(english below)

JugoTour 26

Am 1.Juli 2026 bin ich zum 20. Mal zu einer kontinentalen Fernradreise aufgebrochen. Dieses Jahr ging es endlich daran, den weißen Fleck auf meiner persönlichen Karte zu füllen: Ich hatte mich noch nie tief in den Balkan getraut. Auch wenn meine Reise 2001 von Israel nach Ägypten und zurück politisch aufregend und fern der EU war, so ist das doch schon fünfundzwanzig Jahre her und die Grenzübertritte im ehemaligen Jugoslawien jedesmal begleitet von einem gewissen thrill: Wird jetzt alles ganz anders sein?
Das Nebeneinander von Islam und Christentum war spannend zu sehen; sehr eindrücklich war auch, die Christen als historische Aggressoren und die muslimischen Gebiete als deutlich entspanntere Gesellschaft zu erleben.

Fokus auf Städte

Ich bin meinem Habitus treu geblieben, eine Perlenschnur durch die Hauptstädte zu fahren und sich nicht aus Liebe zur Natur auf besondere Abwege zu begeben. Trotzdem bekam ich natürlich geologisch allerhand zu staunen. Für die Anreise nach Klagenfurt buchte ich ein Zugticket nach Villach, für die Heimreise bekam ich über Flixbus einen Fernreisebus von HAK gebucht, der mich für 120€ in einem Rutsch mit Fahrrad bis Köln brachte.

Dauer und Übernachtungen

Die Tour mit kleinem Zelt dauerte drei Wochen; übernachtet habe ich meist abseits der Siedlungen, manchmal aber auch in AirB’n’B (Sarajevo) oder privat indoor (z.B. in Skopje), wenn ich spontan abends dazu eingeladen wurde, was häufig vorkam.

Po deseti letech přispívání do OSM mě stále baví objevovat nová místa na mapě. Tak snad mi to ještě chvilku vydrží.

Bonjour, as our gracious hosts like to say.

The French community, together with the university, put together a fun experience. Keep in mind that this is my first (larger) OSM gathering of any type.

As an longtime inhabitant of the forum at c.osm.org I already read a few views on different types of members of our actually very diverse community. While there are quite some typical German Mappers on OSM (mapping away without ever interacting and kinda thinking of OSM as their personal project) there are so many different people out there working with and for OSM.

To all those “brickheads” out there: There’s so much more out there than just your personal interest!

In this first installment of my random musings I’ll just leave a link to a good talk I saw on day one that touches some frequent points of concern:

https://2026.stateofthemap.org/sessions/3GRKKJ/

To all you people in Paris: See you around :)

on 25/8/26, we were a combination of bored enough and annoyed enough to start cleaning up the metadata of german railway stations, so as the track numbers actually appear in clients such as OpenRailwayMap (ORM) ((which we use regularly))

today we are going to formalize the process, also so that our commit history is less tedious to write

–

anything we do which is to further the purpose of creating a basic standard of german railway OSM cartography will be simply marked as “DMC - [bahnhofname]”

and further, in almost every case unless otherwise specified, our information comes from the database within Bahnhof.de supplied by the Deutsche Bahn, and our own knowledge from living within and travelling across germany

Ecuador - Pichincha - Quito

Ecuador (Pichincha- Quito)

Ecuador (Guayas/ Balzar)

Well The North Side Is Done For Now. But Due For School, The Edet’s Will Be Slower.

قرية محقب من احدى قراى عزلة لهاب وتكون مركز للعزله وكما يوجد فيها محامي لدى محكمة حراز اسم المحامي بكرقاسم حميد

Viernes 28 de Agosto del 2026.

Se realizo:

1. Se agrega Condominio Vista Alameda, Villa Parque Alameda I, II y III

2. Se agrega a “Loteo Fundo Viejo” (Ex Los Tilos) y se modifica Villa Los Tilos a “Villa Las Casas de Los Tilos”.

3. Se agrega Condominios Parque Trapiche I, II y III, Nueva Alameda II, Villa Alameda I, II, III, IV, V y VI, Condominio Arboleda de Koke, Condominio Neo Koke, Condominio Keep Koke y Condominio Parque Nogales.

4. Se modifica algunos nombres de loteos y condominios.

Je me retire complétement de OSM, OGF et OHM pour une durée interminée à cause d’évènements personels à partir de 26/08/2026.

