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Project Manager Manual for FMTM

This manual is a step by step guide for the project managers on how to get started with the Field Mapping Tasking Manager.

Introduction

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.

An Overview Of FMTM In Relations With HOT, OSM and ODK

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 (FMTM) is one of the tools that HOT used to coordinate and manage mapping projects.

FMTM 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.

FMTM 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 FMTM 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 FMTM 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, FMTM helps to provide critical information that can be used to support decision-making and improve the effectiveness of humanitarian efforts.

Prerequisites

  • Stable Internet connection.
  • Basic bnowledge of field mapping. If you are new to mapping we suggest you read this.

Video Tutorial

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/963e7b22-5752-4158-b12d-e67c643235b8

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/969e87e1-581c-4f76-93a7-0b4524b2db3a

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/82b200bc-620a-4712-8d2e-3dcc4c553230

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/03fe2d98-f441-4794-9a0d-5ae49722efed

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a54ee33c-359c-46f9-b9a4-e58c909569c8

Steps to Join An Organisation

You may request to join an existing organisation.

Alternatively, request the creation of a new organisation for your team:

  1. 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.

  2. 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. image

  3. Now submit the form. The request will reach the Admin who will create your organization and inform you through the email. image

Steps To Create A Project In FMTM

  1. Go to fmtm .

  2. In the header, you'll find two tabs: Explore Projects and Manage Organization.

    image

  3. Start by exploring the projects listed by different nations and world communities for field mapping exercises.

  4. Use the search option to narrow down the project cards or find the project of your choice.
  5. If you are not logged into the system, the "Create new project" button will be disabled.
  6. If you are new then on the top right corner click on Sign up and create an account . Else , Sign in to your existing account .
  7. Once signed in, the "Create new project" button will be enabled. Click on it.
  8. The process of creating a new project involves four steps: Project Details, Uploading the Area, Defining the Task, and Selecting the Form.

  9. Start by filling in the project details, including the organization name, project name, description, and other relevant information.

    image

  10. If your organization's name is not listed, you can add it through the "Manage Organization" tab.

  11. Provide the necessary credentials for the ODK (Open Data Kit) central setup, including URL, username, and password.

  12. Proceed to the next step, which is uploading the area for field mapping. Choose the file option and select the AOI (Area of Interest) file in GEOJSON file format. Review the displayed map that corresponds to your selected area and click on "Next".

    image

  13. The step 3 is to choose the form category of the project. Meaning if you want to survey each household or healthcare or educational institutes. You can upload the custom XLS form by clicking on the checkbox. Click on "Next" to proceed.

    image

  14. In step 4, you can either generate the map features from osm or upload the custom map features. You can also upload additional map feature to have multiple feature selection supported.

    image

  15. The final step is task splitting which can be performed on three different ways. You can split the task on square of size you want. The second option is to choose area as task where you can use single polygon as a task. And 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.

    image

  16. Wait for the system to generate QR codes for each task, which will be used later in the field mapping process.

  17. After the project creation is successful and QR codes are generated, you are redirected to the project details page of the project.

Guidelines / Common Questions

Defining the Project Boundary

  • Confirm the exact area for the survey before creating the project, as the project boundary cannot be edited once the project is created.

Preparing Map Features

  • 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:
{
   "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 FMTM project
    creation; however, note that FMTM 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.

XLS Form Preparation

  • 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.

Uploading Custom Imagery

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 the URL by uploading it in openaerialmap.

ODK Central Credentials

To store your submissions in ODK Central, you need to
have valid ODK Central credentials. You can obtain these
by hosting your own ODK Central server. If you don’t have
access to a personal ODK Central server, you can use HOT’s
server by selecting HOT as your organization.

During Mapper Training

  1. Make sure mapper has downloaded custom odk collect from
    FMTM website. You can also share the apk file if mappers find it difficult to download by themselves.
  2. Share the link of the project for the mapper to reach
    to the project easily. The URL be: https://fmtm.hotosm.org/mapnow/project_id
  3. 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.
  4. Test Submissions
    Encourage mappers to submit a few test entries to
    familiarize themselves with the workflow and address
    any issues during training.

After Training

  1. Collect regular ongoing feedback from mappers to ensure they face no difficulties during fieldwork.
  2. Prepare clear and detailed instructions for mappers and validators, specific to the project requirements.
  3. Prepare the checklist for validation. The things to check may depend on the type of project.
  4. 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.
    odk_image

To get more info about project management in odk collect
follow the guide Here.

Steps To View Your Submissions and Infographics

  1. Go to the respective project. On the bottom left side, you will see the view infographics button.

  2. Click on the button will lead you to the infographics page. image

  3. 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.

  4. 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. image

  5. Users can also download the submission in Json or CSV format.

  6. 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. image

Connecting The Data To External Applications

If you want to visualise the submissions and create custom charts and diagrams using FMTM 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.

Steps to Edit Project Details

  1. Users can also edit a few fields after project creation like basic details like name, description, instructions as well as XLS form.

  2. Go to the respective project you want to edit. Click on the manage button to edit basic details and XLS form.

    image

Help and Support

If you encounter any issues or need assistance while using FMTM, you can access the following resources: