OpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 17
Hi to all
Nice service
19 hours agoNice service
19 hours ago
OpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 17Hi to allNice service 19 hours agoNice service 19 hours agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 16TestTest a day agoTest a day agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 15Mapping Bell Island #2: Midway PointAt this point I’ve officially mapped out half of Bell Island, Newfoundland. Although I’m geographically halfway, the southern portion which I’ve mapped out is much less geospatially dense than the northern portion, so I’d estimate I’m about a third of the way through this project. The ID Editor has been very intuitive so far in this process, and I have also learned a bit on how to use th 2 days ago At this point I’ve officially mapped out half of Bell Island, Newfoundland. Although I’m geographically halfway, the southern portion which I’ve mapped out is much less geospatially dense than the northern portion, so I’d estimate I’m about a third of the way through this project. The ID Editor has been very intuitive so far in this process, and I have also learned a bit on how to use the JOSM editor for more specific geospatial processes. One thing I have yet to figure out is the display order of overlapping features, however I believe this is tweaked through the relations mechanic in the ID editor. So far the minimal existing geospatial data that is present in this area has been accurate for the most part, with only slight alterations required to match the current satellite data that I’m basing my new features off of. That being said, quality varies, and it’s clear that some of these features were one-off additions by likely inexperienced users. I think I’ll be able to keep up this mapping pace for the foreseeable future, so this project will hopefully get within the mopping up phase within a couple of months. 2 days agoTim Waters - Apr 15Whoots updates: Some changes, and add new PHP version
Whoots is a simple tile server proxy for WMS servers. WMS > TMS. So if you have an application that only works with ZYX Google-style tiles and all you have is a WMS server, you can use it to re-route the request. It was created way back in 2010! Here’s the post announcing it: WhooTS […]
2 days ago
Whoots is a simple tile server proxy for WMS servers. WMS > TMS. So if you have an application that only works with ZYX Google-style tiles and all you have is a WMS server, you can use it to re-route the request. ♦It was created way back in 2010! Here’s the post announcing it: WhooTS a small wms to tile proxy – WMS in Potlatch There’s been few recent changes.
The code is at github.com/timwaters/whoots 2 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 15MappingI have mapped out different areas in Kilmeaden and Portlaw. Quite a bit of these areas were already mapped out so I modified and updated many roads and buildings. 2 days agoI have mapped out different areas in Kilmeaden and Portlaw. Quite a bit of these areas were already mapped out so I modified and updated many roads and buildings. 2 days agoosm2pgsql - Apr 13Release 2.1.1
This is a bug fix release which contains the following:
4 days ago
This is a bug fix release which contains the following:
OpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 14Tunnels without specificationOverpass turbo code overpass-turbo.eu/?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%28%0A%20%20way%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%7E%22%5Eyes%24%7C%5Eculvert%24%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22culvert%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%20%20relation%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%7E%22%5Eyes%24%7C%5Eculvert%24%22%5D%0A%20%2 4 days ago Overpass turbo code overpass-turbo.eu/?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%28%0A%20%20way%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%7E%22%5Eyes%24%7C%5Eculvert%24%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22culvert%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%20%20relation%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%22tunnel%22%7E%22%5Eyes%24%7C%5Eculvert%24%22%5D%0A%20%20%20%20%5B%21%22culvert%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=37.34314%3B-121.941376%3B11 4 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 13My placeZamboanga city 4 days agoZamboanga city 4 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 13Updating railway stations tagging diagramsI’ve suggested an updated version of the diagrams explaining the tagging of railway stations. The goal is to make them simpler to understand, especially for newcomers, without losing the core meaning. There have already been some feedback and interesting ideas for further improvements. ♦ I invite you to join the discussion — your input would be highly appreciated! 5 days agoI’ve suggested an updated version of the diagrams explaining the tagging of railway stations. The goal is to make them simpler to understand, especially for newcomers, without losing the core meaning. There have already been some feedback and interesting ideas for further improvements. ♦ I invite you to join the discussion — your input would be highly appreciated! 