Objective:  

The UNJLC GIS unit provides logistical decision-support to the humanitarian community during relief operations through the acquisition, compilation and dissemination of timely and accurate geographic information on the status of logistical assets and infrastructure.

ONGOING ACTIVITES 

The GIS unit’s activities focus on preparedness, normative guidance and operational support

Preparedness:

The GIS Core Unit in Rome works to ensure that it can respond immediately to map and data requirements in the event of an emergency.
To this end, the unit undertakes the following activities:

• General logistics mapping for countries of concern identified by the humanitarian community.
• Continuous integration of new geographic data into UNJLC’s global database

Normative Guidance:

The UNJLC GIS unit was mandated by the UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWIG) in 2005 to lead the development of the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure for Transport (UNSDI-T). The aim of the project is to provide the humanitarian community with a standardized spatial data framework for all themes related to transport and logistics.

The GIS unit is also co-charing the CODATA Working Group, launched to coordinate the development of a detailed, open source global roads database.

As part of its normative guidance role the UNJLC GIS unit is also active in the organization of capacity building and training programmes. This ensures that UNJLC can hand over its work to suitable partners when withdrawing from a country at the end of an operation.

Operational Support:
 
UNJLC’s GIS operations are initiated by the GIS Core Unit through the establishment of needs-driven priorities, the set-up of field cells and recruitment of GIS field team.
Currently the GIS unit continues its support to the UNJLC operation in Sudan through roads mapping for the Ministry of Road and Transport of the Government of South Sudan.  As of 10th September 2007 5,875 km of road have been assessed. The GIS unit in Sudan also maintains a comprehensive airfields database.
The GIS unit was also active during the response to the floods that affected two Pakistani regions (Sindh and Baluchistan) in June-July 2007. GIS was used to map the volumes of key items distributed by district on a weekly basis on behalf of the National Disaster Management Agency

In September 2007 the GIS unit was deployed in support of the Logistics cluster response to the Uganda floods, mapping road passibility status and transport overview. .

For further information please refer to the UNJLC GIS webpage:
www.unjlc.org/mapcenter

Or send an email to:  maps@unjlc.org