Making the COVID-19 pandemic visible: Grass-roots mapping initiates in Rio de Janeiro

During this past year, digital maps have been used around the world to spatially display COVID-19 cases and deaths. Some of these maps aggregate official government data, and others are built with user-generated content. Particularly in low-income communities, where residents do not have proper access to tests, user-generated maps help people understand the scope of the pandemic. Two examples of grass-roots initiatives that use maps to make the pandemic visible are Conexão Saúde and Painel Unificador de Favelas. Both emerged in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), one of the countries mostly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper describes the implementation of these initiatives, considering how networked grass-roots approaches can be effective in locally mapping a pandemic. The findings reveal that the interconnection among mobile platforms, community leaders and NGOs are critical socio-technical assemblages that help visualize a public health crisis that would otherwise remain invisible to the world.