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11/15/2005 (Islamabad, Pakistan) – Promptly following his return from volunteering in the New Orleans relief effort and creating custom map solutions such as returnee assistance maps, aid-distribution geographic information system (GIS), and movement support maps, Chief Cartographer Brody Dittemore hopped on a flight headed to Pakistan. Since mid-October, Brody has been heading the GIS and map development for the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre, on behalf of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. While based out of Islamabad, Brody has frequented the affected area delivering logistics maps to field staff, scouting potential unmapped transportation routes through Himalayan valleys, and performing reconnaissance missions from the jump seat of helicopters. “From the air, you get a good look at the problems being face. Dispersed villages, many not shown on existing maps, have been shaken apart everywhere I look, yet still clinging to the steepest mountainsides I’ve ever seen. Massive landslides, road outages, and mirror flashes signaling for help; Balakot, Muzaffarabad, whole cities torn to the ground, temporary camps setup on hillsides and riverbeds. Then you land, and as food and aid are being unloaded and you’re hunched over a map trying to establish a route with the pilots, you can look up at the mountains, surrounded by pines and dry grass, and in one of the few moments of pause in the day, and the resilience and beauty just hits you. An instant later, it’s back to the laptop creating new map data and GIS tools to deploy.”
Back at Cartisan, life is still normal, and Oscar Larson, Chief of Operations, as well as the rest of the Cartisan cartographers and map staff are still available to solve your creative mapping needs. Email us at maps@cartisan.com to discuss your projects.
You can read more on Brody’s progress designing maps and GIS solutions in Pakistan at www.brodyinpakistan.blogspot.com. If you'd like to read other press releases by Cartisan's map staff, click here.