UN, Google map refugee camps

Google Inc.and the United Nations have teamed up to provide a close-up view ofrefugee camps andhumanitarian efforts around the world, usingthe search giant's popular mapping tool Google Earth.

The UN deputy high commissioner for refugees, L. Craig Johnstone, unveiled the new,downloadablemapping layer Tuesday at UN headquarters in Geneva.

"Google Earth is a very powerful way for UNHCR [the UN refugee agency]to show the vital work that it is doing in some of the most remote and difficult displacement situations," he said in a release.

"By showing our work in its geographical context, we can really highlight the challenges we face on the ground and how we tackle them."

The new map is part of the Google Earth Outreach program, which provides humanitarian agencies with the skills and resources to create their own overlay for Google Earth maps, showingtext, audio and video relevant to their projects.

The new UNmaps focuson refugees and displaced people in Chad, Iraq, Colombia and Sudan's Darfur region andtheir impact on neighbouring countries.

Users can zoom in on specific campsto see detailed maps of the camp layouts, including the location of water and schools. In pop-up windows,users can watch video, look at pictures andread descriptions of theissues and responsesin that particular region.

For example, users can zoom in on a camp in eastern Chad to see clusters of tents and learn about the difficulties of providing water tothe approximately15,000 refugees from Sudan's Darfur region who live there.

While not all parts of the world are displayed at the same high resolution, Google has made an effort to allow users to zoom in closely on refugee camps.

In the future, the agency and its partners will use the program tobuild and share a visual, geographic record of their efforts to help refugees.

Details wouldinclude cross-border mapping of population flows and the location of displaced persons in relation to their home countries, theUNHCR said in a release, addingthat such information would be useful in the planning of future repatriation operations.

More than 350 million people have downloaded Google Earth worldwide, Google officials said.