Edit du 28/08/2026: Je reviens un peu sur OGF.

Rádio TV NOVA

In June 2026, UN Mappers Kenya launched its first ever Youth Climate Mapping Externship ,a seven-week virtual programme designed to put real geospatial tools in the hands of young Kenyans and point them at real climate problems in Nairobi. Nineteen university students answered the call.

A Programme Built by UN Mappers Kenya

The Youth Climate Mapping Externship 2026 is a UN Mappers Kenya initiative , born from the UN Maps chapter initiative and the belief that open geospatial data should be created by the communities it represents, not just for them. From the first session to the graduation ceremony, every element of this programme was designed and delivered under the UN Mappers Kenya banner.

The Journey

The externship ran from 29 June to 17 August 2026 across four progressive phases.

Phase 1 — Learn (Weeks 1 and 2)

Participants started from the ground up , climate issues facing Nairobi, GIS foundations, QGIS, and their first steps on OpenStreetMap. By the end of week two they had made real contributions to the global humanitarian map through the HOT Tasking Manager. For most of them it was the first time their work had ever left their laptop and gone somewhere that mattered.

Phase 2 — Map (Weeks 3 and 4)

This is where things got real. Participants trained in KoboToolbox and Chat Map, then on a Saturday in July they went to Kibera , smartphones out, GPS on, walking through Woodley and Sarang’ombe to validate a waste mapping study that had not been revisited since 2020. Then in Week 4 they came back to their desks and turned that field data into flood risk models of Nairobi subcounties.

Phase 3 — Build (Weeks 5 and 6)

Data alone does not change anything. Maps that no one can read do not either. Week 5 was about cartographic design and learning to speak to the people who hold the pen on decisions. Week 6 was group project time, teams-built climate vulnerability maps and policy briefs for their assigned areas.

Phase 4 — Present (Week 7)

Teams submitted and presented their climate vulnerability maps to a panel including Nairobi County representatives. Then they graduated.

The Numbers

19 participants from universities across Kenya

70,000+ edits contributed to OpenStreetMap

15 sessions delivered across 7 weeks

270 hours of training and field work

8 expert trainers from Kenya, Argentina, the Philippines, and the global HOT network

82 trash points validated in Kibera

6 group climate vulnerability projects produced for Nairobi County

The People

This programme was only possible because extraordinary people showed up.

Lucy Kago — UN Maps Community Engagement Ambassador, Kenya

Lucy facilitated the Week 1 climate issues session, the OSM practical, Kobo Toolbox training session and led the Kibera field day on Saturday 18 July.

Arnalie Vicario — UN Mappers Community Engagement Specialist.

Analie facilitated sessions on the UN Mappers programme and community engagement, bringing the global open mapping perspective to the cohort.

Ruth Kago — Learning Designer

Ruth designed the programme curriculum, shaping the structure and learning experience from the ground up.

Ivan Kipruto — Geospatial Developer.

Ivan facilitated the Week 1 QGIS introduction and geospatial foundations session.

Laura Mugeha — UN Mappers

Laura and Arnalie facilitated Week 2 She took the cohort through the world of humanitarian mapping. She introduced participants to the UN Mappers context, how open mapping supports humanitarian response globally, and walked them through their first structured mapping campaign. She connected our Nairobi classroom to the bigger picture of why this work matters beyond the map.

Silvina Maritano — UN Mappers Ambassador, Argentina

Silvina facilitated the Week 3 Chat Map session, joining virtually from Buenos Aires.

Mr Martin Wainaina Chege — Cartographer, DeKUT

Martin facilitated the Week 4 GIS analysis and flood risk modelling sessions.

Catherine Njore — Lead Cartographer, GeoMind Solutions

Ms.Catherine facilitated the Week 5 cartographic design and map storytelling sessions. Author of Mappy Maria, Kaunti za Kenya, and My Stern Mom, she left the cohort with one line that stuck: “The tools mean nothing if the map does not speak to the person holding it.”

The Kibera Field Team — Week 3

A special recognition goes here. Nicera Wanjiku and the Kibera Community mappers team opened Kibera’s doors to our participants. They did not just provide access ,they walked alongside the cohort through Woodley and Sarang’ombe, guiding the ground-truthing exercise with the authority of people who actually live the data they helped collect. That day would not have happened without them.