5 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 12New Opportunity to join HOT Board of DirectorsGreetings OSM community, The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) adapted its governance structure last year to open seats on the Board of Directors for non-members. We are now recruiting two (2) Appointed Directors. Applications are open until April 24, 2025 — visit HOT Careers for more information and to apply. The main reason for introducing Appointed (as opposed to solely El 6 days ago Greetings OSM community, The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) adapted its governance structure last year to open seats on the Board of Directors for non-members. We are now recruiting two (2) Appointed Directors. Applications are open until April 24, 2025 — visit HOT Careers for more information and to apply. The main reason for introducing Appointed (as opposed to solely Elected) Directors is to bring in people—and skill sets—that are not currently in abundance within our voting membership. Of course, a passion for geospatial technology and data in humanitarian, disaster, and climate response is still desirable. However, we are particularly seeking individuals with expertise in financial sustainability, diversified fundraising, and innovative hybrid business models. Ideal candidates will have a proven track record of leading impact-driven organizations through strategic growth and transformation. As the current Secretary of the HOT Board of Directors, I’m happy to answer any questions about this opportunity. We’re excited to welcome new perspectives and strengths that complement our existing Board, which brings deep OSM/HOT history and expertise. Best regards, =Russ Use Russell.Deffner (at) hotosm (dot) org if you’d like to email inquiries related to this position. 6 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 11Jack Horner pub last Tuesday. India, Apps & NotesOn Tuesday we had a London pub meet-up. We are still doing this every couple of months. I stopped writing diary entries about them, but for some reason (for your enjoyment!) I’ve decided to write about this one. So here goes: We were at the Jack Horner Pub. It’s becoming the default choice in this bit of London where previously I would’ve chosen the Blue Posts (Sam Smiths pub. I still qu 6 days ago On Tuesday we had a London pub meet-up. We are still doing this every couple of months. I stopped writing diary entries about them, but for some reason (for your enjoyment!) I’ve decided to write about this one. So here goes: We were at the Jack Horner Pub. It’s becoming the default choice in this bit of London where previously I would’ve chosen the Blue Posts (Sam Smiths pub. I still quite like them but there are reasons not to). Meanwhile Fullers make it quite easy to book a table on their website(s), so in uncharacteristically organised fashion, I booked table! but characteristically I arrived quite late. I only booked for 8 people, and that turned out to be about right on this occasion. A small intimate gathering. We had along Json Singh from india, who just moved to London. I like the way he’s named himself after a file format (I was forgetting to ask him about that). So we talked to him about the state of mapping in India. It sounds like it’s progressing well with lively communities in the cities, although sometimes struggling to build formal organisations, partly because it’s a little bit illegal there, so has to remain a bit underground. That’s mostly because of tensions around showing of borders. I wonder whether vector tiles will soon allow us to do the same slight-of-hand trick that other map providers do, showing different border positions depending on your IP address location. It’s kind of comical how well that trick seems to work to take the heat off. Another thing which is daft, is that there’s no official openly published data on the border position which officially must be shown on maps of india. That would be a basic way of helping assert a particular desired border position. But no. ♦ We talked about some mapping apps. Derick did a little demo of everydoor, including how to add a new POI. I’ve never done that. Personally I didn’t really adopt everydoor yet. Initially I imagined it didn’t add much value for experienced mappers who know how to use the Vespucci app. But others started raving about it. I think I’m starting to get why. A while ago I installed the OSMfocus android app, and recently found myself using that while looking along dense shopping street a bit like in this video. To my surprise I realised that this was better for checking shops in maintenance-mode. Where previously I was fiddling around with Vespucci, going in and out of each POIs/shop outline to check the tags on it. The OSMFocus app has a “show all the data, all at once” approach. It has crosshairs in the middle of the screen, and the data gets listed which is nearest to that. Everydoor is the same! And it looks like Vespucci recently redesigned the default interface to have an everydoor-like list. In a way though OSMfocus takes the idea to the logical extreme. It’s kind of crude, but it uses a rainbow of colour and even connecting lines (easier than numbers) to help you tell which list of tags is for which shop. In the pub I was floating the idea of a “Notathon” mapping party. I’ve been looking at notes (Notes) in central London recently. Obviously there’s a lot of them (map) (Did anyone make a map that show’s more than 1000 on the screen at once?), but the thing I find interesting, is that the notes which remain open have been weeded out pretty well. The spam gets removed. The nonsensical ones get removed. The ones which can be resolved by knowing how to edit, or by doing a bit of research, tend to get resolved, and so actually what we’re left with is something we need to survey. It’s surprisingly good quality information in a way. Or so my argument went. Derick was not convinced. In the pub we used my Notes KML downloader tool for OrganicMaps to take a look at notes near where he lives in Kilburn. I think this weeding out of useless notes hasn’t been as thorough outside the centre, because he did find some cruft, although it was mostly stuff that he was irritated by because he had re-mapped the thing himself already (So the note was not wrong, but not up-to-date with local mapping he was already on top of). But that’s easy for him to fix quickly, and satisfying no? Derick was not convinced, but personally I’ve been looking for a long time at pushing back my “notes free radius” from where I live, and I think we need to start doing this around the pubs we drink in. Or maybe a good old cake diagram for a bigger note fixing session! I don’t have a date to announce just yet. If we decide on a notathon, or some other kind of event, I will put details on the London page and on OSMLondon mastodon. 