The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in Nigeria is in the process of opening up the past six years of oil spill incidences and remediation data in an effort to create transparency and collaboration and improve the process in which spills are managed and cleaned up. I’m in Abuja all week working with NOSDRA mapping this oil spill data, all part of the great work the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN) and other partners like Revenue Watch and the Facility for Oil Spill Transparency and Reform (FOSTER) have been leading.

The effects of these oil spills can be devastating. In 2012 already, there have been 619 spills reported and the management of the identification, assessment, and clean up of these spills is critical for a timely and effective response. Opening oil spill data and creating a collaborative open data space is part of a larger effort to change the way oil spills are managed across the country. By pushing an environment of open data, NOSDRA and SDN are trying to do more with data and open source tools and create a transparent space in the oil pollution sector. The NOSDRA team is excited about the possibilities of what open data can do and is gearing up to release more data and more maps.

This morning’s meetings with NOSDRA and SDN team members discussing potential map ideas.

I’m here all week meeting with the team, training on open source mapping tools like TileMill, and having discussions around the data collection to map design process for opening data and mapping to share results and analysis. The NOSDRA team is gearing up to launch all the data and maps in a few weeks. We’re excited to be partners here in helping the Nigerian Government open critical data. Here is a preview of the maps we are making this week.

Preview of the oil spill data to be released.