, 2007, the second Afghanistan volunteer mission was launched. This mission is also in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS) and our volunteer, Chen Li, will spend one month of his vacation in Kabul. Chen Li is a GIS Specialist with the ESRI Northwest Office and his areas of specialization are with ArcSDE, ArcIMS, and ArcGIS Server applications. He will train AIMS staff on the use of these applications and will also help in geospatially enabling one of AIMS' current databases...more
Mission completed.

GISCorps Volunteer Helps United Nations High Commission for Refugees Map Resources for Refugees in Cairo, Egypt
This past fall, Lori Quinn, from North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, was deployed to a (UNHCR) project that involved digitizing and geo-referencing resources in Cairo, Egypt, to support the protection and assistance activities of UNHCR for refugees in that city. The UNHCR reported last fall that Egypt had approximately 88,000 refugees, about 17,500 of whom were receiving assistance from UNHCR. Approximately 70,000 were Palestinian refugees, though few of these were registered with the UNHCR. Among the UNHCR assisted refugees, the majority were from Sudan, followed by Somalia. With continued conflict and political uncertainty in these areas, including Darfur, and the additional inflow from Iraq, these numbers were on the rise. Cairo, particularly the poor quarters of the city, has been the primary destination for these refugees and the need to provide services there has put the UNHCR's assistance program under tremendous pressure...more
Mission completed.

Six New GISCorps Missions Started in March 2006 in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Pacific Islands
This year as a result of our partnership with the Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) association, spearheaded by Juna Papajorgji the Co-chair and Co-founder of the GISCorps, our volunteers will be contributing to the global effort for building a Common National Spatial Data Infrastructure. These six new GISCorps projects will make use of Open Source development environments and of products built with OpenGIS specifications. All of the projects will be conducted remotely in support of major research and academic institutions in these countries. Following is a list of projects and assigned GISCorps volunteers.

1. Armenia: Institute of Geological Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences.
Project: Collecting and web publishing known volcanoes as they relate to geo-referenced topographic maps and DEM.
Volunteer: Ramasawamy Hariharan, University of California, Irvine, PhD, Candidate. 

2. Hungary: Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Project: Develop a spatial web portal to serve natural vegetation and landscape ecological maps.
Volunteer: Philippe Duchesne, Ionic Software, Belgium, GIS Programmer.

3. Kenya: Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI)
Project: Web publishing of Kenya’s Oil Spill Contingency sensitivity atlas.
Volunteer: Dan Carey, Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, Hydrologist.

4. Mali: World Food Program
Project: Technical and policy support for the National Committee of Geographical Information (CNIG), in their effort to strengthen the country’s SDI.
Volunteer: Sarah Williams, Columbia University, Director of Geospatial Analysis and Remote Sensing.

5. Marshall Islands: Environmental Protection Authority
Project: Develop a geospatial web application for GIS data/metadata clearinghouse.
Volunteer: Yasser Ayad, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Associate Professor.

6. Namibia: National Botanical Research Institute
Project: Server side programming to enhance Namibia’s Biodiversity Database (NADIB)
Volunteer: Sean Montague, ATS-Denver, Inc, Lead GIS/Web Programmer.

Support for Medical Missionaries in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala
We have engaged in two missions in support of the Medical Mission Exchange (MMEX), a non-profit organization, headquartered in the US, which facilitates referrals of underserved patients to appropriate medical specialists. Read article from the GovernmentHealthIT Magazine and a fascinating report from the volunteers on their experiences.

First Mission
The first mission engaged five GISCorps volunteers. Each volunteer contributed 40-50 hours and worked remotely from their home/office. See list of team members below:

• Clare Brown, GIS Manager at KHAFRA Eng.Co. - team leader
• Lucia Lovison Golob, Associate & GIS Advisor for IT Master Students, Harvard University
• Alfred de Jager, GIS Expert, European Commission, Italy
• Danielle Ayan, Research Scientist, Georgia Tech Center for GIS
• Claudia Caceres, GIS Specialist, Forests and Rural Productivity Project, Honduras

Second mission
Building upon the success of the first mission, GISCorps has just set up a second mission with the MMEX. This mission will tie the four geo-libraries, created for each country by the volunteers of the first mission, to the organization's existing tabular databases. It will also integrate these geo-libraries into the overall operational model of the MMEX. The second mission has engaged one GISCorps volunteer, who is conducting the mission on site.

• Diana Sinton, Chief Program Officer, Latitude GIS Initiative National Institute for Technology & Liberal Education (NITLE), Vermont.

Mission completed.

Four missions in support of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts
We have implemented four missions in Mississipi and Louisiana, engaging 33 volunteers. Three missions have been on site at the Jackson, Mississippi’s Emergency Operation Center (EOC) and other EOCs in Hancock, Harrison, Pearl River, Stone, and Jackson Counties. One mission is working remotely for the Washington Parish in Louisiana. Read article from the GIS Monitor... more
Mission completed.

UNDP/Afghanistan Information Management Services (AIMS)
Shoreh Elhami, one of the co-founders of the GISCorps was in Kabul, Afghanistan in early May 2005 to visit with several governmental and non governmental entities. The main purpose of the visit was to establish a program for an ongoing deployment of GISCorps volunteers to that country. During her stay, she conducted several lectures and mini workshops... more
Mission completed.

SeedsIndia & MapAction
The seven member team has been busy creating various datasets for the Little Andaman Islands of India which was severely affected by the tsunami. Members of this team all reside in the US and are working on this project from their homes and places of employment. They started working on this project in mid February 2005. This team is being lead by one of the volunteers, Beni Patel. The other six volunteers are: Peter Price and his students (Sue Burley, Douglas Mangum, and Randy Andrews), Marlen Kokaz, Chandreyee Lahiri, Meredith Williams, Dyhan Appachu, and Anand Trivedi. The team has been working on gathering data (scanning, digitizing, classifying satellite imageries, etc.) and creating spatial and non spatial datasets... more
Mission completed.

Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) & UN Joint Logistics Center (UNJLC)
Five of our volunteers arrived in Indonesia on the 4th week of March 2005 for a one month assignment. Those are: Paul McKnight, Jay Meehl, Ray DeLeon, Heather Milton from US, and Dylan Shaw from Australia. Three of the volunteers are stationed in Jakarta and two are working in Banda Ache, Meulaboh, and Nias. The team is performing a variety of GIS tasks for the UNJLC under VVAF's direction. So far, those tasks include: image processing, data collection using GPS, field check, data model development, and more...
Mission completed.

Global MapAid
Frank Chang, returned from a one month assignment in Indonesia on March 14th, 2005. His role as a GISCorps volunteer for the Tsunami relief efforts was to serve as an expert advisor to the Global MapAid, a non governmental organization. The field evaluation conducted by the team would evolve to a one-year project partnered with a local NGO or education institute... more
Mission completed.

Sacred Valley of Incas in Peru
Our first project was in April of 2004. Martha Lombard, assisted the World Bank in planning for sustainable development studies in the Sacred Valley of Incas in Peru.

Mission completed.

Click here for more details on January to June 2005 projects.