🏘️ Projeto de Inserção Assistida de Edificações no Brasil

O Projeto de Inserção Assistida de Edificações tem como objetivo ampliar significativamente a cobertura de edificações no OpenStreetMap (OSM) em território brasileiro, com foco especial em áreas urbanas ainda pouco mapeadas.

A iniciativa utiliza como base os dados do Google Open Buildings, disponibilizados sob uma licença compatível com a ODbL do OSM, conforme explicitado no site oficial da Google: 🔗 https://sites.research.google/gr/open-buildings/

Desde 2024, o mapeador Santamariense, membro ativo da comunidade OSM Brasil, vem trabalhando na correção e aprimoramento desses dados com o objetivo de adaptá-los às diretrizes da comunidade e garantir sua qualidade. Esse esforço culmina, agora, na proposta oficial à comunidade OSM Brasil, convidando todos os mapeadores a analisarem e participarem do projeto, sugerindo também áreas prioritárias para mapeamento.

Durante uma pesquisa, foi constatado que os dados da Google estavam disponíveis sob uma licença adequada ao OSM, o que motivou o início da parceria com o mapeador Santamariense, que prontamente aceitou o desafio e dedicou-se por vários meses à melhoria dos dados. 🛠️ Metodologia

O mapeamento será realizado com o apoio das seguintes ferramentas:

Tasking Manager (TM) da HOTOSM, para coordenação das tarefas entre voluntários;

Editor JOSM, com download automático das edificações a partir de um servidor externo configurado para cada projeto.

📌 Links úteis:

📄 Wiki do Projeto no OSM: osm.wiki/Brazil/Projeto_de_Inserção_Assistida_de_Edificações

📽️ Apresentação em vídeo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_sYdRnQf9k&feature=youtu.be

💬 Proposta no Fórum da Comunidade OSM Brasil: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/proposta-de-insercao-assistida-de-edificacoes-no-brasil/129457

WORKSHOP MPCS 2025

CHAMADA PARA MOSTRA DE PROJETOS DE MAPEAMENTO

O III Workshop Mapeamento Participativo e Cartografia Social - MPCS 2025, em sua terceira edição, visa reunir pesquisadores de países lusófonos(*), que adotam as metodologias de mapeamento participativo ou colaborativo, além do público interessado.

O evento é uma iniciativa do IVIDES.org, em parceria com o Laboratório de Cartografia - GeoCart-UFRJ. Agradecemos aos parceiros, Laboratório Integrado de Geografia Física Aplicada - LiGA-UFRRJ, Laboratório de Geotecnologias - Lageot-UFF Campos, Associação de Geógrafos Brasileiros - AGB- Seção Campinas/SP, Programa de Pós-graduação em Geografia - PPGG-UFRJ; e pelo patrocínio da FAPERJ e da empresa IVIDES DATA.

https://ivides.org/workshopmpcs2025

MOSTRA DE PROJETOS

Está sendo organizada uma Mostra de projetos de mapeamento, para apresentação online de projetos individuais (completos ou já com resultados). Para participar, basta preencher o formulário de inscrição, até 20 MAIO 2025, informando os dados básicos da submissão.

https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/x/Gn3xTsd8

A equipe entrará em contato adiante, a fim de informar sobre o aceite e alinhar os detalhes. Serão emitidos certificados de participação como palestrante. O formulário necessita que autorize o armazenamento de cookies para funcionar a contento.

Para contato, por gentileza, enviar mensagem para: ivides@ivides.org.

(*) Países lusófonos: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Guiné Equatorial, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe e Timor Leste.

Москвичи! Вас приглашают на картовстречу, и учитывая, что сообщество не собиралось уже год, отказываться нельзя. В воскресенье 4 мая solenoid_jam предлагает встретиться в саду имени Баумана в 11:00. Как полагается, он раздаст куски «пирога», кварталов, которые каждый будет исследовать в течение трёх часов. А затем все соберутся обратно вместе в баре где-то на районе и уже нормально обсудят всю тяжёлую осмерскую жизнь. Следите за чатом в телеграме, чтобы не потеряться.

Интересно, что в этом чате немедленно спросили, нельзя ли выступить с докладом. Никто не хочет продолжить дело «Схемотехники»?

Международная конференция State of the Map, разумеется, тоже состоится в этом году. Великолепная новость состоит в том, что она будет на Филиппинах: туда не проблема попасть из России. 3-5 октября в Маниле, с обычными секциями и людьми. Каждая такая встреча — праздник, очень советую потратиться и прилететь. Планирую и сам.

Если денег мало, успейте вписаться в программу грантов: нескольким участникам оплатят перелёт и проживание, не говоря уж о билете на саму конференцию (обычно стоит около сотни евро). Приём заявок открыт до утра 16 мая. Не стесняйтесь, у меня немало знакомых, в том числе из богатых европейских стран, кому раньше везло.

Разумеется, открыт также приём заявок на выступления и мастер-классы, и академических отчётов. То и то — до 18 мая, язык только английский, ничего нового, только классика. От потенциальных спонсоров тоже ждут заявок: именно они оплачивают все гранты, а от количества зависит, насколько вкусной будет еда и весёлыми — социальные мероприятия.

А если вы в Европе — то Шотландия ждёт вас! Для тех, кому далеко лететь на основную конференцию, организуют европейскую. 14-15 ноября State of the Map Europe пройдёт в Данди, в полутора часах езды от Эдинборо. Это пока вся информация, всякие приёмы заявок и регистрации откроют позже. Подпишитесь на их рассылку на сайте, если сможете приехать. Британское осмерское сообщество не так красочно, как международное, но очень... британское.

Cross-posted from https://odeco-research.eu/?p=4999

On Thursday, the 10th of April 2025, we celebrated the event “OpenStreetMap: Mapping & Hiking” at the University of Camerino, Italy. After two months of preparation, the event was well-received and had a diverse and satisfied crowd.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative geographical database of the world. Millions of people use its data, and also millions contribute to it in various ways. However, there are still places where there is no strong local community, where its villages and rural areas are heavily undermapped. Camerino, while the town itself is well mapped, has some incredible nature and cultural spots nearby, which needed an update. As well, being a university town with students coming from all corners of Italy and the world, makes it a prime location for engaging in outreach activities and kickstarting a community.

The event started at 9:00, with an introduction to OSM and its use in hiking apps, followed by some words from the organzations that helped out in making the event a reality: PoliMappers, Club Alpino Italiano Camerino section, Knoway Systems, #ToDo Student Association, University of Camerino Computer Science section, TomTom, Wikimedia Italia and ESN AURE Camerino. Polimappers’ Dina Jovanović Lombardo performed a guest lecture, explaining the origins of their YouthMappers chapter at the Politecnico di Milan, which includes events and social activities, as well as training the next generation of mappers, and helping them to develop their skills. The introduction ended by splitting the group into smaller subgroups for the hiking, and explaining the apps needed for the data collection.

We got onto a shuttle bus that dropped each of the groups onto the start of a trail. Each team was given a route, explained through text and a paper map. As well, each team had instructions on what to map. Each group consisted of, at least, one mapper —using the app Every Door— that collected POIs along the trail, one photo taker whose photos were later uploaded to Panoramax as a sequence, one GPS trace taker, and a guide. The Club Alpino Italiano Camerino section members where guiding the attendees, as well as helped designing the routes beforehand. Each group was given around 3 hours to complete a route that, using an online router, showed a completion estimate of around half of that time. As well, the routes included several cultural locations along the way: convents, churches, mills, canals and small towns.

After the hike, the groups were again picked up by the shuttle bus and brought back to the university. We then had lunch together to regain energy for the rest of the day, and chatted about the experience. The afternoon part of the event then started, which consisted of a talk from TomTom’s Chiara Angiolini, who talked about their community-building through events in different countries. After that, the participants were asked to map from their laptops, focusing on completing missing roads and buildings in the villages and hamlets around Camerino.

After mapping, Saverio Delpriori, a technician from the regional government (Regione Marche), gave a presentation on the government’s technical infrastructure for geographical information and tourism and its plans to integrate OpenStreetMap data in the future. And finally, it was time for the conclusion, which included a survey. The participants were really happy about the event!

To sum up, OSM events can be fun yet educational! They can also be a great place to make some new friends, do some sport, learn something new, and get to know people working with maps. This event also shows how academia, governments, for-profit and non-profit organizations can all get together to help do community-building in OSM and organize amazing events. See you on the next event!

Héctor’s work at the University of Camerino is financed by the ODECO project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 955569. Wikimedia Italia financed the shuttle bus and food for the event under their Microgrants program. We thank all the organizations that made the event happen.

How complete are addresses in OpenStreetMap in Belgium? After several status these previous years (see September 2022, in May 2023, and in May 2024, November 24), I finally adapt the process to analyse addresses completeness for all Belgium!

The aim of this small article is to assess the completeness of addresses in Belgium for OSM, compared to official data. Basically we count the address points in OSM and in official data by municipalities. We don’t check the address quality here, we know there can be errors in OSM data, and even in official data.

How I proceeded

Using QGIS, I gathered OSM addresses and official ones. OSM data is imported in a PostgreSQL database using osm2pgsql based on a pbf file for Belgium from the 24th of April. Official data is coming from BEST address csv files, that gathers Belgian addresses for the 3 regions of the country.

Addresses in OSM can be mapped on buildings (most of the cases), hence on a way, or on a node. I consider only objects with the “addr:housenumber” tag. First, I made a single layer of addresses points from OSM data by merging the centroids of buildings with this tag and the points with these tags, by excluding the places where these two layers overlaps (typically points with an address inside a building where there is already an address). The method is far from perfect: I don’t consider relations, I miss some way objects with addresses but without the building tag (typically some schools), and probably a lot of other edge cases due to the “joyeux bordel” of the OSM data model.

Official data considers several address points for each building unit, or box number. It means that there are often several points at the same place, especially in cities, accounting for each box number. Since the mapping of box number is often not so used in OSM, I merged all points at the same place (given a buffer of 1 meter) as a first step. This reduces the number of official address from 7,004,321 to 4,454,017.

Then I simply count the number of OSM and official address by Belgian municipalities and compare the two.

The maps!

In Belgium, I counted 3,900,105 addresses in OSM compared to 4,454,017 in official data: this results in a nice rate of 87.6 %!

Here is the map of the completeness by municipalities

Please note that since I’ve adapted the methodology by merging official address points, this can not be strictly compared to my previous maps of address completion for Wallonia.

