Mapping population and displacement

Lesson Ideas

On April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal killing more than 9,000 people, injuring many more and leaving nearly 3 million homeless. Ask students to produce a fact file on what happened, using the resources below. Ask them to consider. What are the data challenges this situation might pose for families affected, government and international aid workers seeking to provide help?

Nepal earthquake: Hundreds die, many feared trapped (BBC, 2015)

Earthquake rocks Nepal – as it happens (BBC, 2015)

Using data produced by FlowMinder and shared on World Pop discuss the patterns of movement by people following the earthquake. What does the data show? What are the flows of people? Add this to the fact file produced at the beginning of the lesson.

As a group discuss: why might this data be incomplete? Whose movements may not be recorded and why?

Links

• Southampton Profile Page

• Geography at the University of Southampton

• Filling global population data gaps: an interview with Andy Tatem

• Neglected immunisation could almost double child measles in Ebola-hit countries (2015) The Conversation

• Maps made from mobile phone records could help plan for the next tsunami or Ebola outbreak (2014) The Conversation

• Natural disasters put Haiti and Philippines on the map (2013) The Conversation

• Mobilising the data revolution to achieve sustainable energy for all (2017) World Bank

Data

• FlowMinder

• WorldPop

• Malaria Atlas Project

 

Andrew was interviewed in December 2016.