Our Mappers of the Month for December 2025 are the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) Master's students! Since 2022, UJI has been collaborating with the UN Mappers Team to provide OpenStreetMap, open data and open-source tools, and UN Maps training with Erasmus+ Master's students.
We interviewed UJI GIS Professor Michael Gould and four (4) of the Master's students about their experience and motivation in mapping in support of UN peacekeeping efforts. Read below:
Michael Gould, GIS Professor
Can you tell us a bit about you and your department at the Universitat Jaume I?
I have been a professor teaching GIS at the Universitat Jaume I, in Castellón just north of Valencia since 1998, in the Information Systems department, and we signed an MOU with the UN via the Valencia and Brindisi offices. For the past 15 years I have been teaching GIS and Spatial Data Infrastructures (now called services and standards...) in the Erasmus Plus funded Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies. I do that part-time as I also work for Esri. Inc. as Global Education Manager.
In the past years we organized many open mapping trainings together. What was your motivation doing that and why you believe they are important for students to learn about open geospatial?
In our Services and Standards course we look at both de jure (ISO, OGC) and de facto standards for data collection, publishing and sharing. One great example is OSM and the various ways students can consume and contribute to the global dataset. The UN Mappers contribution and use cases makes it even more relevant and interesting!
How was the recent UN Mappers Training last month, November 2025?
The UN Mappers training that we did in November 2025, thanks to the visit from Michael Montani, was very useful and well received from our master's students, who come from around the world to study in Castellón and in Münster, Germany. Michael showed the value of incorporating crowd-sourced data into the UN data fusion process to provide missions around the world with actionable information. The students edited data on their laptops and also in the field on mobile devices. These practical sessions by Michael and his colleagues are always a highlight of our semester and we really appreciate the collaboration.
Let us hear some testimonials from the students of the last training session we had together!
Farirai Manonose, Zimbabwe
The UN Mappers training was an incredibly enriching experience and definitely one of the highlights of my semester at UJI. Coming from a Geosciences background, it was inspiring to see how geospatial data is used at a global, humanitarian scale and how something as simple as a single OSM edit can make a real difference within the wider UN ecosystem. Since starting my Master’s Program, I’ve become increasingly curious about data quality control and quality assurance, especially crucial in citizen science initiatives and crowd sourced data. Having Michael Montani with us in the room to answer any questions gave us practical insight into these often-overlooked areas, and I’m excited to keep exploring. Overall, this experience sparked a renewed interest in open geospatial work and I’m grateful to the UN Maps team for reminding us that our work as geospatial scientists is not just technical, but deeply human.
Sushma Ghimire, Nepal
I am Sushma Ghimire from Nepal, currently pursuing a Master's degree in Geospatial Technologies (Erasmus Mundus Scholar 2025) at Universitat Jaume I and a co-founder of Women in Geospatial Nepal, a community that supports women in the geospatial field.
Participating in the UN Maps training at UJI was a valuable experience that strengthened both my technical skills and expanded my understanding of the applications of OpenStreetMap(OSM). Coming from a long-term background as an OSM mapper and trainer, the sessions offered me fresh perspectives and a profound appreciation for how our OSM works can translate into real impact on the ground, especially for teams like the UN working in sensitive operational contexts. I particularly enjoyed learning about the UN Maps data model, structured quality workflows, and field-to-office data integration. This training has encouraged me to further refine my mapping workflows and the way I design and deliver trainings to produce high-quality, mission-relevant open data. I am looking forward to applying these insights in my future mapping activities and to inspiring more volunteers to engage in mission-driven open mapping for humanitarian efforts, peacekeeping, and development.
Cristan Dave C. Zablan, Philippines
In my previous work at the Philippines Space Agency, I was part of the team utilizing crowdsourcing techniques for mapping the environment. It was often challenging to carry out these efforts in the field, where we faced harsh elements and limited connectivity. Michael Montani's insights on offline data collection, mobile integration, and collaborative workflows offered practical solutions to the very issues we encountered. In addition, he introduced us to a diverse set of tools utilized in crowdsource mapping that are essential to addressing different real-world challenges, e.g., 2024 flood in Valencia. Seeing how community-driven data can directly support crisis response and resilience planning was particularly impactful.
The training underscored how the true power rests with the people. It is important to create a platform to harness the global spirit of volunteerism for creating vital data towards the better good.
Yury Juanita Rodriguez, Colombia
Participating in the UN Maps training at UJI was an enriching and motivating experience that helped me understand how collaborative mapping supports humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts. The introduction to new mapping tools and the different ways to download and manage data really inspired me, and I’m already applying some of these methods in my current projects. I was especially fascinated by how teamwork can rapidly fill information gaps in areas where governments or other entities often cannot reach, and I’d love to keep learning more about advanced validation techniques.
Overall, the training strengthened my interest in the GIS field, and I’m grateful for the experience because it made me feel part of a meaningful global initiative that I’m excited to continue contributing to.
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Would you like to collaborate with us?
We are happy to host mapping activities with the community! Feel free to contact us for collaboration proposals and invitations through social media or by email: un.mappers@un.org
Become a UN Mapper!
You can contribute to our active mapping through the HOT Tasking Manager, and learn about open geospatial information in support of the United Nations through our UN Maps Learning Hub.