And here is a map of the progression since November 2024, the last time I did the analysis. There is an on-going effort of the community for importing buildings (and addresses) and this is well visible on this map.

Of course, chroropleth maps are often lying, so here is a map with circles showing the number of missing addresses by municipalities. The largest missing parts are in big cities: Gent, Antwerpen, Tournai, Charleroi, … Brussels region looks however good.

Top ten municipalities where addresses have increased the more (in %) are:

1. Ecaussinnes
2. Dour
3. Eeklo
4. Middelkerke
5. Soignies
6. Rebecq
7. Pont-à-Celles
8. Estinnes
9. Mons
10. Honnelles

And municipalities where the completeness rate is the lowest are:

1. Wortegem-Petegem
2. Maarkedal
3. Opwijk
4. Lebbeke
5. Zelzate
6. Oudenaarde
7. Flobecq
8. Vleteren
9. Sint-Laureins
10. Kruisem

You can download the table of municipalities with all the numbers here.

RDV on this discussion page, on the wiki page import des batiments et adresses and on this map to carry on completing addresses!

The OpenStreetMap Foundation Board has selected Minh Nguyễn as the Core Software Development Facilitator. Here’s Minh to introduce himself, some of his ideas and directions, and opportunities to connect. Welcome, Minh!

Hi, I’m Minh Nguyễn, an OSM contributor and community organizer from California. The OSMF has entrusted me with one of the positions funded through the recently announced Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) investment to facilitate the further long-term development of OSM’s software infrastructure. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve the OSM community in this way.

For those who don’t know me, I started volunteering for OSM way back in 2008, cleaning up errors in my hometown, Loveland, to cure a bout of homesickness. Then I got extremely carried away, adding little details here and there all over the Midwestern U.S., nurturing a little community of mappers in Silicon Valley, translating OSM into Vietnamese, and serving on the board of OpenStreetMap U.S. In parallel, I became a professional Mac software engineer, then helped build Mapbox’s open source, OSM-based map and navigation software for several years. But I never stopped being a mapper. I’ve also spent the last few years serving on the SDRP and OpenHistoricalMap’s advisory board and will continue in these roles.

When introducing OSM to my local community, I describe the project as infrastructure for the world’s maps. Naturally, this infrastructure has its own underlying infrastructure. Many of us rely heavily on the website frontend, API backend, and related tools while mapping, debugging our map data, and generally marveling at what we’re building together. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make the site run smoothly and supply data consumers with the artifacts they depend on. For example, did you know we have not one but two overlapping API implementations running simultaneously to eke out extra performance? These aspects of OSM are less glamorous than map styles or editors but no less important.

Our software architecture is very specific to OSM, so we’ve historically relied on a relatively small number of volunteers and their domain expertise. As an open source project, we want to expand this group and keep it open to newcomers. In conjunction with longtime contributors, I’ll be prioritizing better documentation, wrangling the issue backlog, articulating a clear vision and roadmap for the core software projects, and identifying opportunities for new developers to get started and gain a foothold. This will be essential as we later onboard another role tasked more directly with daily development tasks through the same STF investment. We’ll have more to share about that in the coming months.

Lately, anyone watching the core software projects closely will have noticed the pace of development picking up dramatically, but much of it still goes unannounced and unnoticed by the rest of the community. You’re going to hear from me pretty regularly as I relate the projects’ news and current affairs for a broader audience. It’s my hope that more of you in the community will be familiar with these projects, similar to your favorite renderer or editor, and hopefully for good reasons.

As I’m making the rounds introducing myself to those involved with the core software projects, it strikes me how many ideas there are about how to move them forward and how much these ideas overlap. Over the next few weeks, I’ll also be seeking feedback from the community about where we should be headed; watch the forum for more details. While I can’t promise anything concrete at this early stage, I’m hopeful we can weave a common future for these projects that allows OSM to thrive.

รับซ่อมรถยนต์และมอเตอร์ไซค์

A UMBRAOSM está no Mastodon!

Agora a União dos Mapeadores Brasileiros do OpenStreetMap (UMBRAOSM) também faz parte do Mastodon, a rede social livre e descentralizada! A comunidade OpenStreetMap em todo o mundo utiliza o Mastodon para compartilhar atualizações, divulgar eventos, projetos de mapeamento e trocar experiências.

Siga a UMBRAOSM e fique por dentro das novidades do mapeamento colaborativo brasileiro!

Acesse: https://en.osm.town/@umbraosm

Ich haben einen Track hochgeladen. Der Import hat geklappt steht in der Bestätigungs-email und bei meinen Tracks wird angezeigt:

” 2025_04_27_2195689183_bsjw_all_tracks_openmaps.gpx.gz 5330 Punkte IDENTIFIZIERBAR

vor 16 Minuten von angela_bsjw

Braunschweiger Jakobsweg ist ein Pilgerweg. Er beginnt in Magdeburg am Dom. Dort zweigt er vom Jakobusweg Sachsen-Anhalt ab. In Hildesheim-Marienrode trifft er auf den Jakobsweg Via Scandinavica und endet nach 275 km am Kloster/Schloß Corvey bei Höxter . “

Aber der Track wird in der Karte nicht angezeigt. Was ist falsch??

EN version below

Ce post a été initialement publié ici.

Le 14 décembre 2024, Mayotte était frappée par le cyclone Chido, le plus violent qu’elle ait connu depuis plus de 50 ans. Rapidement, l’IGN a diffusé des imageries Pléiades prises les 17, 18, 20, 21 et 24 décembre et a confirmé le 25 décembre que la communauté OSM pouvaient les utiliser comme source dans ses éditions. De suite, j’ai eu l’envie de les utiliser pour évaluer les dommages du bâti. Pourquoi le bâti ? Du point de vue cartographique, parce que les dommages sont plus visibles sur des infrastructures polygonales que ponctuelles ou linéaires. Du point de vue de la réponse de crise, parce que les dégâts étaient particulièrement importants, ayant fait disparaître ou rendu impraticables les foyers de beaucoup d’habitants.

Trois mois après, ce billet revient sur les grandes étapes de cette cartographie toujours en cours, organisée bénévolement sur du temps libre.

Revue et choix méthodologique

La cartographie des dommages du bâti à l’aide d’imagerie post-désastre n’a évidemment pas été inventée dans OpenStreetMap et des expériences similaires ont déjà été menées par le passé dans OSM.

Après le passage du cyclone Haiyan sur les Philippines en novembre 2013, une cartographie des dommages du bâti avait été réalisée sur la région autour de Tacloban. Par ailleurs, des chercheurs du Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) avaient publié en mars 2016 un article détaillant une méthodologie qui avait été de suite adaptée à OSM sous la forme de modèles de préréglages et d’un style cartographique pour JOSM, et appliqués notamment à Haïti après le passage du cyclone Mathieu en octobre 2016.

L’approche Haiyan se limite à deux étiquettes pour les bâtiments endommagés, en utilisant directement la clé building=*, ce qui n’est pas idéal. L’approche BAR avait été adaptée jusqu’ici dans OSM via deux clés spécifiques damage=* avec les quatre catégories de dommage définies par les chercheurs du HHI (aucun, minimal, significatif et complet) et damage:structure pour qualifier le type de construction selon trois catégories (léger, medium, lourd). Après des tests menés sur Miréréni, avec les imageries BD Ortho IGN et Pléiades, et des échanges avec un géographe résidant à Mayotte, il m’est apparu que si les classes de dommages étaient aisées à déterminer, le type de construction était difficile à déterminer directement, le seul élément toujours visible étant la toiture. Par ailleurs, le type intermédiaire « medium » paraissait difficile à borner.

Par conséquent, plutôt que d’ajouter une étiquette déduisant un type de construction à partir d’éléments fragmentaires, j’ai préféré ne cartographier que le matériau de toiture avec la clé roof:material déjà existante et bien documentée. Dans le cas de Mayotte, les toitures sont généralement de deux types, soit un toit en tôle métallique de qualité variable, quelle que soit la taille ou l’usage du bâtiment, soit une dalle de béton plane qui est en fait le sol d’un futur étage qui reste à construire.

Lors des premiers tests, la clé damage a été réutilisée, mais elle a le défaut de devenir rapidement obsolète, dès lors qu’un bâtiment non pas détruit, mais endommagé, va être réparé. Et même si elle n’est pas supprimée malgré son obsolescence, il deviendra difficile de savoir par la suite à quel événement elle se rapportait. C’est pour cela que j’ai finalement opté pour une clé damage:DisasterName=*, soit damage:Chido=* dans le cas présent. La même logique d’insertion du nom du désastre a prévalu pour les étiquettes de métadonnées pour renseigner le nom de l’événement, la source de l’imagerie utilisée et sa date de capture.

Cette revue méthodologique a aussi été l’occasion de documenter le wiki OSM, avec la création de deux pages : osm.wiki/FR:BAR_methodology sur la méthodologie BAR et sa première adaptation OSM, qui n’avaient pas encore été documentées et osm.wiki/Building_damage_assessment pour cette nouvelle adaptation centrée sur le bâti.

Période de test de la méthodologie et interactions avec les données EMSR Copernicus

Dans les premiers jours de janvier, les imageries Pléiades sont intégrées aux imageries disponibles depuis le menu d’imagerie de JOSM et les premières versions du nouveau modèle de préréglages et de son style cartographique pour JOSM sont réalisées et testées sur une petite zone de Mamoudzou. Seul imprévu : la qualité moyenne de la géométrie du bâti qui nécessite parfois d’être rectifiée. Le 6 janvier, un projet sur la zone centrale de Mamoudzou est créé dans le Gestionnaire de Tâches HOT et ouvert seulement à des contributeurs OSM intermédiaires ou avancés, avec des instructions détaillées assorties de vidéos en anglais puis en français. Pendant les quelques semaines de ce test, l’étiquetage est légèrement revu (l’intégration du nom du désastre dans les clés, évoqué plus haut) et le style cartographique complètement refait.

Des échanges ont lieu au sein de la communauté OSM France (voir ce fil de forum) et la méthodologie est validée par un représentant du CSTB pour les besoins d’évaluation rapide des dommages. Le choix de Mamoudzou a permis également de comparer les résultats de cette cartographie communautaire inspirée de la méthodologie BAR avec l’évaluation rapide faite entre le 15 et le 24 décembre dans le cadre de l’EMSR (Emergency Management Service Rapid mapping) 780 du programme Copernicus, qui s’est concentrée sur la face centrale à l’est de l’île de Grande-Terre et aussi sur l’île de Petite Terre.

