Humanitarian OSM Team/Open Mapping Hub - Latin America and The Caribbean/Activations/2026 Colombia Earthquake Response
| Background | ||||||||||||||
Context of the ActivationOn Monday, August 10, 2026, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, the strongest earthquake recorded in the country in over a century. The quake was centered in the Chocó department and was felt across much of the country, as well as in parts of neighboring Ecuador and Panama, causing widespread destruction in Cali, Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, and other cities. Authorities report over 330 people killed, more than 4,600 injured, and 240 confirmed missing, with dozens of buildings collapsed, including a portion of a hospital in Cali, and thousands of homes damaged. These figures are expected to continue rising as search and rescue operations progress, particularly in harder-to-reach areas of the Chocó region. The Colombian government has declared a national emergency and mobilized search and rescue teams nationwide. (See more on wiki.org) The coordinated mapping response seeks to improve the basemap in the most impacted areas. See this HOT Portal page for combined relevant links and data for the response, as well as this landing page for high level information. See this uMap for the extent of coordinated mapping via HOT Tasking Manager.
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Contacts
- Coordination: Arnelle Isaac - arnelle.isaac@hotosm.org
- General: disasterservices@hotosm.org
Hashtag
- All contributions on Tasking Manager are tracked with a unique change set comment tag: #2026_LACH_CO_EQ
- ohsomeNow Stats page for tracking overall contributions
Timeline
- Start: 11 August, 2026
- End: TBC
Remote Mapping Coordination
- See a dynamic list of all Tasking Manager projects associated with this response.
- To see the extent of all Tasking Manager projects see the red polygons on this public uMap.
Map and Data Services
Accessing Relevant data
- Disaster specific HDX page with regularly updated OSM data clipped to disaster extent
- HDX page for Colombia country level OSM data
- ChatMap
- OSM Colombia community started a ChatMap instance for people located in Colombia to share images and locations of damage
- Shelter mapping ChatMap instance
Vantor Open Satellite Images
On 11 August, Vantor (Maxar) confirmed they would release pre and post earthquake images under CC-BY-NC-4.0 through their Open Data Program. This STAC index page contains their latest releases.
The images are being added to OpenAerialMap and can all be seen via HOT's portal or can be accessed one-at-a-time using the following links:
| # | Capture Date | ID (+ link) | Resolution (cm) | Location | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-08-10 | B050001100497810 | 57 | Risaralda | Clear |
| 2 | 2026-08-11 | B0300011009E4B10 | 51 | San José del Palmar | Very cloudy |
| 3 | 2026-08-11 | B0300011009E4D10 | 58 | Manizales | Cloudy |
| 4 | 2026-08-11 | B0400011006AFC10 | 35 | Manizales | Cloudy |
| 5 | 2026-08-11 | B0400011006AFD10 | 33 | Manizales | Clear |
| 6 | 2026-08-12 | B030001100A12710 | 59 | Pereira | Very cloudy |
| 7 | 2026-08-12 | B0400011006CDE10 | 52 | Cali | Very cloudy |
| 8 | 2026-08-12 | B11000110100E710 | 34 | Pereira | Cloudy |
| 9 | 2026-08-12 | B11000110100E810 | 45 | Manizales | Cloudy |
| 10 | 2026-08-13 | B0500011004EF210 | 64 | Manizales | Cloudy |
| 11 | 2026-08-13 | B110001101025510 | 42 | Pereira | Clear |
| 12 | 2026-08-13 | B110001101025710 | 40 | Palmira | Cloudy |
| 13 | 2026-08-13 | B140001100EE0910 | 46 | Cali | Very cloudy |
| 14 | 2026-08-15 | B130001100FA3F10 | 50 | Manizales | Cloudy |
| 15 | 2026-08-15 | B130001100FA4010 | 46 | Manizales | Very cloudy |
| 16 | 2026-08-19 | B050001100598210 | 47 | Pereira | Cloudy |
| 17 | 2026-08-19 | B1100011010A6410 | 36 | Pereira | Cloudy |
| 18 | 2026-09-03 | B1400011010F1510 | 34 | Riveralta | Cloudy |
| # | Capture Date | ID (+ link) | Resolution (cm) | Location | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-07-16 | B0300011004DF110 | 61 | Cali | Cloudy |
| 2 | 2026-07-16 | B0300011004DF310 | 59 | Cali | Cloudy |
| 3 | 2026-07-21 | B1500011019C7E10 | 47 | Risaralda | Cloudy |
| 4 | 2026-07-31 | B0300011007CD410 | 64 | Pereira | Cloudy |
Other post-event imagery
Post-event Colombia images captured by Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (IGAC) aircraft at 10cm resolution on 18 August, 2026 have been added to OpenAerialMap by user SkyMapStories:
- Sevilla, 13 km2
- El Cairo, 5 km2
- Toro, 15 km2
- Ulloa Valle, 5 km2
- Filandia Quindio, 3 km2
- Alcala Valle, 7 km2
- El Aguila Valle, 4 km2
- Ansermanuevo Valle, 10 km2
- Argelia Valle, 4 km2
- La Tebaida Quindio, 8 km2
- Caicedonia Valle, 16 km2
A post-event 5cm drone image of Manizales has been uploaded to OpenAerialMap by user Andrés Gómez Casanova (OSM: AngocA) citing 'Juan Calderón' as the provider, it is dated 19 August (i.e. 9 days after the earthquake).
Other relevant resources
- GDACS
- Copernicus Rapid Mapping platform for Colombia Earthquake
- UNOSAT Colombia Earthquake page
- UN Logistics Cluster ie page for Colombia
- Microsoft AI for Good Lab
- damage assessment AI model in Cali (uses optical imagery from Airbus Pléiades - August 10th, 2026 15:37 UTC)
- damage assessment AI model in Pereira (uses optical imagery from Vantor Legion - August 13th, 2026 15:37:29 UTC)
- 3iS Colombia Earthquake dashboard
- IFRC GO Colombia - Earthquake 2026 Emergencies page
- ReliefWeb page for Colombia Earthquake
- OCHA Damage Exposure viewer for Colombia Earthquake, compares damage assessments conducted by several organizations
About This Disaster Activation
About HOT
To learn more about the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), explore more of our wiki-pages (root: HOT) or our website hotosm.org. HOT is a global community, mostly of volunteers, and it is a US registered nonprofit able to contract with organizations (email info at hotosm.org to contact our staff), we are also a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
History of this Activation
- 10 August, 2026: 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia at 12:34 UTC
- The OSM Colombia community started a ChatMap instance for people located in Colombia to share images and locations of damage
- 11 August: HOT conducted a needs assessment (size up) and decided to start coordinated mapping (activate)
- 12 August: First HOT Tasking Manager project published
Data Quality
Validation: This is restricted to users that are members of the following teams:
HOT Global Validators, Brigada HUB LAC, Validator Trainees, OSM Africa Validators, MSF Validators, AP Hub's Guru - Validator
Data Use / Mentions
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) created a platform for shelter mapping that uses the shelter mapping ChatMap
For Mappers
How You Can Contribute
Tasking Manager Projects
See a dynamic list of all Tasking Manager projects associated with this response.
To see the extent of all Tasking Manager projects see the red polygons on this public uMap.
Mapping Priority in Tasking Manager
- Please choose from highest priority first.
- We call for local mappers to prioritize local knowledge on the area.
- The call is for basic, intermediate and experienced mappers.
- Experienced mappers are also asked to participate in validating completed tasks. Information on validating can be found here.
Mapping Instructions
HOT Tasking Manager
- For buildings see this project's instructions