1001 Smart Cities
🇹🇿 Dar es Salaam

Ramani Huria Community Flood Mapping

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 11 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

11 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

The funded programme ended in 2020. The 450,000 buildings that roughly 470 students and Red Cross volunteers put on OpenStreetMap are still what disaster response works from.

Outcome🎯 Succeeded
Evidence🔬 Peer-reviewed
what does this mean?The strongest source behind this entry is an independent peer-reviewed or academic study. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byRamani Huria / Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (OMDTZ)
Scale🏙️ City-wide
FundingWorld Bank / GFDRR + UK DfID (Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme)

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,216 documented projects · 🏙️ 1 more in Dar es Salaam · 🌊 Flood resilience guide · 📡 Data & IoT projects

Ramani Huria ('open map' in Swahili) trained roughly 470 university students and hundreds of Red Cross volunteers to map flood-prone Dar es Salaam onto OpenStreetMap using smartphones, drones and street-view surveys. By early 2019 it had mapped about 49 of the city's 90 wards and some 450,000 buildings, and the city's multi-agency emergency team DarMAERT still uses the flood atlases in disaster response. OMDTZ, the local NGO that grew out of the project, said in a September 2025 retrospective that rapid urban growth has left parts of the map outdated, and that it keeps updating OpenStreetMap through volunteer mapathons and contract projects such as a World Bank-supported waste-data survey.

Completed 📅 2015–2020

📊 Impact

A peer-reviewed 2020 study by researchers at TU Delft and Deltares, with one co-author from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, found that adding the project's community-mapped drainage data made a neighbourhood flood model match validation data better than a run on terrain data alone, at a level of detail it called inaccessible in many data-scarce places. In 2025 DarMAERT described using the project's 2018 flood atlas to identify flood-prone areas and guide responders.

🎓 Lesson

The lasting value was the open dataset itself: community-generated maps outlived the funded programme and still guide disaster response — but a map built between 2015 and 2020 ages with a fast-growing city, and keeping it current falls to volunteers and one-off contracts.

📡 Data & IoTFlood resilienceOpen dataGIS & cadastreCitizen participationDrones & air mobility

Sources

↗ Ramani Huria (official project site, OMDTZ)Project description: trains local university students and community members to map Dar es Salaam on OpenStreetMap for flood prevention and response; part of the Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme of DFID and the World Bank, supported by GFDRR and guided by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.
↗ Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team — Urban flood resilience: Ramani HuriaHOT's project page: phase from April 2015, Ramani Huria 2.0 from 2017 combining exposure and flood-hazard data; smartphone data collection; project news on drone imagery and street-view mapping (2016).
↗ World Bank — Ramani Huria: the atlas of flood resilience in Dar es SalaamPublished 2018The project's flood-resilience atlas: detailed local maps of the most flood-prone areas, combined with InaSAFE for disaster scenarios; supported by the World Bank, GFDRR and the Red Cross.
↗ Metropolis — Ramani Huria case studyPublished 16 January 2019Case study: since 2015 the project mapped 49 of 90 wards (about half the city), about 450,000 buildings and 1,700 schools; 470 university students trained and more than 300 Red Cross members involved.
↗ OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)Published 17 September 2025OMDTZ retrospective: the World Bank-funded project ran 2015–2020; DarMAERT uses the 2018 atlas to support field response; data collected 2015–2020 is outdated in fast-growing areas; OMDTZ updates OpenStreetMap through mapathons, Mapillary imagery and contract projects such as World Bank-supported solid-waste data collection.
Show 1 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ Petersson et al., "Community Mapping Supports Comprehensive Urban Flood Modeling for Flood Risk Management in a Data-Scarce Environment", Frontiers in Earth SciencePublished 21 July 2020Peer-reviewed study (TU Delft, Deltares, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team): Ramani Huria's community-mapped drainage data made a neighbourhood flood model correspond better with validation data than a terrain-only run; flood-extent surveys suit community mapping, drainage dimensions need trained mappers.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: 2015–2020. 4 of 6 sources carry a publication date, from 2018 to 17 September 2025.