Les données EMSR sur les dommages du bâti, disponibles sous forme de fichiers sous licence ouverte (bien que pas très claire), sont constituées de points vectoriels au centre des bâtiments, avec trois classes différentes : Possiblement endommagé, Endommagé, Détruit, qui semblent correspondre aux catégories minimal, significatif et complet de la méthodologie BAR. Il n’existe donc pas de classe pour les bâtiments non endommagés, et de fait de nombreux bâtiments sur la zone évaluée ne comportent pas de ponctuels en leur centre. Cette approche a pour limite de ne pas permettre de connaître la proportion de bâtiments endommagés par rapport à l’ensemble des bâtiments via les seules données Copernicus. De plus, « possiblement endommagé » peut aussi apparaître comme une classe intermédiaire entre « aucun » et « minimal » de la méthodologie BAR, de sorte que les deux échelles d’évaluation ne se recoupent peut-être pas.

J’ai mis en place un croisement automatisé des ponctuels Copernicus avec les bâtiments OSM actualisés via des diff minute et une mesure des écarts entre les deux évaluations. Cela permet ainsi, pour chaque bâtiment évalué par les deux méthodologies, de connaître les écarts de classe entre les deux évaluations. Il s’avère qu’un écart d’une classe est un cas plus fréquent qu’une classe identique.

Une analyse reste encore à faire pour expliquer ces différences. Cette comparaison s’est cependant limitée à cette zone de test, dans la mesure où il m’a semblé plus important par la suite de cartographier en priorité des zones qui n’ont pas été couvertes par l’EMSR780.

Application sur d’autres zones, mise à disposition des données et animation communautaire

Pour exploiter au mieux les zones couvertes par les imageries Pléiades, j’ai numérisé les zones non masquées par des nuages sur les quatre premières disponibles (celle du 24/12 étant pratiquement inutilisable). L’approche a ensuite été de créer un seul projet à la fois dans le Gestionnaire de tâches HOT, chacun centré sur une seule localité, afin de ne pas décourager les contributeurs face à de multiples projets ou à un grand projet comportant des centaines de tâches. Les premières localités évaluées sont des chefs-lieux de commune, sur les deux façades de la partie septentrionale de Grande-Terre : Tsingoni, Bandraboua, M’Tsamboro, Acoua et M’Tsangamouji.

Comme aucun rendu OSM ne montre ces classes de dommages, j’ai créé plusieurs styles pour la couche de bâti résultante du croisement des données OSM et Copernicus EMSR780, partagées sur des contextes MapStore (l’un en français, l’autre en anglais), avec une présentation de l’approche via les contextes cartographiques propres à MapStore. Les données sont bien sûr téléchargeables depuis l’interface.

Malgré une expérience personnelle de mise en place de projets dans le Gestionnaire de tâches depuis quasiment les débuts de l’outil, l’animation communautaire s’est révélée parfois surprenante : des échanges ou questions techniques classiques via les outils de commentaires de la plate-forme, mais également une proportion non négligeable de contributeurs, a minima de niveau intermédiaire (ayant donc déjà créé au moins 150 groupes de modification OSM) qui ne font que modifier la géométrie des bâtiments, sans caractériser les dommages ou le matériau de toiture, malgré les instructions texte et vidéos les plus détaillées que j’ai pu produire jusqu’ici. Sans doute le poids de l’habitude des projets du Gestionnaire de tâches, consacrés dans leur grande majorité à la création ou modification d’empreinte de bâtiments. Pour tenter d’y remédier, j’ai commencé à organiser des ateliers en visio (en anglais, français ou portugais) pour faire la démonstration de la manière de cartographier ces dommages, en mode tout souris ou via l’utilisation de raccourcis clavier pour aller plus vite.

Parallèlement à la poursuite de la coordination de cet effort de cartographie distant sur Mayotte, d’autres activités sont encore à venir :

• une comparaison de cette cartographie distance avec des données d’évaluations de dommages réalisées sur le terrain. Cela est déjà en partie réalisable avec les images post-désastre hébergées dans Mapillary, et tend à conforter les choix faits sur les imageries Pléiades, mais l’intérêt serait surtout de comparer avec des données d’évaluation menées par des spécialistes de l’évaluation de dommages des bâtiments
• la capacité de réplication de cet exercice, tant dans la documentation pour permettre à d’autres de reprendre cette méthodologie dans d’autres contextes, que dans l’accès crucial à de l’imagerie post-désastre.

OSM mapping of building damage in Mayotte after cyclone Chido

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

This post was originally published here.

On December 14, 2024, Mayotte was hit by Cyclone Chido, the most violent cyclone to hit the island in over 50 years. IGN quickly released Pleiades imagery taken on December 17, 18, 20, 21 and 24, and confirmed on December 25 that the OSM community could use it as a source for its editions. I immediately wanted to use them to assess damage to buildings. Why buildings? From a cartographic point of view, because damage is more visible on polygonal infrastructures than on punctual or linear ones. From a crisis-response point of view, because the damage was particularly extensive, having made the homes of many inhabitants disappear or impassable.

Three months on, this post takes a look back at the major stages of this ongoing mapping project, organized on a voluntary basis in my spare time.

Review and methodological choices

Mapping building damage using post-disaster imagery was obviously not invented in OpenStreetMap, and similar experiments have been carried out in the past in OSM.

After Cyclone Haiyan hit the Philippines in November 2013, building damage mapping had been carried out in the region around Tacloban. In March 2016, researchers at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) published an article detailing a methodology that was subsequently adapted to OSM in the form of preset models and a cartographic style for JOSM, and applied to Haiti after Cyclone Matthew in October 2016.

The Haiyan approach is limited to two labels for damaged buildings, using the building=* key directly, which is not ideal. The BAR approach had so far been adapted in OSM via two specific keys damage=* with the four categories of damage defined by HHI researchers (none, minimal, significant and complete) and damage:structure to qualify the type of construction according to three categories (light, medium, heavy). After tests carried out on Miréréni, using BD Ortho IGN and Pléiades imagery, and discussions with a geographer living in Mayotte, it became clear to me that while the damage classes were easy to determine, the construction type was difficult to determine directly, as the only element still visible was the roof. In addition, the intermediate “medium” type seemed difficult to classify.

Consequently, rather than adding a label deducing a construction type from fragmentary elements, I preferred to map only the roofing material with the already existing and well-documented roof:material key. In the case of Mayotte, roofs are generally of two types, either a metal sheet roof of varying quality, whatever the size or use of the building, or a flat concrete slab which is in fact the floor of a future storey yet to be built.

During initial tests, the damage key was reused, but it has the disadvantage of quickly becoming obsolete, as soon as a building is repaired that is damaged rather than destroyed. And even if it’s not deleted despite its obsolescence, it will be difficult to know what event it refers to. That’s why I finally opted for a key damage:DisasterName=*, or damage:Chido=* in this case. The same logic of inserting the name of the disaster prevailed for the metadata tags to inform the name of the event, the source of the imagery used and its capture date.

This methodological review was also an opportunity to document the OSM wiki, with the creation of two pages: osm.wiki/BAR_methodology on the BAR methodology and its first OSM adaptation, which had not yet been documented, and osm.wiki/Building_damage_assessment for this new adaptation focused on the built environment.

Methodology testing and interactions with EMSR Copernicus data

In the first days of January, Pleiades imagery was integrated into the imagery available from the JOSM imagery menu, and the first versions of the new preset model and its cartographic style for JOSM were produced and tested on a small area of Mamoudzou. The only unforeseen problem was the average quality of the building geometry, which sometimes needed to be rectified. On January 6, a project on the central area of Mamoudzou was created in the HOT Tasking Manager and opened only to intermediate or advanced OSM contributors, with detailed instructions accompanied by videos in English and then in French. During the few weeks of this test, the labeling is slightly revised (the integration of the disaster name in the keys, mentioned above) and the cartographic style is completely redone.

Discussions took place within the OSM France community (see this forum thread) and the methodology was validated by a representative of the CSTB for the purposes of rapid damage assessment. The choice of Mamoudzou also enabled us to compare the results of this community mapping inspired by the BAR methodology with the rapid assessment carried out between December 15 and 24 as part of the Copernicus program’s EMSR (Emergency Management Service Rapid mapping) 780, which focused on the central eastern face of the island of Grande-Terre and also on the island of Petite Terre.

The EMSR building damage data, available as open-licensed files (although not very clear), consist of vector points at the center of buildings, with three different classes: Possibly damaged, Damaged, Destroyed, which seem to correspond to the BAR methodology’s minimal, significant and complete categories. This means that there is no class for undamaged buildings, and in fact many buildings in the area under assessment have no points at their center. The limitation of this approach is that the proportion of damaged buildings in relation to the total number of buildings cannot be determined using Copernicus data alone. Furthermore, “possibly damaged” may also appear as an intermediate class between ‘none’ and “minimal” in the BAR methodology, so the two assessment scales may not overlap.

I’ve set up an automated cross-referencing of Copernicus point values with OSM buildings updated via diff minutes, and a measurement of the differences between the two assessments. This means that for each building evaluated by the two methodologies, we can see the class differences between the two evaluations. It turns out that a difference of one class is more frequent than an identical class.

An analysis has yet to be carried out to explain these differences. However, this comparison was limited to this test area, as I felt it was more important to map areas not covered by EMSR780.

Application to other areas, making data available and community outreach

To make the most of the areas covered by Pleiades imagery, I digitized the first four areas not obscured by clouds (the one for 12/24 was practically unusable). The approach was then to create one project at a time in the HOT Tasking Manager, each centered on a single locality, so as not to discourage contributors when faced with multiple projects or a large project with hundreds of tasks. The first localities to be evaluated are commune chief towns on both sides of the northern part of Grande-Terre: Tsingoni, Bandraboua, M’Tsamboro, Acoua and M’Tsangamouji.

As no OSM rendering shows these damage classes, I’ve created several styles for the building layer resulting from the cross-referencing of OSM and Copernicus EMSR780 data, shared on MapStore contexts (one in French, the other in English), with a presentation of the approach via MapStore’s own cartographic contexts. Data can of course be downloaded from the interface.