What Was Built

Group 1

Multi-Temporal Analysis of Vegetation Change in Ruai, Nairobi

Thirty years of NDVI data. One clear finding, Ruai is losing its green, and residential and industrial expansion is driving it.
Multi-Temporal Analysis of Vegetation Change in Ruai, Nairobi

Group 2

Tharaka Nithi Aridity Change 2003 to 2023

Six wards. Twenty years. A 39% fall in sorghum production. This group mapped a drought story that agriculture statistics alone could not tell.
Tharaka Nithi Aridity Change 2003 to 2023

Group 3

Analysis of Urban Heat Islands to Support Mitigation Measures

Nairobi is getting hotter and some parts of it are heating faster than others. This project mapped where, by how much, and what planting trees can actually do about it.
Analysis of Urban Heat Islands to Support Mitigation Measures

#Group 4

Mapping Greenspace Loss to Urban Development 2017 to 2026

A decade of watching green disappear under concrete and a look at where interventions are actually working.

Mapping Greenspace Loss to Urban Development 2017 to 2026

Group 5

Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Change for Karura Forest 2016 to 2026

One of Nairobi’s most important lungs, mapped over ten years. The hotspots of degradation are now visible.

Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Change for Karura Forest 2016 to 2026

Group 6

Suitability Analysis for Kibera Trash Points

Where should new waste collection points go in Kibera? This group built a GIS model to answer that question — spatially grounded, community-centred, and ready for use.

Our Partners

None of this was done alone.

IVIDES DATA -The Programme Sponsor.

Raquel Deziderio, CEO of IVIDES DATA, believed in this work before it had a single participant and funded it throughout. We called and she answered. None of this would have existed without her.

GeoMind Solutions —Technical partner

Thank you for availing two technical trainers, Ivan Kipruto and Catherine Njore. Your commitment to youth geospatial education showed in every session they delivered.

Geospatial Developers, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology — Technical Partner.

Technical Partner. Thank you for bringing your expertise to our cohort and holding Week 4 with the rigour it deserved.

Community mappers Kibera — Community Partner.

The reason the Kibera field day was possible and the reason it meant something.

UN Maps

The programme this entire externship is built within. The platform, the network, and the mission.

Nineteen students. Seven weeks. Seventy thousand edits on the global map. Six projects for Nairobi County. One field day in Kibera that nobody who was there will forget.

Nairobi Cohort 1. Done. 🗺️

Miercoles 26 de agosto de 2026. Se realizo: 1. Se agrega etiqueta de Condominio Tonsupa playa azul cerca de la calle Cervantes 2. Se agrega nombres de calles en Barrios vista al mar entre calles 3. Se corrige tramo de vía que corresponde a Av. Esmeraldas y no a Av. Atacames Desde el norte corresponde a Esmeralda y desde el sur corresponde a Atacames 4. Se agrega nombres de calles en las urbanizaciónes del Pacífico

En la página principal de OpenStreetMap osm.org en algunas ocasiones sale un cuadro en el borde superior derecho, con una imagen relacionada con OSM. En muchos casos es promocionando el evento State of the Map global. Aquí algunos ejemplos:

Lo bueno, es que no solo se puede usar para eso, sino que puede solicitar la promoción de otros eventos de OSM. Como los SotM regionales o locales por país, o eventos de los capítulos oficiales de cada zona.

Para tu evento tendrás artes preparadas, entonces alista una imagen de 350x350 píxeles, en formato PNG, que no tenga nada importante arriba a la derecha 60x60 porque ahí se sobrepone la X de cerrar el banner y que tenga buen contraste con los colores Gray80 (Chinese Silver) y gris espacial (Spanish Gray) que son los colores de la X.

Tan solo se necesita hacer un fork del repositorio http://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website en tu propia cuenta de GitHub.

Ya en tu cuenta buscas esta ruta: openstreetmap-website/tree/master/app/assets/images/banners y pones la imagen que promociona tu evento.

