Kathmandu Living Labs

Mappers in action with ICMS and Kathmandu Living Labs

Local citizens from Bajrabarahi, Makwanpur, Nepal mapping their towns and villages. Kathmandu Living Labs, pioneer of OpenStreetMap in Nepal, was involved in training them. The training mostly focused on mapping agriculture and food security data

Introduction

Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) is a not-for-profit civic technology company based in Kathmandu, Nepal that works to bring data, technology and people together. In addition to building open geo-spatial information infrastructure around OpenStreetMap in Nepal, KLL also works in emergency preparedness, large-scale mobile data collection, governance, citizen engagement and academic research. More information about KLL can be found in the official website.

KLL harnesses local knowledge, develops open data and promotes civic technologies. At Kathmandu Living Labs, we attempt to connect technologies to difficult problems people face in their everyday lives. Through the years of experience, we have learned that technology is only a part of the puzzle in creating technology-based solutions. Successful implementation of technology-solution requires choreography of bringing together a number of elements forming an ecosystem. Our emphasis at Kathmandu Living Labs are cutting-edge Web 2.0 and crowd-sourced mapping that empower and engage citizens in working with government and development agencies to address problems collectively.

History

KLL was started in 2013 by former team members of Open Cities Kathmandu project. The project collected structural data of 2,256 schools and 350 health facilities, and worked to create a comprehensive basemap of the valley by mapping building, roads and other features in OpenStreetMap in order to build seismic resilience in Kathmandu valley.

Projects related to OpenStreetMap

Secondary Cities Indore

Secondary Cities Pokhara

PEER Science Research

Other projects

Mapping events and training

KLL regularly organizes events like mapping parties, training, sensitization, conferences and more.

Map Book Pokhara

Community Asset Mapping

Open Mapping and Civic Learning Course

Digital Internship and Leadership (DIAL)

Digital Internship and Leadership (DIAL) Nepalgunj

State of the Map Asia 2017

Map For Everyone

Current Team Members

Current Team Members (by name)

Name	Role	Usename	Link
Bhawak Pokhrel	Mapper	Bhawak (on osm)	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Bhawak
Hel Nursing Thapa	Mapper	helnershingthapa	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/helnershingthapa
Manoj Thapa	Mapper	Manoj Thapa (on osm)	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Manoj%20Thapa
Santosh Rana Magar	Mapper	mgrsantox	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/mgrsantox
Saurav Bhattarai	Mapper	srvbhattarai (on osm)	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/srvbhattarai
Shashish Maharjan	Mapper	shashish	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/shashish
Sushma Ghimire	Mapper	SushmaGhimire (on osm)	https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/SushmaGhimire

Ongoing directed editing projects

• Wednesday Mapathon

KLL organizes Wednesday Mapathon for a few hours every Wednesday afternoon. Staff who usually don't map also allocate some time to contribute to OSM. The event is also an 'OSM clinic' where people not affiliated to KLL can come to us and get help related to OSM.

• Mapping the Unmapped in Province 2 of Nepal

Out of the total 8,600+ COVID-19 cases in Nepal, one third is from Province 2 alone. With the steeply increasing food scarcity, poverty, migrant returnees, growing lack of livelihood measures, and the impending flood season, people are struggling to survive. Bara, Rauthahat, and Sarlahi are the hotspot of COVID 19 in the province. This province is also most affected by floods every year. Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) is coordinating this mapping effort to build map data to respond to COVID 19, prepare for a disaster, and develop resilience in the province.

• Building Footprint for Urban Agglomerations in Afghanistan (completed)