Despite my personal experience of setting up projects in the Task Manager since almost the very beginning of the tool, community animation has sometimes proved surprising: classic exchanges or technical questions via the platform’s commenting tools, but also a not inconsiderable proportion of contributors, at least of intermediate level (having therefore already created at least 150 OSM modification groups) who only modify building geometry, without characterizing damage or roofing material, despite the most detailed text and video instructions I’ve been able to produce so far. This is undoubtedly due to the habitual use of Task Manager projects, the vast majority of which are devoted to creating or modifying building footprints. In an attempt to remedy this, I’ve started organizing video workshops (in English, French or Portuguese) to demonstrate how to map this damage, in all-mouse mode or using keyboard shortcuts to speed things up.

As well as continuing to coordinate this remote mapping effort on Mayotte, other activities are still to come:

• a comparison of this remote mapping with damage assessment data collected in the field. This is already partly feasible with post-disaster imagery hosted in Mapillary, and tends to confirm the choices made with Pleiades imagery, but the interest would lie above all in comparing with assessment data carried out by building damage assessment specialists
• the replicability of this exercise, both in terms of documentation to enable others to take up this methodology in other contexts, and in the crucial access to post-disaster imagery.

17/04/2025-23/04/2025

Mapping campaigns

• Séverin Ménard shared ► a new Les Libres Géographes’ blog post about the ongoing damage assessment mapping of Mayotte in OpenStreetMap after Cyclone Chido. The post explains the choices of methodology, early tests, interactions with Copernicus Rapid Mapping data, ongoing mapping events, community outreach, and future steps.

Community

• ^[1] darkonus has prepared updated versions of the diagrams explaining railway station tagging, aiming to make them clearer for newcomers, and invited others to join the discussion in his diary post.
• Karlos, the developer behind the ‘OSM go‘ 3D visualisation tool, is working to resolve issues related to the rendering of gabled roofs. While investigating the problem, he also uncovered irregularities in OpenStreetMap’s 3D tagging practices, particularly with tags tailored for the F4-renderer. However, deciphering these tags presents additional challenges, as the F4-renderer remains closed source.
• Christian Quest highlighted how MapComplete simplifies the integration between OpenStreetMap and Panoramax. The tool allows users to select existing objects in OSM and enhance them by adding photos, which are then automatically uploaded to Panoramax. A panoramax=* tag is added to the corresponding OSM object to establish the connection. Christian also shared an interactive map built using uMap and powered by Overpass, which displays OSM features alongside their linked photos.
• Zorun has showcased a student project aimed at improving pedestrian routing in OpenStreetMap by integrating shade considerations into route calculations using Graphhopper. The project seeks to offer more comfortable walking routes, especially in hot climates, by factoring in shaded areas along the path.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The OpenStreetMap Foundation has announced that the State of the Map Organising Committee will offer a Travel Grant Programme (TGP) for the global State of the Map 2025 conference, set to take place in Manila, Philippines, from 3 to 5 October. Applications for the TGP are now open and will be accepted until Friday 16 May at 12:00 UTC.
• Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Secretary of the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) Board, has announced the appointment of Minh Nguyễn as the organisation’s new Core Software Development Facilitator. Minh served on the board of OpenStreetMap US, the local chapter of the OSMF in the United States, from 2019 to 2023, and has been an advisor to the OpenHistoricalMap project since 2023.
• As announced by Grant Slater, of the OSMF Operations Working Group, the OSM wiki was read-only part of saturday 26 April to facilitate a scheduled upgrade of MediaWiki from version 1.39.x to the current long-term support release, version 1.43.x.

Local chapter news

• Mapillary, in partnership with OpenStreetMap US, has announced the launch of Camera Grant Programme 2.0. The initiative aims to expand 360° imagery coverage across the United States and empower local communities to enhance OpenStreetMap data through street-level imagery and Mapillary-generated content.

Events

• Brazil Singh shared several important links and official social media accounts related to the upcoming State of the Map 2025 conference.
• OpenStreetMap will be featured in a short course at this year’s European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly, happening in Vienna, Austria from 27 April to 2 May. The session is called ‘Understanding, using and creating open data with OpenStreetMap’ and will be led by Alessandro Sarretta (@alesarrett), Laurens Oostwegel (@laurensoostwegel), and Marco Minghini (@mingo23). The EGU is the largest European assembly of researchers in the geosciences domain. If you are attending, feel free to come by on Friday 2 May, 14:00-15:45 (CEST) in room -2.62. More info on the session is available.
• The State of the Map Croatia conference is set to take place on the afternoon of Wednesday 21 May. Hosted by Dani otvorenih računalnih sustava / Croatian Linux Users’ Conference, the event will be held in Zagreb and will feature presentations focused on the liberation of spatial data. Contributions are invited on a range of topics, particularly those exploring the diverse applications of OpenStreetMap data.
• OpenStreetMap Indonesia, in partnership with TomTom, organised a Community Mapping Party at GoWork Plaza Indonesia in Jakarta on Saturday, 26 April. The event aimed to highlight the role of OpenStreetMap data in driving sustainable development, while emphasising the value of community collaboration and the growing potential of geospatial technologies.

Education

• David Thompson is currently developing a series of modular illustrations designed to serve as visual aids for OpenStreetMap tagging documentation. The illustrations aim to enhance clarity and support the mapping of pavements, kerbs, and pedestrian crossings.

OSM research

• William Cook and colleagues have published a study that found the shortest distance between 81,998 bars across South Korea using 44 years of CPU time (three months of wall clock time). They used OSRM and road data from OpenStreetMap to navigate the route and presented the results via Leaflet. This is the largest road-map instance of the Travelling Salesman Problem that has been solved to provable optimality, exceeding the 57,912-stop tour through the Netherlands solved in February 2021.

Humanitarian OSM

• Russell Deffner announced that HOT was accepting applications for two appointed director positions on its Board of Directors (the deadline was 24 April), marking the first time these director seats were opened to non-members. The organisation was specifically looking for candidates with strong backgrounds in financial sustainability, diversified fundraising, and innovative hybrid business models. Ideal applicants would have had a demonstrated history of guiding mission-driven organisations through strategic growth and transformation.

Maps

• The MapLibre-powered fork of OpenRailwayMap (we reported earlier) has dropped support for OSM’s railway=razed/abandoned tags in favour of historic railway data from OpenHistoricalMap.
• Steve Kim and Jamie Fletcher have created a web map using MapLibre and OSM data, showing the retirement homes of Ontario.

Open Data

• In ‘How Transport Data is Like Your Mom’s 1990 AOL Account’ the Trufi Association compared closed transport data to 1990s-era home internet services.

Software

• Mbernasocchi confirmed that QGIS is undergoing a major transition to Qt6, prompted by Qt 5.15 entering extended support in May 2025, which restricts continued security updates and bug fixes to commercial licence holders, limiting access to upstream improvements for open-source users. The QGIS team has chosen to synchronise the Qt6 migration with a major version update, scheduling the release of QGIS 4.0 for October 2025, following QGIS 3.44.
• OSRM v6.0.0 brings improved routing performance, enhanced plugins, and full compatibility with the latest OSM data format.
• valh is a package that provides an interface to the Valhalla API from R. It allows you to query the Valhalla API for routes, isochrones, time-distance matrices, nearest point on the road network, and elevation data.
• Alex Oppo has created a user script for Wikipedia that displays an OpenHistoricalMap map and updates it as you hover over words in the article.

Programming

• In a deep dive into computing history, Daniel revisited a lesser-known paper from the 1980s that explores how spatial index queries can be performed using space-filling curves.
• Paul Norman explained why islands appeared to be missing from the place labels in the new OSMF Shortbread tiles. After investigating he discovered that the Lua table for places was still defined as a node table, despite most place=island features being mapped as areas.
• To address the difficulty of writing map styles using existing style languages, Paul Norman is currently developing a new language that uses minimal pre-processing to generate MapLibre GL styles. He is also seeking feedback on issues related to authoring styles for MapLibre GL.

Releases

• Eugene announced the release of OsmAnd Android version 5.0, introducing a suite of new features and improvements. Highlights include upgraded widgets with added Route Information and Route Manoeuvres options, resizable side panel widgets, and an explore mode designed to help users discover nearby points of interest more easily. The iOS update comes with enhanced full-screen gallery, smart folder track organisation, new appearance settings for track group and favourites.
• movingpandas has a new release, v0.21.3, which fixes missing CRS information in the ValueChangeSplitter results.
• iD has a new release, v2.33.0, featuring various improvements to street level photo layers, including a slider to more quickly select relevant up to date street level photos or the new keyboard shortcut Shift + P to quickly toggle street level photo layers on and off. There are also improvements in how oneway arrows are rendered on dashed lines (such as cycle paths or tram tracks).
• Version 1.4.0 of the Panoramax mobile app has been officially released.
• Alexis Lecanu has announced the release of version 1.9.0 of Baba. Baba is a mobile application for Panoramax. Among other things, the new version shows on the map where street photos are already available – and where gaps can still be filled.
• trajectools has a new release (v2.5) that fixes some split routines and adds descriptions to help to manage strings.

Did you know that …

• … if you see outdated map tiles on OpenStreetMap then reloading the page without cache might help you?On Windows and Linux this can be done using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+F5, on macOS CMD+SHIFT+R (or CMD+OPTION+R for Safari). In Firefox for Android, hold down the page reload button.

  If these keyboard shortcuts are not available to you, then open the site in a private window (incognito mode).

• … a feature in OsmAnd allows users to fully disable map rotation, keeping north fixed at the top of the screen? This helps prevent unintentional map shifts caused by touch gestures and may improve battery efficiency by reducing constant map animation during navigation.