Después buscas este archivo: openstreetmap-website/blob/master/config/banners.yml Y agregas una nueva entrada al final, así:

sotm_col_2026:
  id: sotm_col_2026
  alt: State of the Map Colombia 2026
  link: https://www.osm.lat/colombia/sotm/sotm-col-2026/
  img: banners/sotm_col_2026.png
  srcset:
    - [banners/sotm_col_2026.png, 1x]
    - [banners/sotm_col_2026@2x.png, 2x]
  startdate: 2026-june-03
  enddate: 2026-july-03
  countries:
    - CO ---

• El nombre del bloque puede ser cualquiera, igual que el id.
• El alt es el texto que aparece como texto alterno. Ahí pones el nombre de tu evento.
• En link es un enlace a donde esté la descripción del evento, como la agenda, fechas, etc.
• En img pones la ruta de la imagen que pusiste en el paso anterior (bajo openstreetmap-website/tree/master/app/assets/images/banners).
• Puedes poner 2 imágenes, la segunda con doble resolución con respecto a la primera.
• startdate es la fecha de inicio de tu evento. Sigue las reglas de publicación. Los eventos locales solo se pueden poner con máximo de antelación un mes antes de comenzar.
• enddate normalmente es la fecha que comienza tu evento.
• countries es en dónde quieres que aparezca el banner. Si es un evento de tu país, pon el código ISO de 2 letras.

Después de haber agregado la o las imágenes, y modificado el archivo banners.yml, puedes hacer un pull request cuyo título indique en inglés cuándo debe comenzar a ser mostrado, y los mantenedores del repositorio oficial verificarán.

Aquí un ejemplo que hicimos para el state of the map Colombia 2026 https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/pull/7109

La documentación completa está en inglés en https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/blob/master/FAQ.md#how-do-i-create-a-banner-to-promote-my-openstreetmap-event

Y aquí las políticas para publicar https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/banner/

No esperes a último momento, y crea tu banner ya.

I have contributed several days but my contribution calendar has not been updated. I wonder what can I do about it?

Ein Zeitungsbeitrag zu einem neuen Defibrillator machte vor ein paar Monaten auf eine für mich erschreckende Tatsache aufmerksam: Weder für Gesamtdeutschland noch für viele Regionen gibt es eine auch nur einigermaßen vollständige Datenbank bzw. Karte zu Defibrillatoren. Keine ist wirklich umfassend erschlossen, keine bringt auch nur annähernd alle wünschenswerten Funktionen mit.

Allein für den hiesigen Landkreis, Roth (bei Nürnberg), gab bzw. gibt es mindestens fünf verschiedene Dienste: Neben großen Karten wie Defi-Kataster, Defi-Map und Björn-Steiger-Stiftung sowie OSM betreiben auch der Landkreis und verschiedene Kommunen eigene Karten.

Gleichzeitig ist es eine bittere Tatsache, dass nur etwa jeder zehnte Betroffene eines plötzlichen Herzstillstandes diesen außerhalb einer Klinik auch überlebt, wie zuletzt auch eine Pressemitteilung des Deutschen Reanimationsregisters einmal mehr unterstrich. Ein großer Teil der Menschen stirbt unerkannt (etwa im Schlaf oder allein zu Hause). Und in vielen weiteren Fällen stehen nicht ausreichend motivierte und fähige Ersthelfer zur Verfügung, um eine wirkungsvolle Herzdruckmassage zu leisten, wie auch Rettungssanitäter in Gesprächen unisono berichten. In all diesen Fällen hilft auch kein Defibrillator.

Und doch: In ungefähr jedem fünften Fall klappt jemand mit Herzstillstand in der Öffentlichkeit zusammen und beginnen ein oder zwei Personen schnell mit Herzdruckmassage. Ein dritter, vierter, fünfter … Helfer könnte ausschwärmen, um einen Defibrillator herbeizuschaffen, um das Herz in gewisser Weise zu resetten und die Überlebenswahrscheinlichkeit damit deutlich zu steigern. Eine Studie zum Frankfurter Flughafen, wo viele Menschen, potenzielle Ersthelfer und Defibrillatoren zusammenkommen, zeigt eine Überlebensrate von merklich über 50 Prozent. (Wobei freilich in diesem Umfeld ein Herzstillstand kaum unerkannt bleiben wird und auch Menschen mit an sich schlechter Prognose, beispielsweise aufgrund massiver Vorerkrankungen oder hohen Alters, hier sicher unterrepräsentiert sind.)

