Benin Flooding, July 2009 - Quick mobilisation for Benin floods
10 Jul 2009
MapAction's UK office received a call for the UN in Geneva on Friday morning, requesting support for the UNDAC assessment mission being mobilised to Benin. By late afternoon MapAction's team was geared up and ready to go - although the earliest available flight to the small west African country is now on Sunday. This gave the 'luxury' of an extra 36 hours to tie up final deployment arrangements.
For MapAction, deploying a team isn't just a matter of booking tickets and taxis to the airport. A team first has to be put on standby, drawing on the pool of 35 trained volunteers: who however all have 'day jobs' in the world of GIS, in the UK and beyond. Today, however, it took only 90 minutes to have two experienced crew detailed for the trip.
Although visas are usually needed to enter Benin, MapAction's colleagues in the UN arranged for documents that will, hopefully, smooth the way for the unplanned mission on arrival - the Government of Benin having invited international assistance.
Selecting and packing equipment at 'Lime Farm' (MapAction's small headquarters) was completed -- in a record 25 minutes -- ready for the team to collect on their way through. Having everything mission-ready is essential, for example the GIS-equipped laptops have literally hundreds of software items pre-installed and regularly checked.
The biggest job however, and one that will continue right up to departure, is what MapAction calls the 'data scramble'. This involves trawling through dozens of sources of base map data to build a 'Go Pack' that will enable the team to start making maps even as they fly out.
Every mission is unique, but well-polished mission planning and deployment procedures are essential to ensure the team can hit the ground running and employ their sophisticated GIS technology effectively to map the emergency as the situation unfolds.