Mapping task reference

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This reference taxonomy defines the humanitarian mapping work Cartogen AI should support. It is used to guide tool coverage, prompt examples, workflow design, acceptance testing, and future QGIS processing features.

1. Base mapping and reference data

Base maps; roads, tracks, bridges, paths, waterways; buildings and footprints; settlements, villages, towns, neighbourhoods, facilities, landmarks, land use, land cover, drainage, elevation, slopes, terrain, place names, administrative boundaries, common operational datasets, geographic databases, map indexes, map sheets, map books, atlases, paper-map digitisation, historical-map georeferencing, format conversion, geographic-name validation, data standardisation, and unmapped-area identification.

2. Rapid and emergency mapping

Affected areas; damaged and destroyed buildings; blocked roads; floods; landslides; debris; wildfire; earthquake; cyclone and storm impacts; conflict locations; explosions; displacement; evacuation and emergency-access routes; safe and unsafe areas; helicopter landing zones; urgent-assessment areas; situation maps; emergency coordination maps; search-and-rescue maps; pre/post-event comparisons; information-gap maps; rapid damage assessments; daily or weekly emergency updates.

3. Population and displacement

Population distribution, density, estimates and projections; affected populations; IDP and refugee settlements; reception centres; spontaneous settlements; host and returnee communities; asylum seekers; migration and displacement routes; origins and destinations; settlement-size change; demographic characteristics; age, sex, disability, older people, children, pregnant women, minority and marginalised groups; pressure on services; underserved populations; displacement dashboards and infographics.

4. Camp and settlement mapping

Camp boundaries, blocks, zones, shelters, household units, communal facilities, registration and reception areas, distribution points, water and sanitation, health posts, schools, markets, roads, paths, drainage, waste points, lighting, security infrastructure, firebreaks, emergency access, overcrowding, shelter density, available space, expansion areas, high-risk zones, accessibility barriers, growth, relocation, closure, service distance, master plans, camp profiles, facility inventories.

5. Damage and needs assessment

Damage severity; destroyed and partially damaged structures; affected households; damaged schools, hospitals, clinics, water, sanitation, power, telecommunications, warehouses, markets, bridges and roads; inaccessible communities; debris and hazards; district comparisons; affected-population estimates; field-assessment prioritisation; survey and imagery integration; field validation; damage reports; recovery and reconstruction priorities.

6. Infrastructure and service mapping

Health, education, WASH, food, shelter, protection, legal assistance, community, logistics, transport, energy, telecommunications, government, partner, cash-assistance, registration and referral facilities; capacity; operating status; opening hours; availability; service areas; coverage gaps; travel times; population served; service-directory and referral outputs.

7. Health and public health

Disease cases, suspected cases, outbreaks, clusters, incidence, prevalence, mortality, case fatality, vaccination, immunisation, catchment areas, maternal and child health, nutrition, malnutrition, cholera and waterborne risk, vectors, mosquito breeding, environmental-health risks, sanitation and water access, referrals, ambulance coverage, health workers, medical supply needs, geographic barriers, underserved populations, epidemiological maps, health-risk maps, dashboards, vaccination planning.

8. Water, sanitation and hygiene

Water sources, points, boreholes, wells, quality, contamination, trucking, storage tanks, pipelines, treatment, latrines, toilets, bathing, handwashing, waste, drainage, open defecation, sanitation gaps, water-per-person, latrine-to-person ratios, water distance, nonfunctional facilities, repairs, maintenance, hygiene promotion, WASH coverage, inventories, assessments, reports.

9. Food security and nutrition

Food insecurity, consumption, distributions, markets, prices, agriculture, crops, livestock, pasture, fishing, drought-affected farmland, supply routes, market access, malnutrition, nutrition treatment, assistance coverage, cash and voucher programmes, access barriers, income and expenditure, food-price trends, affected populations, priority assistance areas, severity maps, nutrition reports, agricultural and market monitoring.

10. Logistics and supply chains

Warehouses, distribution centres, ports, airports, border crossings, roads, corridors, bridges, restrictions, fuel stations, vehicle routes, delivery locations, capacity, supply and last-mile routes, checkpoints, closures, travel times, seasonal constraints, alternatives, optimisation, distance, transport cost, shipment tracking, bottlenecks, pre-positioning, logistics-access maps, field-team routes, warehouse and distribution reports.

