Humanitarian mapping

Freetown residents fly a city-wide open drone mapping campaign

In April-May 2025 a crew of Freetown residents, at Freetown City Council's request and funded by HOT and GIZ, flew an open drone mapping campaign of the whole city, producing sub-5 cm imagery.

Added

Organisation
Freetown City Council and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)
Location
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Year
2025
Category
Humanitarian mapping

A State of the Map 2025 session describes how, in April and May 2025, 13 Freetown residents drawn from Freetown City Council, FEDURP, CODOHSAPA and OpenStreetMap Sierra Leone became the city’s first open drone mapping crew. The initiative was requested by the council and funded by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and GIZ, and produced a contiguous layer of sub-5 cm open aerial imagery, 3D meshes and elevation models.

ZAG Daily reported in December 2025 that more than 15 trained pilots now cover over 80 square kilometres. According to the article, the imagery has been used to map disability access in three informal settlements, and residents of previously unmapped settlements have used the data to seek official recognition.

Location: Freetown

Loading map…

Sources

Checked against 2 sources.

  1. City-Scale Open Community Drone Mapping - A World First in Sierra Leone? (State of the Map 2025) https://2025.stateofthemap.org/sessions/9R8TBE
  2. How community drone pilots are remapping Sierra Leone's capital (ZAG Daily) https://zagdaily.com/zag-air/how-community-drone-pilots-are-remapping-sierra-leones-capital/

Is something wrong? Tell us with the contact form and include this page's link.

More in Humanitarian mapping