When the sources were published

  1. World Bank · international organisationWorld Bank — Ramani Huria: the atlas of flood resilience in Dar es Salaam
  2. Metropolis (World Association of the Major Metropolises) · international organisationMetropolis — Ramani Huria case study
  3. Frontiers · researchPetersson et al., "Community Mapping Supports Comprehensive Urban Flood Modeling for Flood Risk Management in a Data-Scarce Environment", Frontiers in Earth Science
  4. OpenMap Development Tanzania · ngoOpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 11 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence file · public beta 11 addressable claims, 6 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The file is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 11

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-817ee311c000c4e8 quantitative
Ramani Huria ('open map' in Swahili) trained roughly 470 university students and hundreds of Red Cross volunteers to map flood-prone Dar es Salaam onto OpenStreetMap
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The case study counts 470 trained university students and more than 300 Red Cross members; the project site describes mapping flood-prone Dar es Salaam on OpenStreetMap.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Metropolis — Ramani Huria case study
  2. Ramani Huria (official project site, OMDTZ)
Claim 2 clm-4a161461dfa07ae4 descriptive
using smartphones, drones and street-view surveys
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
HOT's page describes data collection with smartphones and lists project news on drone imagery and street-view mapping in 2016.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team — Urban flood resilience: Ramani Huria
Claim 3 clm-26a14055113f9fc2 quantitative
By early 2019 it had mapped about 49 of the city's 90 wards and some 450,000 buildings
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The January 2019 case study says the project had mapped 49 of 90 wards, about 450,000 buildings and 1,700 schools.
Caveat
Counts differ between sources: HOT's 2019 report speaks of about a third of the city, the 2020 study of 44 wards mapped in 2017–2019.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Metropolis — Ramani Huria case study
Claim 4 clm-3a6998a8a5705b5e descriptive
the city's multi-agency emergency team DarMAERT still uses the flood atlases in disaster response
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The September 2025 retrospective says DarMAERT uses the Ramani Huria atlas to support field response during disasters and quotes a DarMAERT member.
Caveat
Reported by OMDTZ, the organisation that grew out of the project.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)
Claim 5 clm-37b2759dd9ed62cc quantitative
OMDTZ, the local NGO that grew out of the project, said in a September 2025 retrospective that rapid urban growth has left parts of the map outdated
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The retrospective says much of the atlas data was collected in 2015–2020 and rapid urban growth has left some areas unmapped or outdated.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)
Claim 6 clm-2f55734a46200b85 descriptive
it keeps updating OpenStreetMap through volunteer mapathons and contract projects such as a World Bank-supported waste-data survey
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The retrospective names mapathons with volunteers and partners and contract projects such as World Bank-supported solid-waste data collection as the ways the map is being refreshed.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)
Claim 7 clm-d598571f8ab78f80 quantitative
A peer-reviewed 2020 study by researchers at TU Delft and Deltares, with one co-author from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, found that adding the project's community-mapped drainage data made a neighbourhood flood model match validation data better than a run on terrain data alone
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The study's conclusion: model outputs correspond better with validation data when the community-mapped drainage network is added than in a terrain-only scenario; five authors are at TU Delft or Deltares, one at HOT Dar es Salaam.
Caveat
One co-author works for the project's implementer; the study tests data usefulness for modelling, not reduced flood losses.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Petersson et al., "Community Mapping Supports Comprehensive Urban Flood Modeling for Flood Risk Management in a Data-Scarce Environment", Frontiers in Earth Science
Claim 8 clm-4d5bff6796fce009 descriptive
at a level of detail it called inaccessible in many data-scarce places
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The abstract says community-mapped data supports flood modelling on a level of detail currently inaccessible in many data-scarce environments.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Petersson et al., "Community Mapping Supports Comprehensive Urban Flood Modeling for Flood Risk Management in a Data-Scarce Environment", Frontiers in Earth Science
Claim 9 clm-40857c251a2b49c5 quantitative
In 2025 DarMAERT described using the project's 2018 flood atlas to identify flood-prone areas and guide responders
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The retrospective quotes a DarMAERT member: for floods they use the atlas to identify potentially flooded areas and share it with local teams.
Caveat
Testimony gathered by OMDTZ, not an independent evaluation.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)
Claim 10 clm-0c7df4f917b97d80 descriptive
The lasting value was the open dataset itself: community-generated maps outlived the funded programme and still guide disaster response
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The retrospective describes continued use of the 2018 atlas by DarMAERT years after the 2015–2020 programme ended.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)
Claim 11 clm-96a51726918e3a36 quantitative
but a map built between 2015 and 2020 ages with a fast-growing city, and keeping it current falls to volunteers and one-off contracts
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this file
What the mapping says
The retrospective says the 2015–2020 data is outdated in fast-growing areas and is refreshed through mapathons and contract projects.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-10-14-baseline effective 2026-10-14 · created 2026-10-14