Von einigen lokalen und regionalen Beispielen abgesehen, liefert keine der großen Datenbanken bzw. Karten in Deutschland – auch nicht OSM – ein auch nur annähernd vollständiges und aktuelles Bild, wo sich die nächsten Defis befinden und ob diese zugänglich sind. Und wer als Helfer beispielsweise Google befragt, bekommt in der Regel eine unvollständige und zum Teil falsche Antwort. (Selbst Google nutzt selbst auf Nachfrage die in OSM vorhandenen Daten nicht.) Dazu kommen auch noch allerlei Begleitprobleme, etwa die schlechte Auffindbarkeit/Kennzeichnung vieler Geräte oder zeitlich stark eingeschränkte Zugänglichkeiten.

Das Fehlen einer einigermaßen koordinierten, nationalen Datenbank nehme ich, wie so vieles in unserem Land, als ziemliches Wursteln wahr, das offensichtlich Jahr für Jahr Menschenleben in merklicher Zahl kostet. Anstatt es einmal koordiniert “richtig” zu machen, wird mit gutem Willen, aber eben recht unkoordiniert nebeneinander her gearbeitet. Es würde mich nicht wundern, wenn wir allein aufgrund unzureichender Defi-Daten – im Internet, in den Datenbanken, in den Leitstellen – jedes Jahr in Deutschland Menschen im hohen drei- bis niedrigen vierstelligen Bereich verlieren oder es zu unnötig schweren Folgeschäden kommt.

Diese Gedanken lassen mir seit einem Vierteljahr keine Ruhe. Anhand von Recherchen in den anderen Datenbanken, im Internet, sozialen Medien und weiteren Hinweisen ist inzwischen ein großer Teil der bekannten Defis im hiesigen Landkreis erfasst. Die Defibrillator-Seite im OSM-Wiki wurde umfassend überarbeitet und wird weiter ergänzt. Dazu kommen noch ganz grundlegende Themen: etwa Gespräche mit den anderen großen Anbietern, ob nicht ein teilautomatisierter Abgleich möglich wäre oder grundlegende Überlegungen, um beispielsweise der Google-KI auf die Sprünge zu helfen.

Ich hoffe, dass all dies ein paar Beiträge zur Lösung der grundlegenden Probleme leistet. Neben der Auffindbarkeit hoffe ich, dass die durch die Daten bzw. Karte geschaffene Transparenz auch einige grundlegende Diskussionen vor Ort in Gang setzt: Wäre es beispielsweise in der Kreisstadt Roth nicht sinnvoller, statt mehrerer jeweils stark eingeschränkt zugänglicher Defis im Abstand von wenigen hundert Meter (Beispiel 1, Beispiel 2), diese besser zu verteilen und dabei auch rund um die Uhr zugänglich zu machen sowie deutlicher auszuschildern? Zumal viele dieser Geräte von ein und derselben öffentlichen Hand bzw. Stadtverwaltung finanziert werden?

Laut Tagwatch sind allein für Deutschland in OSM nunmehr rund 20.000 Defibrillatoren erfasst. Die Datenbank ist damit in gewisser Weise der zweitgrößte Anbieter für Deutschland. Der Bestand wächst exponentiell, mit inzwischen über 500 neuen Einträgen pro Monat. Erste Landkreise, Kommunen und auch Rettungsleitstellen nutzen die Daten. Der Landkreis Roth verweist seit kurzem auf seiner Defi-Seite rein auf OSM (OpenAEDMap) und trägt auch selbst dazu bei.

Es ist manches erreicht, aber es bleibt noch viel zu tun.

This is a generated report — written by the same agentic (Claude Code) workflow that made the edits described below, summarizing what it did. Numbers and links were pulled directly from the upload logs and cross-checked against the OSM API; flag anything that looks off.

Background

Belgium’s N-roads (national secondary roads) are tagged with ref=N<number> on the highway ways themselves, but many didn’t have a corresponding type=route / route=road / network=BE:N-road relation tying their segments together. This picks up from an earlier automated pass that got questioned on this forum — see the discussion here — and folds in the feedback from that thread.