11. Accessibility and road networks

Road condition, road class and quality, damaged and closed roads, bridges, fords, seasonal roads, checkpoints, access controls, restrictions, distance, travel time, walking and vehicle access, isolated communities, reachable areas, shortest and safest routes, alternatives, bottlenecks, transport availability, market/service access, accessibility maps, road reports, convoy and delivery planning, humanitarian-access constraints.

12. Protection and safety

Protection incidents, violence, conflict, mines and explosive remnants, dangerous areas, checkpoints, detention and reception facilities, trafficking routes, GBV providers, child protection, legal assistance, safe spaces, referrals, restricted movement, forced displacement, civilian incidents, aid-worker risks, facility threats, incident patterns, geographic and temporal trends, high-risk populations, confidential maps, safe programming.

13. Conflict and security analysis

Conflict events, armed-group activity, attacks, fatalities, front lines, areas of control, territorial change, checkpoints, military positions, explosive incidents, aid-operation security, restrictions, curfews, displacement, intensity, trends, hotspots, proximity analysis, operational risk, satellite monitoring, security briefings, conflict reports, scenarios and enhanced-security priorities.

14. Natural hazards and disaster risk

Flood hazard, extent, depth and frequency; drought; wildfire; earthquake; landslide; volcano; cyclone; storm surge; tsunami; heat; cold; avalanche; erosion; coastal hazards; hazard-prone settlements; exposed infrastructure; vulnerable populations; location-based risk; exposure maps; early-warning maps; evacuation and shelter maps; scenarios; regional comparison; disaster-risk assessment; preparedness.

15. Climate and environmental mapping

Climate hazards, drought, rainfall and temperature anomalies, soil moisture, vegetation, degradation, deforestation, desertification, wetlands, water availability, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, changing rivers, glacier and snow conditions, air pollution, contamination, protected areas, natural resources, agricultural suitability, vulnerability, community impacts, adaptation priorities, satellite monitoring, climate-risk reports.

16. Remote sensing and satellite imagery

Imagery acquisition, date/resolution selection, correction and processing, interpretation, change detection, construction, destruction, floods, burn scars, crops, vegetation, settlement expansion, informal settlements, roads, blocked routes, landslides, shorelines, nighttime lights, DEMs, orthophotos, classification, object detection, radar, field validation, pre/post-event comparison, interpretation reports.

17. Drone and aerial mapping

Mission planning, flight areas, permissions, aerial capture, disaster imagery, orthomosaics, high-resolution maps, 3D models, DSMs, damage and infrastructure mapping, inaccessible locations, reconstruction monitoring, stockpiles, debris, erosion, landslides, search and rescue, image QA, georeferencing, time-series comparison, drone reports.

18. Field data and mobile mapping

Survey design, mobile forms, team training, GPS, facilities, households, key informants, infrastructure, roads, protection, photos and video, operating status, capacity, damage, water quality, community assets, participatory mapping, team tracking, offline synchronisation, validation, spot checks, enumerator management, assessment datasets, field methodology.

19. OpenStreetMap and crowdsourced mapping

Remote campaigns, buildings, roads, paths, facilities, disasters, volunteer coordination, instructions, priorities, edit review, validation, duplicate resolution, geometry and attribute correction, completeness, workshops, community training, local ownership, approved imports, humanitarian exports, progress statistics, mapping communities, remote/field integration, collection standards.

20. GIS database management

Spatial schemas, standards, metadata, CRS, cleaning, duplicates, invalid geometries, attribute standardisation, joins, geocoding, record matching, versioning, catalogs, permissions, archives, updates, change tracking, QA/QC, completeness, positional and attribute accuracy, reliability, sensitive-data protection, dictionaries, processing lineage, publication, dashboard preparation.

21. Spatial analysis

Proximity, buffers, distances, travel times, service areas, nearest facilities, coverage gaps, hazard populations, service populations, hazard/infrastructure overlays, population/risk overlays, hotspots, clusters, spatial patterns, temporal change, comparisons, priority ranking, suitability, facility location, network routes, affected assets, area, density, zonal statistics, interpolation, vulnerability, risk, composite indicators, scenarios and geostatistics.