6 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 11AktualisierungWie lange dauert es bis Anmerkungen und fehlermeldungen bearbeitet werden? 7 days agoWie lange dauert es bis Anmerkungen und fehlermeldungen bearbeitet werden? 7 days ago |
OpenStreetMap Blog - Apr 16Announcing SotM 2025 Travel Grant Programme
The State of the Map Organizing Committee provides a Travel Grant Programme (TGP) to facilitate accessibility and diversity at the global SotM 2025 Conference, which will happen in Manila, Philippines, October 3-5.Taking into consideration the success of last year, the programme will also dedicate a portion of the budget available to support remote attendance (e.g. […]
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The State of the Map Organizing Committee provides a Travel Grant Programme (TGP) to facilitate accessibility and diversity at the global SotM 2025 Conference, which will happen in Manila, Philippines, October 3-5. The call for applications to the Travel Grant Programme will be open until May 16,12:00 UTC. It is fundamental to read all the information on this page before submitting an application. For applicantsThis section sets out the benefits of a Travel Grant to attend SotM 2025 and the process and criteria by which applicants will be selected. The TGP is administered by the State of the Map Organizing Committee. Travel GrantsThe Travel Grant will include a full conference ticket and a lump-sum contribution towards travel, accommodation and other expenses. There will be five (5) different sizes of travel grants available: Category Grant Size Likely Used For Expected number of winners A £ 20 Applicants from the Manila metro area 5 B £ 215 Applicants from Philippines and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia or Singapore) 10 C £ 675 Applicants from other Asian countries 8 D £ 750 Applicants from other countries classified as High-income economies based on World Bank country rating by income 5 E £ 1000 Applicants from other countries classified as Upper-middle-income economies or lower based on World Bank country rating by income 8 The size and number of grants may be adjusted at the discretion of the Organizing Committee, depending upon the level of funding raised and the number of applications received. Applicants will only be able to apply for one size of travel grant, and they should apply for the grant depending on their country of residence. The World Bank rating is available online Anyone applying for more than one grant will be excluded from the application process. For categories C, D and E, a maximum of 2 winners will be chosen for each country of origin. Online Attendance Support GrantFor those interested in attending the conference remotely but with limited internet connectivity, smaller grants will be made available to subsidise the cost of purchasing mobile data passes. The size of each grant will vary depending on the country and mobile data packages available, but it’s expected not to exceed £ 30. With an estimated 1GB per hour of streaming videos in HD quality (720p), it’s expected that a maximum of 40GB will be sufficient to cover the entire conference. Arrangements will be made with grant recipients to purchase the data packages directly or to transfer the amount needed via mobile money. CriteriaIn order to guarantee a transparent and fair allocation of funds, the travel grant programme uses a points system for ranking applications. Points are awarded if applicants match specific criteria. After the application phase is over, all applicants are ranked by points, and the applicants with the most points will receive funding. Please note that the travel grant programme aims to enhance diversity at the conference. We might reserve a few programme spots for people with unique and outstanding applications. However, most programme spots will solely be determined by the point ranking. To ensure the participation of OSM contributors who have not attended any in-person SOTM conference, the in-person Travel Grant winners of the previous two SOTM (SOTM 2024 Nairobi and SOTM 2022 Firenze) will not be eligible for this Travel Grant. Furthermore, once the ranking has been drawn up and the scholarships assigned based on it. The next two people for each grant size will be informed of their position. If one of the first winners communicates by the 22nd of August that he will not be able to participate, the scholarship will be provided to the people who are in this second ranking. However, those people will receive a free online ticket to attend the conference virtually. Moreover, if they will be able to attend the conference in person, they could receive a free ticket if they provide support volunteering. Applicants receive points for the following criteria: NationalityThe allocation of points is based on the World Bank country rating by income.
The allocation of points is based on the World Bank country rating by income.