Approach

1. Find missing refs. Query Overpass for every distinct ref value on Belgian highway ways matching the N-road pattern (N + 1-3 digits + optional letter suffix), and diff that against the refs that already have a BE:N-road route relation. Refs that look like mistagged local/vicinal road codes rather than real N-road signage (e.g. N027076, N617011, N836011) were excluded rather than turned into relations — 25 of those, left for manual review.
2. Order by connectivity, not Overpass return order. For each missing ref, fetch its matching ways and walk their shared endpoint nodes into actual connected chains, rather than leaving members in whatever order the query happened to return. This was the main fix from the community feedback — earlier relations all carried the same boilerplate fixme regardless of whether there was an actual problem.
3. Only flag real gaps. A relation only gets a fixme tag when its ways form more than one disconnected group — a genuine break in the route, worth a human look. Ordinary branching (slip lanes, dual-carriageway junctions, roundabout approaches) no longer trips a false-positive fixme.
4. One relation per changeset. Every relation is its own changeset, tagged created_by=make-route-rels, so each is individually reviewable/revertable.
5. Only ever create/reorder relations — never touch the underlying way tags.

Ran as a fully agentic workflow (Claude Code + an Overpass MCP + a small Node/OAuth2 upload tool), in batches of ~50 refs at a time, checked in on as it went.

Results

• 886 relations touched: 873 newly created (all the missing refs found), plus 13 retrofitted with proper connectivity ordering (N13, and the N151–N200 batch from the earlier round that had the same boilerplate-fixme problem).
• 34,426 total way-members across all of them.
• 477 relations (54%) came back as a single clean connected chain — no fixme needed.
• 409 relations (46%) have genuine gaps — 2 to 15 disconnected segments — now flagged with a specific “N disconnected segments” fixme instead of hidden or blanket-tagged.

Gap distribution

Largest relations

Full list

All 886 relations, with member count and gap count, in one table:

The 25 excluded refs

These didn’t get a route relation, since they don’t look like real N-road signage. Checked each one’s actual ways — most turn out to be *_link ways (motorway/trunk/secondary/tertiary/primary link roads, i.e. interchange ramps and slip roads), which points to these being junction/ramp numbering codes rather than N-road refs — plausibly something like exit or ramp identifiers that happen to start with “N” and a number, coincidentally matching the N-road regex. One (N030d) is a tertiary road with normal street names (Rue Georges Piret, Rue de l’Enseignement, Rue du Rivage) across several unrelated ways, which looks like a plain tagging mistake instead. N905011 is odder still — it’s a secondary way (not a link) whose name tag is literally also N905011.

What’s next

The ~409 flagged gaps are genuine candidates for review — either the ref really is discontinuous on the ground, or there’s a missing/mistagged way segment somewhere in between. Not planning to auto-fix these; they’re flagged so a human (possibly with local knowledge) can look. The 25 excluded refs above are also open for anyone who wants to dig into what they actually represent and fix the underlying way tags.

Feedback welcome, here or in the original thread.

כאן צירוף מקרים מעניין. המערה נמצאת בשכונת רמת אשכול. אז היינו מצפים שיש קשר בין השמות. אבל לא! השכונה נקראת על שם לוי אשכול ראש הממשלה השלישי של מדינת ישראל. ואילו המערה נקראת על שם עיטורים שעליה, בצורת אשכולות ענבים.

הנקודה לא מצויינת במפות אחרות (גם לא במפה של טרגט, אני לא יודע מה עם כרטא). אבל יש שילוט ברחוב ים סוף וגם מוצג שלט עם הודעה בסגנון “חפשו את המטמון”.

רציתי רק להוסיף שביל, אבל העורך מתלונן שהשביל חוצה בניין. הנתונים על רקע העורך היו מתצלומים של בינג. אז אמרתי, במקום להזיז את השביל, אנסה להזיז את הבניינים. כי באמת גם אם זה טעות, מה זה כבר בשביל ניווט בסיסי עוד כמה מטרים. (אני לא מניח שהמפה משמשת מהנדסים ואדריכלים שאמורים לסמוך על הקואורדינטות המדוייקות כאן…). אחר כך ראיתי שהתצלומים אינם שווים בכל המקורות, אבל גם לפי מקורות אחרים, מה שעשיתי הוא תיקון! מעניין מה גרם למי ששרטט את הקווים לסטות בכל הרחוב. אולי יש מקורות מוסמכים יותר שאני לא מכיר? (לי אין מכשיר GPS) אבל בשאר האיזור לא היה כך.