Other “geo” things

• Hemed tooted a beautiful map showing the land cover of East Africa in 2023, using the dataset from Earthmap (Esri Land cover, 10 m), Blender and QGIS.
• Tommy Jark revealed ► new findings regarding the locations of historical siege positions at the Prosnitzer Schanze, a former military fortification on the island of Rügen in northern Germany. The breakthrough was made possible through the analysis of a detailed 17th-century battle map discovered in Sweden’s National Archives in late 2024, combined with high-resolution terrain data provided by the State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
• Finnish scientists have launched the development of defence software aimed at countering GNSS signal disruption attacks. The initiative comes in response to a sharp rise in interference incidents, with the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) reporting approximately 2,000 cases in 2024, up from just 239 the previous year.
• Polish authorities will implement ► a nationwide photography ban at selected public sites starting 17 April. The measure, part of an amendment to Poland’s national defence and anti-espionage laws, targets approximately 25,000 locations, including military facilities, bridges, tunnels, railways, airports, seaports, post offices, energy infrastructure, and government buildings. Individuals who violate the ban risk having their recording equipment confiscated, facing fines of up to €4,600, or even imprisonment.
• The Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS), a partnership between the United Nations and the European Commission, provides global disaster information through an RSS feed that delivers real-time alerts for disasters worldwide.
• According to WinFuture, Australian tech firm Q-CTRL is developing ► ‘Ironstone Opal’, a next-generation navigation system that uses quantum magnetometers, ultra-sensitive sensors that detect subtle variations in the Earth’s magnetic field, to determine precise locations without satellite signals. Unlike GNSS, it operates entirely passively, emitting no signals and making it resistant to jamming or spoofing. However, the system relies on detailed magnetic field maps, which are not yet available globally.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	What	Online	When
	Aketi	Mapathon for Kinshasa City		2025-04-21 – 2025-04-25
		UN Mappers Mappy Hour		2025-04-25
	Bergdietikon	SOSM Annual General Assembly		2025-04-25
		OSMF Affiliation Focus Group Discussion: Thematic and non-geographical groups		2025-04-26
	斗南鎮	雲林六房天上聖母土庫、虎尾維基街景資料工作坊		2025-04-27
	Yelahanka taluku	OSM Bengaluru Mapping Party		2025-04-27
	Saint-Étienne	Rencontre Saint-Étienne et sud Loire		2025-04-28
	Korbach	Wheelmapevent Stadt Korbach + Landkreis Waldeck-Frankenberg		2025-04-29
	San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2025-04-30
	Vogtei	OSM Radinfra-Mapathon #1		2025-04-29
	Rostock	Rostocker Treffen		2025-04-30
	Wien	74. Wiener OSM-Stammtisch		2025-04-30
	Düsseldorf	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)		2025-04-30
	Ludwigsburg	MA1PPING 2025		2025-05-01
		OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2025-05-02
	Wien	EGU OpenStreetMap Short Coiurse		2025-05-02
	City of Vincent	Social Mapping Saturday: Mount Hawthorn		2025-05-03
	Alipur Tehsil	16th OSM Delhi Mapping Party (Online)		2025-05-04
	Brno	Květnový brněnský Missing Maps Mapathon na Geografickém ústavu		2025-05-06
	Salzburg	OSM Treffen Salzburg		2025-05-06
	Žilina	Missing Maps mapathon Žilina #17		2025-05-06
		Missing Maps London: (Online) Mapathon [eng]		2025-05-06
		iD Community Chat		2025-05-07
	Stuttgart	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen		2025-05-07
	Oslo	OSM Pils #1v1.1 2025		2025-05-08
	Bochum	Bochumer OSM-Treffen		2025-05-08
	Alipur Tehsil	16th OSM Delhi Mapping Party		2025-05-10
	København	OSMmapperCPH		2025-05-11
	Kiel	Stadt-Spaziergang mit OpenStreetMap		2025-05-11
	中正區	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #76		2025-05-12

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by LuxuryCoop, MatthiasMatthias, Minh Nguyen, PierZen, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, tordans.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

OpenStreetMap Indonesia, in partnership with TomTom, organised a Community Mapping Party at GoWork Plaza Indonesia in Jakarta on Saturday, 26 April 2025.

Planning

January 23, 2025 – 17:05 WIB

“For those living in the Jabotabek area, how about we hold our first offline monthly talk next time and align it with the TomTom Mapping Party event?”

Initial discussions about hosting an offline gathering began among members in the Greater Jakarta area. A suggestion was made to align the monthly community meeting (usually held online, but in this proposal, it will be held offline for the first time) with an upcoming Mapping Party event organized by TomTom. The idea was presented in an open-ended way, inviting members to consider the possibility when time allowed.

January 30, 2025 – 08:34 WIB

“It might be better to hold it before Ramadan.”

The conversation picked up pace, with another participant suggesting that it would be preferable to hold the event before the fasting month (Ramadan) began. The comment hinted at the logistical advantages of scheduling it earlier.

February 3, 2025 – 11:01 WIB

“If it is held before Ramadan, preparation time would be very tight. It has been proposed to schedule it after Eid, possibly in mid or late April, and a response is still awaited.”

It was mentioned that holding the event before Ramadan might be too rushed given the short preparation time. As a result, a new proposal was introduced: to hold the Mapping Party after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, possibly in mid to late April. Final confirmation was still pending at that point.

March 23, 2025 – 14:28 WIB

“If we hold an offline mapping party and meetup at the end of April 2025 somewhere around Jabodetabek, would participants be able to attend?”

A poll was conducted to gauge interest and availability for a face-to-face Mapping Party and meetup toward the end of April 2025, targeting a location around the Greater Jakarta area. The voting results were as follows:
- 45% indicated availability if the event was scheduled on a weekend.
- 25% stated availability on both weekdays and weekends.
- 30% responded that they were not yet available.

April 22, 2025 – 13:26 WIB
The official announcement for the event was made :

🚨 COMMUNITY MAPPING PARTY IS COMING! 🚨

In collaboration with TomTom and the OpenStreetMap Indonesia Community, the Mapping Party would serve as a platform to deepen engagement with OpenStreetMap and geospatial data. The event included participation in the MapRoulette Challenge, a group discussion session on the future of the OpenStreetMap community, and an opportunity for contributors from various regions to meet in person.

The event details were outlined as follows:

Date: Saturday, April 26, 2025
Time: 13:00–15:00 WIB
Location: GoWork Plaza Indonesia, Level 5, Room 5A, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. Kav. 28–30, Jakarta 10350 (Entrance through Plaza Lobby – Thamrin Gate)

Additional highlights of the event included:

* Prizes awarded to the three best contributors
* E-certificates of participation
* Special souvenirs
* Complimentary snacks

Attendance was open for both offline participants, with 12 limited seats available, and online participants.

Journey to the event venue

Operation “Get to the 1 PM Event On Time” is officially underway! The battlefield: Plaza Indonesia, right by the big roundabout (Bundaran HI). The eternal question when you live in Bekasi: what time do you actually leave? Arrive too early, and you’re awkwardly loitering. Arrive too late, and well, that’s just social suicide.

The master plan involved a multi-stage transit tango: LRT Jatimulya -> LRT Dukuh Atas -> MRT Dukuh Atas -> MRT Bundaran HI. My trusty digital oracle predicted the LRT leg would take about an hour. Midday prayers are around noon, so leaving at 11 AM should be fine, right? HA! As if! Gotta factor in the legendary Bekasi traffic, the cardio workout of switching stations, and the sheer lottery of when the train actually decides to show up. Better add a buffer hour. 10 AM departure it is. Let’s do this!

9:41 AM: Posted up outside the BCA near Pondok Timur Indah (PTI), playing the waiting game for an angkot.

9:43 AM: Success! A vaguely reddish-orange angkot (K19A PTI - BTC - Terminal) arrived fairly quickly.

The cockpit situation was… something else. Dad was driving, Mom was riding shotgun handling fares, and three kids were somehow crammed in up front too. I got a front-row seat (well, back row technically) to a heated discussion about the operational intricacies of running an angkot business. Memorable quote from Dad: “I care for that car like it’s my own brother!”

Reached Tol Timur – that’ll be Rp 5,000, thanks.

Had a bit of a traffic snarl earlier on Jalan Jatimulya. It’s the weekend, everyone’s trying to escape the city, and this narrow road is the main artery to the toll road. It’s so tight that cars queuing for the gas station turn it into instant gridlock.

From Tol Timur, it’s a quick hop, skip, and a treacherous road-crossing jump to the LRT Jatimulya station. Dodging buses, cars, and the infamous calo (touts for unofficial shared taxis) is an Olympic sport here.

Spotted one calo systematically scanning the crowd, zeroing in on potential customers. Uh oh. He saw me. My doom approached. There were three people between us – my unwitting human shields. He interrogated them one by one… deep breaths… here he comes…

“Mau kemana??” (Where are you going??)

“Aa-a.. Mau naik kereta..” (Uh.. Going to take the train..) I stammered, mentally preparing to fend off the inevitable pitch for his shared taxi and its guaranteed traffic jam experience.

And then… he just walked past? PHEW! Sweet relief!

BUT WAIT! He turned around! Coming back! NOOO! What now?!

He leaned in close… “Tasmu, resletingnya rusak. Itu gak ada isinya kan?” (Your bag zipper’s broken. Nothing in there, right?)

Oh. Right. My perpetually broken front zippers. All that internal panic for that. Bless his heart. The road finally cleared, so I made a dash across, practically fleeing the scene while calling back, “Aah. Iya pak. Rusak. Terima kasih infonya!” (Ah. Yes sir. Broken. Thanks for the info!) So dramatic.

10:09 AM: Safely inside the LRT. Seemed to be sharing the ride with a lot of “LRT First-Timers,” looking adorably bewildered.

“Ini kereta ke Cikoko ya?” (Is this train going to Cikoko?) a lady asked nearby.

“Aah. Iya,” (Ah. Yes,) I confirmed.

“Terima kasih!” she replied, before immediately launching into a full-blown photo session – selfies, videos of the journey, even filming the driver. Ah, the joys of weekend travel.

The train steadily filled up at Bekasi Barat, Cikunir, and Jatibening. Ended up standing, but hey, at least it wasn’t Monday morning rush hour packed.

11:02 AM: Arrived at Dukuh Atas. Wowzers, my trusty digital oracle was spot on! Almost exactly an hour. Tapped out – Rp 10,000 gone.

Now for the slightly-longer-than-you’d-think walk to the Sudirman station connection.

And plot twist! The main walkway bridge seemed to funnel directly… into a shop entrance? Was I being bamboozled into impulse buying? Surely not. After squinting around like a confused mole, I found a tiny, almost hidden sign indicating the actual stairs down to the station. Seriously, that sign needs to be WAY bigger. Almost got lost in retail purgatory.

Phew, safe… wait, no. Obstacle #2 spotted ahead: an activist group, with a promotional stand manned by two people in uniform, armed with clipboards and pens, approaching passersby. They looked like they wanted signatures for some cause.

Now, I have a strict personal policy: never sign anything without knowing exactly what it is, and I simply didn’t have time for a potentially lengthy explanation (or a debate if I disagreed!). I heard that their activist group just got hit with a guilty verdict and a massive fine for something they did overseas. Honestly, I have no idea who’s actually in the right here, but one thing’s clear — I really don’t want to be mixed up in any of it. Even just signing my name on one of their documents feels way too risky right now.