22. Data analysis and statistics

Survey cleaning, demographics, households, totals, percentages, rates, ratios, averages, medians, comparisons, trends, outliers, completeness, confidence intervals, survey analysis and weighting, monitoring indicators, vulnerability and severity scores, geographic needs ranking, utilisation, beneficiary coverage, reach, humanitarian indicators, gap/baseline/endline analysis, KPIs, statistical and predictive models, disaggregation, charts, graphs and summaries.

23. Humanitarian needs assessment

Affected populations, severity, priority needs, district comparison, sector needs, underserved communities, household vulnerability, basic-service access, shelter, food, WASH, health, education, protection, livelihoods and early recovery, greatest-risk groups, unmet needs, assistance coverage, resources versus needs, priority rankings, multisector reports and planning inputs.

24. Humanitarian programme monitoring

Project locations, partners, coverage, beneficiaries, distributions, progress, construction, completed and delayed activities, planned versus actual coverage, service quality, access, complaints and feedback, assistance duplication, partner gaps, geographic equity, priority-area reach, dashboards, progress maps, monitoring reports, donor reporting, evaluation and learning.

25. Sector-specific mapping

Shelter: damage, types, emergency and rental housing, collective and informal sites, reconstruction, land, occupancy and overcrowding.

Education: schools, damage, temporary learning, enrolment, teachers, catchments, school travel, out-of-school populations and gaps.

Health: facilities, disease, vaccination, access, supplies, damage and capacity.

Protection: incidents, vulnerable groups, referrals, safe spaces, restrictions and risk.

Livelihoods and recovery: economic activity, markets, businesses, employment, agriculture, losses, reconstruction and recovery priorities.

26. Reporting and information products

Situation, needs-overview, operational, briefing, incident, reference, hazard, damage, population, service, accessibility, logistics and camp maps; sector dashboards; interactive maps; map books; atlases; infographics; charts; statistical tables; story maps; geographic and district profiles; partner/project maps; donor, assessment and technical reports; methodology, metadata, presentations, executive summaries and downloadable GIS datasets.

27. Coordination and decision support

Coordination meetings, common operational datasets, shared maps, multi-agency harmonisation, geographic priorities, cluster and sector support, project overlap and assistance gaps, emergency operations centres, inter-agency assessments, decision support, resource allocation, response, contingency, preparedness, evacuation and recovery planning, mapping help desks, training, guidelines, data sharing, volunteer coordination and information portals.

28. Web mapping, dashboards and visualisation

Interactive maps, web layers, humanitarian dashboards, filters, geographic selectors, live or scheduled updates, map-linked charts, district indicators, story maps, public and internal portals, mobile maps, map services, APIs, automated updates, downloadable outputs, legends, symbology, accessible visualisation, humanitarian branding and maps for nontechnical audiences.

29. Data sharing, standards and governance

Open-data publication, humanitarian portals, sharing agreements, access rules, minimum standards, geographic codes, boundary harmonisation, metadata, quality procedures, responsible data, anonymisation, aggregation, restricted sensitive data, publication-risk assessment, limitations, inventories, catalogs, requests, archives, interoperability and standard operating procedures.

30. Training and capacity building

GIS, remote sensing, GPS, mobile collection, local-authority and partner training, community mappers, volunteers, materials, exercises, mentoring, data-collection guidance, map interpretation, spatial analysis, dashboard use, OpenStreetMap, local GIS teams, workshops, certification, technical support and institutional capacity.

Typical final outputs

• Printed operational, briefing, hazard, damage, population, service, camp, logistics and accessibility maps
• PDF maps, situation reports, assessment reports, needs-overview reports and donor reports
• Interactive web maps, dashboards, story maps, data portals and geographic profiles
• Vector layers: Shapefile, GeoPackage, GeoJSON and other approved GIS formats
• Raster products, satellite interpretations, orthophotos, DEMs and drone orthomosaics
• Facility inventories, population estimates, route plans and service directories
• Risk, vulnerability, severity and composite indexes
• Priority-area rankings and decision-support analyses
• Statistical tables, charts, infographics, map books and atlases
• Data-quality reports, methodology notes, metadata, data dictionaries and processing lineage
• Training materials, mapping guidelines, SOPs and data-sharing procedures