Over the past few days, I’ve mapped several major and minor roads; some recently opened to traffic, others set to open in the coming weeks.

There is a quiet satisfaction in laying down those initial traces, knowing that countless people will rely on that geometry for decades to come. OpenStreetMap has always been my favorite way to spend spare time: shaping a digital layer that creates tangible, real-world value. While mapping can sometimes feel like a solitary or thankless effort, seeing raw satellite imagery turn into living infrastructure that guides everyday movement makes it genuinely rewarding.

Mapping on OSM is always time well spent.

Found by Wermak - Exit on A30 - Rheine-Kanalhafen - supposed to be only closed until May, stayed with "access=no" a little longer.

Now its fixed again thanks to changeset 187937745

Casale Cima

Santa Cristina fraz. di Borgomanero (NO) 28021, Piemonte

24/08/2026, San Bartolomeo

E’ il santo patrono di Borgomanero e Santa Cristina, essendo che si festeggia il 24 luglio, non dovrebbe c’entrare niente, invece le pochissime attività e servizi pubblici sono chiusi anche oggi.

C’è da dire che ho apportato un po’ di modifiche alla mappa del territorio locale, oggi. Munita di mappali del Catasto di Novara, comune di Borgomanero, Foglio: 21 e Particelle: varie (es.: 191 - 193-194, etc.) ed in territorio di Gattico-Veruno, Foglio: 1, sono riuscita a ricollocare esattamente i confini dei nostri terreni, discendenti dei fratelli Valsesia Angelo Maria e Carlo, i quali avevano acquistato l’intera cascina, con tutto il territorio annesso, nel secolo scorso, dai conti Busti, a loro volta eredi dei nobili possidenti Morbio-Zapelono. Il conte Paolo Busti, a fine 1800, fece costruire le “case masserezze” per i fittavoli che lavoravano le terre, area denominata poi “La Moretta”. Casa mia era detta la Ca’ Nova, poiché era l’unica non annessa al casale vero e proprio, essendo infatti una casa indipendente con giardino, costruita intorno al 1960 e non risalente al 1700 come gli edifici adibiti ad abitazione e quelli usati come stalle e fienili del Casale Cima, originariamente chiamato Sopramonte, per il rilievo su cui si colloca.

Thanks to the work of several contributors, the usage of name:fur tag in OpenStreetMap is constantly increasing and there is now a pretty good coverage of Friuli region at place level (and even down to street-level in some parts of it). This tag represents a name in Friulian language, mainly spoken in north-east Italy.

This tag is visible today in a dedicated rendering (which I created) on mapefurlane.eu and in the various multi-lingual maps like the great Americana.

Apart from the maps, another interesting use of this data is to have lists of toponyms. For Friulian language, there is already a list provided by an official organization, but besides not being very detailed, it’s also quite static (PDF). So I wanted to have something better than that by leveraging all OSM data.

My main goal then was to create a searchable web page that could show the toponyms of Friuli historical region, not only in Friulian, but also in all recognized languages, i.e. Friulian, Italian, German and Slovenian. The list should be updated automatically from OSM data.

What is DuckDB

DuckDB is an open source in-process SQL OLAP database management system. It has a builtin spatial extension that can import PBF files which can be then queried using SQL syntax.

Using DuckDB with OpenStreetmap

Since I already had a daily pipeline (GitHub Action) to update Mape Furlane that used a PBF extract as input, integrating DuckDB there was immediate: just adding the single binary, loading the PBF and then all the data was available for querying.

From that I added a few SQL queries visible on https://github.com/andreadecorte/mapefurlane/tree/main/scripts/duckdb that generate 2 output files: 1. all places with name:fur tag and all the other name: tags (name:it, name:de, name:sl) 2. all places in the area without a name:fur tag with a Markdown output (to help increase the coverage)

The output of the first query is stored in a CSV file which is then displayed in a sortable and searchable table visible here. This is as far as I know the best multi-lingual list available online for toponyms in Friuli region. And as mentioned, it has daily updates from OSM data. As of August 2026, it shows 2370 place names.

Conclusion

This is just scratching the surface with a simple example, but DuckDB is really an awesome tool that can be used to analyze OSM data without complicated setups. Everything described in this entry is available in https://github.com/andreadecorte/mapefurlane if you are interested in digging deeper.