project managers
This manual is a step by step guide for the project managers on how to get started with the Field Tasking Manager.
A Mapping Campaign refers to an organized effort of collecting data from a particular geographic area/feature and creating maps. This may involve using various mapping technologies such as; GPS, satellite imagery, or crowdsourced data. These technologies are used to gather information about the area of interest.
Mapping campaigns can be carried out for lots of different purposes, some examples are:
- Disaster Response and Recovery
- Environmental Conservation
- Urban planning or;
- Social and Political Activism.
They often involve collaboration between organizations like; Government Agencies, Non-profit Groups and volunteers.
Once the data is collected, it is analyzed and processed to create detailed maps that can have a variety of use cases. These could be:
- Identifying areas of need.
- Planning infrastructure and development projects.
- Understanding the impact of environmental changes on the landscape, etc.
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) is a non-profit organization that uses open mapping data to support humanitarian and disaster response efforts around the world. The Field Mapping Task Manager (Field-TM) is one of the tools that HOT used to coordinate and manage mapping projects.
Field-TM is a software tool that helps project managers to organize and manage mapping tasks. It assigns those tasks to volunteers and tracks their progress. The tool includes features for collaborative editing, data validation, and error detection. This ensures that the data collected by volunteers is accurate and reliable.
Field-TM is designed to be used in conjunction with Open Data Kit (ODK). ODK is a free and open-source set of tools that allows users to create, collect, and manage data with mobile devices. The ODK provides a set of open-source tools that allow users to build forms, collect data in the field, and aggregate data on a central server. It is commonly used for data collection in research, monitoring and evaluation, and other development projects.
Project managers use Field-TM to manage tasks and assign them to volunteers. The data collected by the volunteer via ODK is typically uploaded to OpenStreetMap (OSM) where it is used to create more detailed and accurate maps of the affected area. OSM is a free and open-source map of the world that is created and maintained by volunteers.
Overall, the Field-TM tool is an important component of HOT's efforts to support disaster response and humanitarian efforts around the world. By coordinating mapping activities and ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data collected by volunteers, Field-TM helps to provide critical information that can be used to support decision-making and improve the effectiveness of humanitarian efforts.
- Stable Internet connection.
- Basic bnowledge of field mapping. If you are new to mapping we suggest you read this.
signin.process.1.mp4
project.creation.step.1.2.mp4
project.creation.step.3.mp4
project.creation.step.4.mp4
project.creation.step.5.mp4
You may request to join an existing organisation.
Alternatively, request the creation of a new organisation for your team:
-
Go to the Manage organization tab. You can see the number of organizations. On the top, there is a New button, clicking on which you can request for a new organization.
-
You have to provide your consent and fill up the form by providing necessary details like Organization name, URL, Description of organization, type of organization etc.
-
Now submit the form. The request will reach the Admin who will create your organization and inform you through the email.
For small organisations, the organisation manager may also be the main project manager.
All project manager permissions are granted to the organisation manager.
Go to [fmtm]
- Login to fmtm first to see the option of creating the project.
- If you are not logged in, the option of create a new project is
not visible not visible.
- Start by filling in the project basic information such as the name,
description,
hashtag, etc. This captures essential information about your project.
- Finally click Next to proceed.
- You can draw a freehand polygon on a map interface or you can upload
the AOI file.
- Click on Upload file button to upload the AOI file. The file is only
supported by Geojson format. See [preparing map features](#preparing-map-features).
- Review the displayed map that corresponds to your selected area and
click on "Next".
!!! tip
Confirm the exact area for the survey before creating the project,
as the project boundary cannot be edited once the project is created.
- You may choose to upload a pre-Configured XLSForm or browse the forms.
[XLS Form Preparation](#xls-form-preparation)
- Click the UploadXLSForm if you are uploading the file or download forms
by clicking Download form.
- Finally click Next to proceed.
- Select an option under 'What type of geometry?'
- If you want to upload your own, click in Upload custom mapdata or else
go with the default
one of fetch data from OSM
- You can also upload additional map feature to have multiple feature
selection supported.
- Option 1: Split project into squares.
- Option 2: Use the project area created as the task areas.
This could be a single task, or multiple task areas if uploaded.
- Option 3: The task splitting algorithm which splits
the tasks with average number of features which is provided by project
creator.
- The task splitting may take few seconds to few minutes considering
the feature count and size of AOI. Click on "Submit" to create project.
-
Ensure you have the map features ready for the area you plan to survey before starting project creation.
-
The files should be in GeoJSON format, use the WGS coordinate system with EPSG 4326, and must not include a Z-coordinate. The map feature file should follow the osm tags structure.
