In the aftermath of the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, international organizations rushed to offer humanitarian aid to the long-suffering Afghans. The challenge was to quickly coordinate the disparate efforts of the various organizations offering to provide help so that the relief efforts could be quickly and effectively put to use.

The United Nations Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan (UNOCHA) decided that a Web site with GIS capabilities would provide the easiest access to relevant data for humanitarian aid organizations and workers.

Enlisting the help of the United States Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, the Pacific Disaster Center, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the World Bank, Esri, and others, the Afghanistan Geographic Information Resources site was quickly developed. Located at www.ofda.net/giu/web/index.htm the site is an important resource center for those organizations providing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

With freezing winters, baking summers, and its notorious rugged mountain terrain, accurate weather forecasts are a fundamental part of the international humanitarian relief effort in the Afghanistan region. This information is needed for everything from routing truck convoys to long-term agriculture planning. The climatic data becomes even more valuable when coupled with up-to-date GIS maps.

Afghanistan geographic and thematic layers available on the Web site include satellite imagery, topography, climate, land cover, agriculture and livestock, political administration, population, health, land mines, archaeological sites with corresponding photos, and opium poppy cultivation.

In addition to data, Esri is providing the site with ArcExplorer and its related online manual for data viewing and a PowerPoint presentation explaining GIS capabilities.

Other highlights of the Web site provided by its partners and sponsors include a large collection of maps, humanitarian response information, and background facts.

A portal to the Development Gateway, a World Bank project that provides extensive information about current humanitarian relief projects throughout the world, is also accessible through the Afghanistan Geographic Information Resources site.