So, yeah, avoidance maneuver initiated. Increased my walking speed slightly, strategically using other pedestrians as human shields. If they wanted me, they’d have to intercept my shield first! Like a weird game of offside trap. And… success! I slipped past unnoticed.

Finally made it into the MRT Dukuh Atas station. Descended the stairs accompanied by the dulcet tones of… an unattended megaphone just sitting there, endlessly repeating, “Hati hati saat menuruni tangga!” (Be careful on the stairs!). Seriously? Couldn’t they install actual speakers? Felt a bit… makeshift.

Also noticed the tap-in gates were just wide open, with three staff members manually checking people through. Guess they’re battling queue buildup? Looked a bit less slick than usual.

Saw some cool new ads though, especially one for gold pawning featuring cartoon illustrations by a local artist. Nice touch.

Reached the platform level just as the train towards Bundaran HI pulled away. Perfect timing, actually! I’d deliberately dawdled a bit after getting off the LRT. Why? Because waiting in the cool, air-conditioned, and ‘socially acceptable’ MRT waiting area beats awkwardly standing around outside any day. Found a comfy seat and chilled.

11:30 AM: My MRT finally arrived.

11:40 AM-ish: Arrived at Bundaran HI, tapped out (Rp 3,000).

Okay, time check. Still got time before the 1 PM event.

Needed to find a place for a quick prayer and then, more importantly, LUNCH. My stomach was rumbling for Padang food.

Considered using the prayer room inside Plaza Indonesia, but nah. Too much hassle with their entry protocols, plus I’d have to exit again for food. Not efficient. Plan B: find a local neighborhood prayer spot. My trusty digital oracle to the rescue again! Found one tucked away in an alley.

But first, reconnaissance! I’d spotted a Padang restaurant on Maps last night, but online info can be sketchy. Had to confirm it actually existed and was open today. Walked briskly towards its supposed location, hope blossoming in my heart… saw the sign… getting closer… peered through the window… YES! Food glorious food displayed! Mission accomplished.

Okay, now for the prayer spot. Retraced my steps, muttering the Maps directions: “Left here, into the alley, then left, then right…” Found it! A surprisingly bright orange building, really stood out. As I approached, a guy waiting by the gate kindly pointed out the communal sandals for washing up. Ah, brilliant! Saved me the awkwardness of taking off socks. Slipped on the sandals, did the pre-prayer washing, and went into the main hall.

Still had about ten minutes before the call to prayer. Another excellent waiting spot – cool, quiet, and perfectly acceptable for just sitting. Tried to check my phone… nope, zero signal in here. Oh well. The call to prayer echoed, did my quiet reflection, and finished up around 12:30 PM. No time to linger, gotta eat!

On the walk back to the Padang place, I saw a nasi goreng (fried rice) stall. Tempting! But no, fried rice takes time to cook. Time was tight. Padang it is – instant gratification!

Entered the restaurant. My initial craving was for telur dadar (Padang-style omelet), but the one on display looked a bit… underwhelming today. Pivot!

“Makan sini?” (Eating here?) the server asked.

“Aa. Iya, makan sini.” (Ah. Yes, eating here.)

“Pakai apa?” (With what?)

“Jangan pakai sambal!” (Don’t use chili sauce!) I stressed, probably a bit too emphatically. I love Padang food, but not the spicy kick. Gotta make sure they hear it! “Umm. Ayam panggang, pahanya. Kuahnya gulai ayam. Pakai sayur kol. Jangan pakai sambal!” (Umm. Grilled chicken, thigh part. Chicken gulai curry sauce. With cabbage. Don’t use chili sauce!)

He showed me the plate he’d assembled. “Begini saja?” (Just like this?)

“Ya!” (Yes!) Perfect.

“Minumnya apa?” (Drink?) he asked, handing me the little water bowl for hand washing.

“Air putih.” (Water.)

He dashed off to get the water, but I was already parched and racing the clock. Stealthily deployed my own water bottle from my bag for a pre-meal gulp. Priorities!

Right in front of my table, a TV was showing the news. They had this “Did You Know?” segment. “Did you know the study of Fungi is called Mycology? Did you know a body of water between two landmasses is called a Strait?” Riveting stuff. Really? They could do so much better! How about, “Did you know the Internet basically exists because everyone was scared of nuclear war?” or “Did you know cosmic rays from space can randomly glitch your phone?” Now that’s fun trivia! Alas, no suggestion box in sight. Just focused on inhaling my delicious chicken.

The TV clock showed 12:35 PM. Ate like my life depended on it. Paid up (Rp 17,000), and practically sprinted out. Still needed to find the exact room in Plaza Indonesia.

Okay, where is this “Thamrin Gate”? Quick Maps check… ah, near the MRT exit. Dashed over. There it was! Big sign, thankfully. Went in.

Security Check #1: Open your bag. Showed my harmless collection of stationery, notebook, laptop, and water bottle. Cleared. Walked further in… wait, Security Check #2? Same drill. Cleared again. Phew. Oh, another person by a gate further in? Ah, this one was just a friendly greeting.

See? Getting into these places is like infiltrating a fortress!

Found the lift, zipped up to the fifth floor. Doors opened, and someone immediately said hello… using my name! Took me a second – oh! It was someone I knew online! We were supposed to meet up when I was briefly in Bandung back in January 2025, but it never worked out. And here we are, finally meeting in Jakarta! He’d come all the way from Bandung on the regular (non-high-speed) train today.

We walked into the event room together. The three organizers were already there. Turns out, we were the very first participants to arrive! Score!

Our prize? First pick of the free merchandise! My broken bag zipper suddenly felt like destiny. Immediately snagged a cool bag with the event sponsor’s logo. Perfect timing!

Found our seats. The tables were nicely set up with pastries, bottled water, power outlets, tissues, and the Wi-Fi password. My new Bandung buddy and the three organizers all dutifully opened their laptops. Me? Nope.

We’ve spent months talking through screens. This was a rare chance for actual, face-to-face conversation without lag or bandwidth issues! I was going to savor it.

As we chatted, other participants started arriving, one by one. And finally, right on schedule, the event began!

The event commenced

The event kicked off with everyone introducing themselves. I took some random, unorganized notes on my phone while listening to all the self-introductions:

Bogor. Bogor Agricultural University. Kaart. YouthMapper State University of Jakarta. YouthMapper Indonesia University of Education. Geography undergrad. Bandung. Tangerang. “I first got into OSM through a training event on my campus.”; “I was introduced to OSM by my lecturer, who was working on a joint research project to assess the impact of the Semarang flood. We used OSM’s building-level tags around Semarang as a rough estimate for population size.”; Bogor Regency. Padang. “I first encountered OSM through a university course in Geographic Information Systems.”; Lampung. “I’m really grateful to OSM for supporting my education and research at university!”; Bukittinggi. Bendungan Hilir. “I’ve never mapped on OSM, but I use OSM data a lot for my research, especially when analyzing road networks with OSMnx.”; Makassar. Palmerah. “I first got into OSM through a spatial modeling course at university. Back then, using OSM was mandatory.” Sidoarjo. “My manager at work told me to learn OSM and join its local community.”

The event was divided into two sessions: one online and one offline. When the online session started, the organizers took turns presenting their material over Zoom. During this part, those of us attending in person could only wait around — it wasn’t our time yet. But when the offline session kicked off, the situation flipped. The online participants were set aside for a moment, and now it was finally our turn to start the discussions face-to-face.

Right in the middle of the online session, a delivery guy from Kopi Kenangan knocked on the front door. Oh, our drink orders had arrived!

A little backstory: about a day before the event, we were asked to fill out our drink orders via a Google Sheet.

At first, I was tempted to pick a Macchiato — partly out of curiosity, and partly because I kept seeing my high school friends post about it on their Instagram Stories a few weeks ago.

But in the end, I chickened out.

What if I didn’t like it? I’d still have to finish it, right?

I quickly Googled the ingredients and, well, it had milk. And sometimes milk makes me feel a bit queasy.

So, I played it safe. I ordered a Fresh Lemonade — plain lemon water.

The Fresh Lemonade I ordered the night before was now sitting right in front of me. And the best part? It was free!

It tasted just right. I’ve always loved orange water, ever since I was a kid, when I used to order warm orange drinks at Teteh’s warteg back in Pengasinan.

The giant cup proudly displayed the phrase, “From Ex-Lovers to Unicorn.” Ah, so this was the famous coffee chain everyone had been talking about. I used to think that becoming a unicorn company was something that only happened in the tech world. Turns out, that’s not always the case.

Later, one of the participants suggested that everyone share their recent OSM-related projects so they could be showcased within the community. I immediately raised my hand and ended up giving an impromptu presentation on two of my recent OSM projects. First, I talked about the real-time weather map project, and then I shared the game my team built during the Global Game Jam 2025.

The talk was a bit rough, quick, and totally unprepared, but I somehow got through it. One of the participants suggested that I explain things more thoroughly in the next online talk session, and I gladly accepted the invite. Maybe it’s time to start preparing slides for these things too.

Oh, and there were several participants who wanted a more detailed explanation of the projects I’ve worked on. Honestly, I would love to do a line-by-line coding breakdown of my personal projects, but I wasn’t sure who the actual audience would be or how technical the event was supposed to get. So, I just promised them that I’d be happy to dive into the technical details of the projects in the future—just not the event organizing side of things. I really enjoy sharing my knowledge and experiences, so I’m looking forward to helping anyone who’s interested.

Epilogue

The event wrapped up. Some quick photo sessions, a bit of chit-chat, and then everyone started heading out.

It was already past the Asr prayer time, so I made my way to the prayer room on the third floor. Even though I was a bit late, I was still able to catch the next prayer group.

After that, I stepped out of the building and headed back to the Bundaran HI MRT station — it’s super close to the Thamrin Gate entrance.

This time, there was something different. Right there in the station corridor, a street band was performing live. A full band too — about four or five people. In front of the vocalist, there was a box for donations. I spotted an electric guitar, a bass, and… hmm, what else? I could hear drum sounds, but I didn’t see a drum set. Was it just a backing track?

The microphone mix definitely could have been more balanced, but the instrumentals sounded pretty good. Even so, I kept wondering — was everything being played live? Or was some of it prerecorded?