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:64eca56938ef8fcbda4451a29286a22cbd5f13ca62fa581366af79d955d5a6da
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
11
of 11 claims mapped
6
source dossiers
3
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Ramani Huria / Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (OMDTZ)
Actor types
civil-society
Funding model
grant
Funding description
World Bank / GFDRR + UK DfID (Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme)
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

6 source dossiers

Ramani Huria (official project site, OMDTZ) ramanihuria.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a069b57ed1641a5e
Publisher
Name not classified · ramanihuria.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-14
Dossier created
2026-10-14
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Project description: trains local university students and community members to map Dar es Salaam on OpenStreetMap for flood prevention and response; part of the Tanzania Urban Resilience Programme of DFID and the World Bank, supported by GFDRR and guided by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team — Urban flood resilience: Ramani Huria hotosm.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-d4e8868c2d7286c3
Publisher
Name not classified · hotosm.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-14
Dossier created
2026-10-14
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

HOT's project page: phase from April 2015, Ramani Huria 2.0 from 2017 combining exposure and flood-hazard data; smartphone data collection; project news on drone imagery and street-view mapping (2016).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
World Bank — Ramani Huria: the atlas of flood resilience in Dar es Salaam documents.worldbank.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-7d35b48669aa90e0
Publisher
Name not classified · documents.worldbank.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-14
Dossier created
2026-10-14
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The project's flood-resilience atlas: detailed local maps of the most flood-prone areas, combined with InaSAFE for disaster scenarios; supported by the World Bank, GFDRR and the Red Cross.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Background source; no baseline claim points here
Metropolis — Ramani Huria case study use.metropolis.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-190fdabefa80b787
Publisher
Name not classified · use.metropolis.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-01-16
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-14
Dossier created
2026-10-14
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Case study: since 2015 the project mapped 49 of 90 wards (about half the city), about 450,000 buildings and 1,700 schools; 470 university students trained and more than 300 Red Cross members involved.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
OpenMap Development Tanzania — 'Long-Lasting Impact of Ramani Huria Project' (Sept 2025 retrospective) omdtanzania.medium.com · 6 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-e058a4f398bf2e82
Publisher
Name not classified · omdtanzania.medium.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-09-17
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-14
Dossier created
2026-10-14
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

OMDTZ retrospective: the World Bank-funded project ran 2015–2020; DarMAERT uses the 2018 atlas to support field response; data collected 2015–2020 is outdated in fast-growing areas; OMDTZ updates OpenStreetMap through mapathons, Mapillary imagery and contract projects such as World Bank-supported solid-waste data collection.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Petersson et al., "Community Mapping Supports Comprehensive Urban Flood Modeling for Flood Risk Management in a Data-Scarce Environment", Frontiers in Earth Science frontiersin.org · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-132d694a23b43f9e
Publisher
Name not classified · frontiersin.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2020-07-21
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-10-14
Dossier created
2026-10-14
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Peer-reviewed study (TU Delft, Deltares, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team): Ramani Huria's community-mapped drainage data made a neighbourhood flood model correspond better with validation data than a terrain-only run; flood-extent surveys suit community mapping, drainage dimensions need trained mappers.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this file
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇰🇪 Digital Matatus: Nairobi's Matatu Routes Mapped into GTFS · Nairobi Community mapping into OpenStreetMap: Nairobi rode its matatu routes (2012); Dar mapped flood-prone wards, ~450k buildings by early 2019. 🇮🇳 Integrated Dynamic Flood Early Warning Platform · Chennai Flood risk two ways: Dar mapped flood-prone wards with volunteers (2015-20); Chennai forecasts inundation days ahead with models (2019). 🇮🇩 Jakarta Smart City · Jakarta Two flood responses: Dar built a community flood-risk base map (2015-20); Jakarta runs a live dashboard of pumps and floodgates.

Explore the wider context

🌍 Hardware Stops, Data Doesn't📖 Building performance standard (BPS)📖 Civic participation platform📖 Digital identity
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Ramani Huria Community Flood Mapping” — Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/dar-es-salaam-ramani-huria/ (last verified 2026-10-14). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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