-
Below is a sample of the required file structure:
!!! example
```json { "type": "Feature", "properties": { "full_id": "r9517874", "osm_id": "9517874", "osm_type": "relation" "tags": {"building": "yes"}, "type": "multipolygon", "name": "", "building:levels": "" }, "geometry": { "type": "MultiPolygon", "coordinates": [ [ [ [ -3.9618848, 5.3041323 ], [ -3.9615121, 5.3041457 ], [ -3.9615028, 5.3038906 ], [ -3.9618755, 5.3038772 ], [ -3.9618848, 5.3041323 ] ], [ [ -3.9620167, 5.3042236 ], [ -3.9620143, 5.3041258 ], [ -3.9619839, 5.3041266 ], [ -3.9619757, 5.3037882 ], [ -3.9614038, 5.3038019 ], [ -3.9614144, 5.3042381 ], [ -3.9620167, 5.3042236 ] ] ] ] } } ``` -
You may download features from OpenStreetMap (OSM) by clicking on Fetch data from osm with Field-TM project creation; however, note that Field-TM is not responsible for the data quality of features extracted from OSM.
-
Currently, available types of survey features are Buildings and Healthcare only. We plan to add more types of features moving ahead.
-
Project managers can also upload supporting map features. Note that these secondary features can’t be surveyed but selected for respective primary features.
- Be prepared with the XLS form for the project.
- If updates are required to the form, you can edit the XLS form even after the project is created.
- Note that a few fields in the beginning and end of the form will be injected to ask for some feature verification.
- So project managers are requested to fill up the form through odk or download the form after the project is created to know about the field injected. You can also get the fields injected from our documentation here
- Also read carefully the overview in the left section of each step to understand the details of the functionalities.
-
If you have custom imagery that you want to use as basemap during field mapping activity, then you have to add the TMS link of that imagery during the first step of project creation.
-
Click on I would like to include my own imagery layer for reference in the first step to add TMS URL. You can get URL by uploading it in openaerialmap.
- To store your submissions in ODK Central, you need to have valid ODK Central credentials.
- One option is to use your own organisations ODK server, if available.
- Another is to request access to use HOT's ODK server, which is free to use for public project creation.
-
Go to the respective project. On the bottom left side, you will see the view infographics button.
-
Click on the button will lead you to the infographics page.
-
On the right side there is an icon which will switch the layout to table view, meaning you can see the submissions in table format.
-
You can see the details of submission and also review the submission and set the submission as accepted, rejected or has issues. Moreover, you can also comment to the submission for mappers.
-
Users can also download the submission in Json or CSV format.
-
The submission can also be uploaded to JOSM. For that, you should have JOSM software installed in your device and should have your remote control enabled.
- Make sure mapper has downloaded custom odk collect from
Field-TM website. You can also share the apk file if mappers find it difficult to download by themselves. - Share the link of the project for the mapper to reach
to the project easily. The URL be: https://mapper.fmtm.hotosm.org/project_id -
Updating Metadata
If you need mappers to include their email
and phone number along with their username, guide them
to update their ODK Collect settings:- Navigate to Settings for the project.
- Click on User and Device Identity to update the
metadata fields.
-
Test Submissions
Encourage mappers to submit a few test entries to
familiarize themselves with the workflow and address
any issues during training.
- Collect regular ongoing feedback from mappers to ensure they face no difficulties during fieldwork.
- Prepare clear and detailed instructions for mappers and validators, specific to the project requirements.
- Prepare the checklist for validation. The things to check may depend on the type of project.
- Connect the odk central to powerBI or any other data visualisation tool via Odata
link to customise the charts and graphs as per your need.
To get more info about project management in odk collect
follow the guide Here.
If you want to visualise the submissions and create custom charts and diagrams using Field-TM submissions, then you can follow the steps below and load the submissions on any data analysis platform using OData.
OData endpoints are a standardised way to ingest this data into other tools: PowerBI, Tableau, Redash, Grafana.
Why PowerBI? You can use other tools too like Tableau, Redash, Grafana or even Excel. However, PowerBI is free to use, very powerful, and user friendly to use, despite being a proprietary Microsoft tool.
The steps shows how to use PowerBI and create custom visualisations. ODK already has good docs on this which you can refer to. https://docs.getodk.org/tutorial-mapping-households/
Step 1: Start a new project, add a new data source 'OData Feed'
[Image here]
Step 2: Use the OData URLs shown in the ODK docs: a. Submission data: /v1/projects/{projectId}/forms/{xmlFormId}.svc e.g. https://odk.hotosm.org/v1/projects/86/forms/df9135c8-84b1-4753-b348-e8963a8b4088.svc b. Entity data: /v1/projects/{projectId}/datasets/{name}.svc e.g. https://odk.hotosm.org/v1/projects/86/datasets/features.svc
Step 3: Enter your credentials using Basic Auth
Step 4: Preview the data
Step 5: Transform data as needed, load into charts, graphs, etc, to create the dashboard you need.
-
Users can also edit a few fields after project creation like basic details like name, description, instructions as well as XLS form.
-
Go to the respective project you want to edit. Click on the manage button to edit basic details and XLS form.
If you encounter any issues or need assistance while using Field-TM, you can access the following resources:
- Check the FAQs .
- Ask your doubts in the Slack channel: #field-mapping-tasking-manager