It was almost 4:30 PM by now, which meant I’d probably reach Bekasi around 5:30 PM — cutting it pretty close to Maghrib prayer time. Honestly, if I had more free time, I would’ve loved to stay and watch their performance properly, especially to catch a closer look at the guitarist. Were they really playing live? Or just miming along to a track?

Anyway, I hopped onto the MRT, tapped out at Dukuh Atas (fare: Rp 3,000), and started walking toward Sudirman Station. From there, I crossed the pedestrian bridge over the river to get into the Dukuh Atas LRT station.

Ah, there they were — two activists still standing right in front of me.

This time, my usual “sidestep and blend into the crowd” trick wasn’t going to work. The walkway was practically deserted. It was just me… and them.

“Excuse me, Sir! Can we have a moment of your time?” one of them called out.

“Ahh, sorry, I’m in the middle of something… hehe,” I replied, awkwardly dodging.

Alright, made it past the first one.

But then — “Excuse me, Sir! Can we have a moment of your time?” the second activist asked, stepping right into my path.

“Aah… sorry, I’m being chased…” I blurted out.

I panicked. I wasn’t expecting the second person to still approach me after I had clearly escaped the first one.

In my flustered state, I totally misspoke. I meant to say, “Sorry, I’m racing against time,” — you know, implying I was in a hurry.

But what actually came out was just, “Sorry, I’m being chased.”

Chased? By who?? Why did I make it sound like I was running from the law or something?!

The second activist just smiled warmly and didn’t say anything. I hurried past, practically speed-walking away. Meanwhile, in their mind, I bet they were wondering, “Chased… by who exactly?”

Anyway, I made it into the LRT station, finally.

This time, I got lucky and snagged a seat for the whole ride — from Dukuh Atas all the way to Jatimulya.

The train left right on schedule at around 4:30 PM and arrived at around 5:30 PM, just in time for Maghrib.

I have added a pin for my house, which is at 38150 N Vista Dr in Livonia! From here, I have encountered tons of wildlife, including fish, and generally been treated pretty well. There are parks nearby, riparian zones, old-growth forests, modern civilization including a hotel with swimming pool, and plenty of transportation opportunities. You can even walk here. There’s water, a lawn, and interesting people here. My basement is the coolest!

UMBRAOSM: A União dos Mapeadores Brasileiros do OpenStreetMap

A União dos Mapeadores Brasileiros do OpenStreetMap (UMBRAOSM) é uma organização comunitária que reúne voluntários de todo o Brasil comprometidos com o mapeamento colaborativo, livre e aberto. Nascida da paixão de diversos mapeadores pela construção coletiva do conhecimento geográfico, a UMBRAOSM tem como missão fortalecer a presença do OpenStreetMap (OSM) no Brasil e fomentar práticas de mapeamento inclusivas, acessíveis e de alta qualidade.

O que é o OpenStreetMap?

O OpenStreetMap é um projeto colaborativo que visa criar um mapa mundial livre, editado por qualquer pessoa, a qualquer momento. Ele é usado por milhões de pessoas, empresas, organizações humanitárias e governos que necessitam de dados geoespaciais atualizados e abertos.

No Brasil, o OSM desempenha um papel vital no apoio a ações de emergência, planejamento urbano, pesquisas acadêmicas, projetos ambientais e iniciativas sociais.

A Origem da UMBRAOSM

A criação da UMBRAOSM surgiu da necessidade de integrar e apoiar os mapeadores brasileiros, promovendo uma rede de colaboração ativa. Ao perceber a força e a diversidade dos voluntários espalhados pelo país, mapeadores experientes e novos usuários se organizaram para formar uma entidade que representasse essa comunidade em eventos, projetos e discussões globais do OpenStreetMap. Objetivos da UMBRAOSM

Entre as principais metas da UMBRAOSM estão:

Fortalecer a comunidade brasileira do OSM, oferecendo suporte e treinamento a novos mapeadores.

Promover oficinas, eventos e campanhas de mapeamento, presenciais e virtuais.

Representar os mapeadores brasileiros em fóruns internacionais e em parcerias institucionais.

Garantir a diversidade e a inclusão no mapeamento, acolhendo pessoas de todas as regiões, idades e níveis de conhecimento técnico.

Incentivar o uso e a melhoria dos dados do OpenStreetMap para diversas finalidades sociais, acadêmicas e empresariais.

Atividades e Projetos

A UMBRAOSM realiza e apoia diversas atividades, como:

Mapathons: eventos colaborativos onde pessoas se reúnem para mapear áreas específicas, como regiões afetadas por desastres naturais ou bairros carentes de informações.

Cursos e oficinas: ensinando desde conceitos básicos até técnicas avançadas de mapeamento e edição de dados geográficos.

Projetos comunitários: como mapeamento de escolas públicas, trilhas ecológicas, áreas de risco e infraestrutura urbana.

Divulgação e conscientização: sobre a importância dos dados livres e do acesso aberto à informação geográfica.

A Importância da UMBRAOSM

Em um país de dimensões continentais como o Brasil, com realidades tão diversas, a UMBRAOSM desempenha um papel fundamental para democratizar o acesso à informação geográfica. Além disso, fortalece a cidadania ativa, ao permitir que comunidades representem sua própria realidade nos mapas globais.

A união dos mapeadores brasileiros torna o OpenStreetMap cada vez mais forte, diverso e útil para todos.

🌍 Junte-se à UMBRAOSM

Se você se interessa por mapas, tecnologia, geografia ou quer fazer a diferença na sua comunidade, a UMBRAOSM é o seu lugar! Venha fazer parte dessa rede de colaboração e ajude a construir o mapa livre do Brasil!

🔹 Siga-nos no Instagram: @umbraosmbrasil

🔹 Participe do nosso Telegram: https://t.me/grupoumbraosm

🔹 UMBRAOSM no YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@umbraosm

🔹 Acesse nosso site: http://umbraosm.com.br

📧 Contato: contato@umbraosm.com.br

MapeamentoColaborativo #OpenStreetMap #UMBRAOSM #TecnologiaLivre #InovaçãoSocial #MapasAbertos

Piraha

https://overpass-turbo.eu/index.html?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%28%0A%20%20nwr%5B%22highway%22%7E%22%5E%28motorway%7Ctrunk%7Cprimary%7Csecondary%7Cunclassified%7Ctertiary%7Cresidential%29%24%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22sidewalk%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22sidewalk%3Aboth%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22sidewalk%3Aleft%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22sidewalk%3Aright%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%29%3B%0Aout%20body%3B%0A%3E%3B%0Aout%20skel%20qt%3B&C=37.315021%3B-122.0648%3B14

Por que usar ferramentas de mapeamento colaborativo como o OpenStreetMap?

Uma visão da UMBRAOSM – União dos Mapeadores Brasileiros do OpenStreetMap

Em um país com dimensões continentais como o Brasil, o acesso a informações geográficas abertas, atualizadas e confiáveis é essencial para promover o desenvolvimento social, a inclusão territorial e a justiça espacial. Nesse contexto, a UMBRAOSM acredita no poder transformador das ferramentas de mapeamento colaborativo, especialmente o OpenStreetMap (OSM) — o mapa livre do mundo.

Desde sua criação, a UMBRAOSM atua para fortalecer a cultura cartográfica aberta e inclusiva no Brasil, promovendo oficinas, capacitações, eventos e ações comunitárias em diversas regiões. Neste artigo, explicamos por que o uso do OpenStreetMap é uma escolha estratégica para indivíduos, coletivos, instituições públicas e privadas. O que é o OpenStreetMap?

O OpenStreetMap é uma plataforma global de mapeamento colaborativo e gratuito, onde qualquer pessoa pode contribuir com dados geográficos — como ruas, edifícios, escolas, rios, pontos de interesse e muito mais. Os dados são abertos, reutilizáveis e licenciados de forma que incentivam a liberdade de uso.

Mais do que um mapa, o OSM é uma comunidade global comprometida com o acesso democrático à informação geográfica. 1. Colaboração com impacto local e global

A força do OSM está em sua comunidade. No Brasil, por meio da UMBRAOSM, centenas de mapeadores têm atuado para representar seus territórios, especialmente em áreas urbanas periféricas, rurais e indígenas, que muitas vezes são invisibilizadas nos mapas comerciais.

Durante emergências como enchentes, deslizamentos e crises sanitárias, o OSM já se mostrou essencial para gerar dados rápidos e úteis a organizações humanitárias. Mapear juntos é agir com solidariedade. 2. Empoderamento comunitário e autonomia digital

A UMBRAOSM promove oficinas que capacitam comunidades a mapearem seus próprios territórios. Isso fortalece a autonomia local, amplia o protagonismo de grupos historicamente marginalizados e cria pontes entre tecnologia e participação cidadã.

O mapeamento colaborativo é uma forma de cuidar do lugar onde vivemos, a partir da valorização do saber local. 3. Acesso livre e uso sem barreiras

O OSM é gratuito. Todos os dados mapeados podem ser usados por prefeituras, escolas, universidades, ONGs, coletivos e startups. Isso permite que projetos de impacto social e inovação territorial sejam desenvolvidos sem depender de licenças pagas ou serviços fechados.

A UMBRAOSM defende o uso de tecnologias livres como caminho para a inclusão e a soberania dos dados. 4. Ecossistema integrado e potente

O OSM se conecta com diversas ferramentas, como JOSM, iD Editor, QGIS, Mapillary, uMap, entre outras. Isso permite que os dados sejam analisados, visualizados e utilizados em diversas áreas — planejamento urbano, transporte, logística, educação, turismo e gestão ambiental.

A UMBRAOSM apoia projetos e formações que exploram esse ecossistema de forma acessível, prática e comunitária. 5. Construção coletiva de um Brasil mais bem mapeado

A missão da UMBRAOSM é clara: fomentar uma cultura de mapeamento livre, descentralizado e participativo. Acreditamos que todos têm o direito de se ver no mapa — e também de ajudar a construir esse mapa.

Seja em ações locais ou colaborações internacionais, fazer parte do OpenStreetMap é contribuir para um mundo onde mapas contam histórias reais e diversas. Em resumo:

Usar ferramentas de mapeamento colaborativo como o OpenStreetMap é mais do que uma escolha técnica: é um ato político, educativo e transformador. É criar pontes entre dados e pessoas. É mapear com consciência, inclusão e afeto.

🌍 Junte-se à UMBRAOSM Mapeie com a gente. Construa mapas. Construa futuros.

