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The promises of crowdsourcing volunteered geographic information (VGI) for providing timely information about crises were recognized at least a decade ago. While cartographers and developers hone the accuracy of maps and data, social scientists critique these technologies through various theoretical lenses: in terms of knowledge politics of digital humanitarianism; as tools of neoliberal governance; and as examples of datification supporting automated or remote government. Amidst all these claims, it is time to return to the maps themselves, as empirical examples, considering the information they actually provide. This paper examines crowdsourced and collaborative maps from late 2013 following Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan in the Philippines. Various humanitarian, mapping, and media organizations produced maps in response to the typhoon. Close qualitative analysis of map content queries what these maps reveal about the disaster and whether the maps really produce the information that proponents claim. Analysis of data curated in each map reveals that much of the situational information being mapped is already available elsewhere and that few new ground truths have emerged through these projects. By demonstrating the limitations of the information mediated in these maps, the findings have practical and policy implications for disaster practitioners and digital volunteers intending to help disaster response.

'My observation … of the often bewildering scene of contested conservation initiatives for the Marovo Lagoon has enabled me to watch how major international environmentalist organizations have risen and then fallen as their simplistic concept of community proved soundly incompatible with the Marovo people's time honoured ways of organising themselves.' (Hviding 2006:83)

Maps are a key discourse for conveying geographical information, yet many cartographic approaches struggle to represent the subjective aspects of a landscape or “sense of place.” This paper examines the challenges in mapping emotional engagements with place, considering various cartographic approaches to representing emotions, and how these are complicated by theoretical approaches to conceptualizing place. Where place is theorized as fluid, dynamic, and contingent, we see a mismatch with the logics of cartographic practice and interface design. Participatory digital spatial media offer new possibilities for mapping emotional engagement by overcoming some of these complications. They are thus the focus of the case study of the Rivers of Emotion digital database of emotional engagements with Derbarl Yerrigan and Djarlgarro Beelier (the Swan and Canning Rivers), in Western Australia. The paper reviews emotional responses to the rivers and explores the collation of individual emotional engagements with these places in an online map and database. It concludes with a discussion of possibilities and limitations for mapping emotions and suggests how projects like this can inform collective imagined geographies.