This text, part of the #ODDStories series, tells a story of Open Data Day‘s grassroots impact directly from the community’s voices.
Bandung Mappers successfully carried out the Open Data Day 2025 activity on March 6 – 8 with the theme Coastal Resilience through Mangrove Rehabilitation which was held in Cianjur, West Java. This activity was held in 3 days with 10 participants who were mappers.
The first day’s activities began with a 5-hour drive to Cianjur. Once there, we conducted a presentation on the use of the invest application. The InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) application developed by the Natural Capital Project is open-source software that aims to assist decision-makers in assessing the economic value of ecosystems and the services they provide. With the models provided, InVEST enables visualization of the impacts of land and marine management changes on ecosystem services such as clean water provision, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration. The application is used by various parties, including governments, non-governmental organizations, companies, and researchers, to support sustainable development planning and better decision-making related to natural resource management by considering the economic and ecological value of ecosystems.
On the second day, we continued our mangrove planting mission by targeting the branching areas of the river that lead to the estuary. This time, the type of mangrove we planted was Rhizophora mangle, a species known to be resilient and adaptive in brackish environments. A total of 40 seedlings were carefully planted, ensuring that each seedling had the optimal space and conditions to grow. The planting process not only involved our team, but also involved close collaboration with local residents. They shared traditional knowledge of the land conditions and effective planting techniques, thus strengthening a sense of ownership and shared responsibility for the success of this project.
On the third day, our focus shifted to data evaluation and updates. We conducted a thorough review of the planted areas, recorded the condition of the seedlings, and identified potential challenges that might arise. In addition, we updated the data on the OpenStreetMap platform. This step is very important to ensure that the information about the mangrove planting area is accessible to the public. Thus, the community can know and monitor the development of the area, as well as participate in environmental conservation efforts. This data update is also expected to raise awareness of the importance of mangrove ecosystems and encourage active participation in preserving them.
About Open Data Day
Open Data Day (ODD) is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from many countries create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities. ODD is led by the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and the Open Knowledge Network.
As a way to increase the representation of different cultures, since 2023 we offer the opportunity for organisations to host an Open Data Day event on the best date over one week. In 2025, a total of 189 events happened all over the world between March 1st and 7th, in 57 countries using 15+ different languages. All outputs are open for everyone to use and re-use.
For more information, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org. You can also join the Open Data Day Google Group or join the Open Data Day Slack channel to ask for advice, share tips and get connected with others.