📲 Siga e participe:

🔹 Instagram: @umbraosmbrasil

🔹 Telegram: t.me/grupoumbraosm

🔹 YouTube: UMBRAOSM no YouTube

🔹 Site: umbraosm.com.br

📧 E-mail: contato@umbraosm.com.br

🇧🇷 UMBraOSM – União dos Mapeadores Brasileiros do OpenStreetMap

A UMBraOSM é a associação brasileira que reúne pessoas apaixonadas por mapas livres e colaborativos, com base no projeto OpenStreetMap (OSM) — o “Wikipedia dos mapas”.

Criada por e para mapeadores, a UMBraOSM promove:

🗺 Mapeamento colaborativo em todo o Brasil

👥 Formação de comunidades locais e temáticas

📚 Cursos, eventos e oficinas sobre cartografia livre

🤝 Parcerias com escolas, universidades, ONGs e governos

🌍 Defesa do conhecimento livre e da soberania dos dados geográficos

A associação foi registrada oficialmente em 2023 e tem como missão fortalecer a cultura do mapeamento aberto no Brasil, conectando pessoas, causas e territórios.

Se você acredita no poder dos mapas feitos por e para as pessoas, a UMBraOSM é o seu lugar!

🔗 Junte-se à gente no Telegram: https://t.me/grupoumbraosm

UMBraOSM #OpenStreetMap #MapeamentoColaborativo #DadosAbertos #GeografiaLivre #CartografiaColaborativa

This blog post is part of a series of blog posts about the new OSM file format “OMA”. This is the last post. At the end of the article you’ll find links to the other blog entries.

I will end this series of blog posts about the OMA file format with a short summary of all the feedback I have received and a brief outlook. But first I’d like to give you a real-life example that uses OMA files.

A Real-Life Example

Over a year ago I wrote a renderer suitable for displaying micromapped areas. I used it to generate tiles at zoom level 20 for the restricted area of my micromapping project.

Now I have adapted this program to use OMA files and recomputed the tiles for the area of my micromapping project. The program can be found on GitHub; and there’s a slippy map showing the tiles.

For example, this is what the station forecourt of Hilden looks like:

Summary

First of all, I have received a lot of feedback from you - thank you very much for that. For the sake of brevity, I’ll just address only three things from the feedback here:

There were concerns about dropping topological information when resolving the node references. In my opinion, this happens only in rare situations, as there is usually only one node at a location, so the topology can be recomputed. However, it may be more difficult.¹ I personally haven’t had any problems with this yet, and since resolving the nodes is one of the main ideas that lead to the Oma file format, I decided to stick with the dropped topology.

Second, user cello suggested adding the ability to use different compression methods: Modern compression methods are faster and might even compress the data better.

That’s obviously true. I was so happy that it was so easy to get the deflate algorithm to work that I didn’t bother looking for alternatives. And there is a big advantage to the deflate algorithm: It’s available in the libraries of almost every programming language.

On the other hand, fast access and small file sizes are two main design goals of the OMA format, so a better compression algorithm sounds like something one must add. From what I have read in the last weeks, I think that the Zstandard algorithm might be a good choice.

Tp use such an algorithm, I would have to implement it (or integrate an existing implementation) and test it thoroughly. I’d like to do that, but I can’t afford it at the moment. So I will just reserve the last unused bit in the features byte for adding two more compression algorithms, without actually specifying the algorithms at the moment. This should make it easy to extend the format, when the time comes.

User cello also suggested adding more bits for more compression algorithms. I’m shying away from that. This idea reminds me of the zip file format. This format accepts about a dozen different compression methods, which is quite a burden for any program that uses it. This is something I want to spare the programmers of software that uses OMA files.

User -karlos- pointed out some other mechanisms that could be used instead of sorting the data into chunks. For example, storing the data using a Z curve would allow you to look only at the elements in an arbitrary bounding box (with little overhead). This sounds amazing, but I cannot see how it works well together with compression and elements of unequal length. The faster lookup would probably be paid for by larger files.

Anyway, implementing such a change would take quite a lot of time. Probably more than I’m willing to spend. So I decided to stick with my chunk-based implementation and hope to improve bounding boxes of the chunks.

Outlook

What’s next? There is only one small change (the order of the bits in the features byte) that I plan to apply to the format, before it can be finalised. But before that, I want to take care of some issues that have arisen while writing these blog posts. This will take some time, and I expect the file format to be finalised this summer.

After that, the library could become a “real” library. I’m not sure if I really know what a “real” library looks like. But at the moment it feels a bit provisional. Probably tests need to be added, as suggested by user rayKiddy, and maybe the user interface needs to be rethought.

Also, the converter needs some polishing. I tried converting europe.osm this week and discovered an integer overflow (which is fixed meanwhile) and an infinite recursion caused by a certain (not yet identified) multipolygon. It would also be nice to try the converter on planet.osm. I’m not sure if I have the infrastructure to do that.

I’ve been using the Oma tools at work since the beginning of the year. It has simplified a lot of things. I often don’t even notice that I’m querying germany.oma in the background when doing something. The data is just there when I need it.

But every now and then I’ve got to do a one-way query. For example, I recently needed to find a pedestrian area with exactly two holes and only a small number of nodes defining that area. I wrote a Java program using the libraray that discovered five such areas. This was fine, but writing a Java program for this always feels like overkill.

I would have preferred to write the program in PHP, because it’s much faster to write such one-way programs in PHP, and I don’t mind if it’s a little bit slower. So I’m looking forward to creating a PHP version of the library. I could also make good use of a Python version when working with QGIS.

Finally, I hope that other people will join in using the OMA file format. I will be happy when someone tells me that they have successfully used it for one of their projects. :-)

See also

• A New File Format for OSM Data
• Using the Oma Library
• Getting Files in OMA File Format
• The OMA File Format
• Dealing with Relations in Oma Files
• Sorting into Chunks
• About main keys and values

1. I usually use a two-dimensional hashmap to search for nodes. This results in a lookup in almost constant time, but needs some additional memory. ↩

Opis projekta

S obzirom na infrastrukturne projekte u centru Rijeci i široj okolici te nedostatku određenog broja podataka, provodi se opsežno uređenje postojećih te nadodavanje novih podataka na temelju dostupnih podataka.

• Status: u tijeku
• Grad: Rijeka
• Obuhvaćeno područje: Rijeka (administrativna područja grada Rijeke)
• Početak: 20.3..2025.
• Planirani završetak: 15.10.2025.
• Završetak:

Projekt uređenja šireg centra Rijeke obuhvaća uređenje postojećih javnih površina i trgova, uređenje zelenih površina i parkova, nogostupa, drvoreda i parkirališnih područja. Uz prateće sadržaje, poput pješačkih staza i ulica, uređuju se nazivi ulica, uređuje i dodaje urbana oprema te uređuju svi podaci u širem centru kako bi isti bili u skladu sa trenutnim stanjem na terenu.

Naglasak je stavljen na uređene zelenih područja u centru grada, što podrazumijeva dodavanje urbane opreme, važeva za cvijeće, ukrasnih vaza, klupa, javne rasvjete, dječja igralište te ostalu urbanu u svrhu poboljšanja životnih uvjeta za mlade i ostale građane. Trenutne informacije ne pokazuju postojanje zelenih područja u centru Rijeke, što se planira izmijeniti i prilagoditi.

Projektom su obuhvaćeni:

• Parkirališta javne namjene (podzemne garaže i nadzemna parkirališta bez i sa naplatom parkirališta)
• Parkovi i zelene površine (igrališta, tereni, travnjaci)
• Dječja igrališta, područja škola i vrtića te ostali sportski objekti
• Javne površine (pješačke state i ulice)
• Cestovna oprema (imena i nazivi te prozetanje ulica i pristupnih cesta)
• Urbana oprema (nadzorne kamere, pješački i prometni otoci, stajališta javnog prijevoza, košarice za otpad i sl.)
• Drvoredi (ukrasna stabla)
• Autobusni terminali
• Željezničke postaje i kolodvori

Izvori podataka

Za potrebe ažuriranja podataka koristi se ortofoto dostupan u objavi svake promjene, GIS portal Grada Rijeke te ostali servisi javnih podataka i fotografije iz osobne arhive.

Provedene izmjene

• Uređen autobusni terminal Delta
• Uređena površina parka “Cont”
• Uređen parking “Delta”
• Uređen parking “Srednja Delta”
• Uređen parking “Gomila”
• Uređena zona Ulice Frana Kurelca

Ostale izmjene

Ovdje se prikazuju veće infrastrukturne promjene na ostalim autocestama:

• Uređen autobusni terminal Permani

Dinamika promjena radova

Ovdje se prikazuje postotak (%) završenih radova ovisno o vrstama promjena na OSM kartama:

Osnovni elementi:

• Parkirališta: 🟠20%
• Parkovi i zelene površine: 🟠n/a
• Igrališta: 🟠n/a
• Javne površine: 🟠1%
• Cestovna oprema: 🟠1%
• Urbana oprema: 🟠n/a
• Drvoredi: 🟠3%
• Autobusni terminali: 🟠30%
• Željezničke postaje i kolodvori: 🟠20%

Zadnja izmjena: 24.4.2025. / Kontakt: luka11.pehar@gmail.com

Hello, I have completed work for the first part of the project. Central Wilson and the length of Fish Creek road have reached a point where roads, driveways, structures, and water features have been thoroughly digitized. Check it out and let me know what you think! :) I am sure there are some things I’ve overlooked and maybe some mistakes in these areas. However, given that they are seeing a fair amount of development, I will likely be returning to them soon to update and double check for possible mistakes. I do have a question for you all out there, more experienced than me. I have come to despise the existing residential-landuse areas in Wilson. They are a mess and seem to be quite outdated. I would be more than willing to fix or make new ones, but I don’t know if there is a specific way to go about that kind of thing. Do they need to be based on any administrative boundaries or are they a more arbitrary area? As for what’s next in the project, I am moving east to the Stilson area to fill in completely missing neighborhoods, improve roads, add water features, etc. I will give the next update once completed.

CPA

Създадох едно предизивикателство за оправяне на непълни URL адреси в България. Добрата новина е, че не са много. Стартирайте от тук

• Където няма https:// да видим дали може да се добави за да е правилен протокола.
• Aко адреса пренасочва на друго място - добавете крайната спирка.
• Ако домейна/URL-a не е вече валиден - премахнете го.

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