This month, we are delighted to kick of a new monthly series featuring the CKAN Ecosystem Catalog’s Site of the Month. The Site of the Month for August 2026 is MapAction.
MapAction is a nonprofit organization that provides mapping, geospatial, and data expertise to humanitarian responders around the world. For over 20 years, its staff and volunteers have supported humanitarian emergencies and disaster preparedness efforts around the worlds, helping response agencies understand who is affected, where they are, what they need, and how assistance can reach them.
Today, MapAction’s CKAN-powered data portal provides access to maps and geospatial resources spanning the breadth of their humanitarian work. The archive includes material dating back to the organization’s earliest deployments, preserving a remarkable record of humanitarian response to earthquakes, floods, cyclones, conflict, disease outbreaks, displacement, and other emergencies.
Most recently, MapAction deployed humanitarian mappers to support the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team and other response partners following the June 2026 earthquakes in Venezuela, producing maps of building damage, critical infrastructure, medical facilities, temporary settlements, coordination points, and other information needed as the response evolved.
We would want to recognize this work during any month but August is especially fitting, as August 19 is World Humanitarian Day. We are honored to feature MapAction as the first site in this Forum series, and to celebrate the power of open data and geospatial infrastructure in service of humanitarian response.