A man with a drone flying

Transforming Cities through Data Collaboration

In this session of the Global Mixer, learn how local communities in Freetown are using drones and open data to map their city — building skills, opportunity, and smarter urban planning along the way.

Event details

data visualisation digital infrastructure digital urban planning planning & modelling
Datetime
10.12.2025, 11:00 - 11:30
Event type
Online (virtual)
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Joining across time zones:
7 AM Buenos Aires | 11 AM Berlin | 1 PM Addis Ababa | 3 PM Bangkok

Discover how local innovation is reshaping urban data creation. Pete Masters from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) shares insights from the Freetown Open Drone Crew – a community-driven mapping initiative. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the project enabled Freetown residents to produce high-quality 2D and 3D drone imagery covering over 80 km² of the city – affordable, accurate, and created by the community itself. Along the way, it built skills, infrastructure, and new income opportunities for local drone pilots. This world-first collaboration demonstrates how community-led drone mapping can generate accessible and low-cost urban data, empowering city authorities and communities worldwide to plan and grow more effectively.

This event is part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.

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