In order to create a more diverse community, women and applicants from other underrepresented groups will receive 2 points. The minority criteria will be considered with respect to the other candidates of the same category. StudentsStudents, including PhD students, receive 1 point. You may be asked to provide evidence of enrollment. First State of the MapApplicants who attend SotM for the first time receive 1 point. Amount required OpenStreetMap and Community Present the most valuable experience, mapping activities, or community moment that describes the travel grant experience in the OpenStreetMap world. This is not the call for participation; the call will be open, and there will be the possibility to submit talks and workshops. So, this is not an instrument to present talks; you are invited to participate in the call for talks and workshops if you would like to present your activities. The travel grant winners will be asked to volunteer for a time proportional to 1/3 or less of the conference length, depending on the number of other volunteers. Indicate the roles that you are confident to do: Live Video Cutting, Remote/Pre-Recorded Talk Assistant, Session Assistant and Venueless Assistant (only for remote grants). For more detailed info on the roles, see the wiki pages of volunteers for SotM 2024. No points. PaymentYou must be able to fund the direct costs of your travel to SotM and be in possession of a valid passport and entry visa and other documents (for example, vaccinations). Successful applicants will receive a conference pass and become eligible for reimbursement of expenses up to the limit of the travel grant when they check in at the conference registration desk. Reimbursement of expenses will be by electronic means (details to be advised). Reimbursement may take up to two months after the conference date, provided that the travel grantee has submitted all the necessary information before the conference commences. Only in the case of demonstrated needs and exceptional cases will the travel grant amount be provided in advance or used to cover specific travel costs directly. How to ApplyIf you wish to be considered for a SotM travel grant, please fill out the application form. All data will be held confidential and only used for assessing TGP applications. Please ensure that the email address that you provide is regularly monitored, as the selection committee may wish to seek clarification of responses. If no replies have been provided to requests via mail for the Travel Grant Committee within 5 days, the Travel Grant will be removed from you and assigned to the next applicants in the ranking. Applications must be received by the May 16 at 12:00 UTC. The selection committee will aim to notify recipients of grants by the May 31. Supporting the Travel Grant ProgrammeThe travel grant programme is funded through the State of the Map Sponsors. The State of the Map Working Group The State of the Map conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap, organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. Our volunteer Working Groups and small core staff work to support the OpenStreetMap project. Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation for just £15 a year or for free if you are an active OpenStreetMap contributor. OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an international project to create a free map of the world. To do so, we, thousands of volunteers, collect data about roads, railways, rivers, forests, buildings and a lot more worldwide. Our map data can be downloaded for free by everyone and used for any purpose – including commercial usage. It is possible to produce your own maps which highlight certain features, to calculate routes etc. OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps which can be very quickly, or easily, updated. a day agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 15Address nodesOverpass turbo overpass-turbo.eu/?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%2F%2F%20Gather%20results%20within%20the%20current%20map%20view%0A%28%0A%20%20node%5B%7E%22%5Eaddr%3A.*%22%7E%22.%22%5D%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%29%3B%0A%2F%2F%20Print%20results%0Aout%20body%3B%0A%3E%3B%0Aout%20skel%20qt%3B&C=37.317027%3B-122.072031%3B16 2 days agoOverpass turbo overpass-turbo.eu/?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%2F%2F%20Gather%20results%20within%20the%20current%20map%20view%0A%28%0A%20%20node%5B%7E%22%5Eaddr%3A.*%22%7E%22.%22%5D%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%29%3B%0A%2F%2F%20Print%20results%0Aout%20body%3B%0A%3E%3B%0Aout%20skel%20qt%3B&C=37.317027%3B-122.072031%3B16 2 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 15Belfast, Maine - Updates
Belfast Maine - Little City by the Water
Hello! I have just started getting into OpenStreetMap in the last few days, I absolutely love the way it works, and love to map out different towns. I lived in the town of Belfast, Maine for many years and visit this town so it holds a special part to me. I’ve been adding all the “Downtown” houses that aren’t mapped, they are just Address points, 2 days ago
Belfast Maine - Little City by the Water
Hello! I have just started getting into OpenStreetMap in the last few days, I absolutely love the way it works, and love to map out different towns. I lived in the town of Belfast, Maine for many years and visit this town so it holds a special part to me. I’ve been adding all the “Downtown” houses that aren’t mapped, they are just Address points, and different new Houses, roads ETC. I just found out last night that I can actually MERGE address points with areas for houses so it’ll speed the process up a lot for me. 2 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 15MappingI have mapped out multiple different areas in Kilmeaden, Portlaw and Kilmacthomas. Quite a bit of these areas were already mapped out so I modified and updated many roads and buildings. 2 days agoI have mapped out multiple different areas in Kilmeaden, Portlaw and Kilmacthomas. Quite a bit of these areas were already mapped out so I modified and updated many roads and buildings. 2 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 15Bulawayo, Khumalo project
Khumalo 01
Overview
This is inspired by laambda19’s diary post on their mapping project, I want to document my work the same way with clear examples of before and after, adding more detail to the Bulawayo map. Aerial photography and local knowledge are the main driving force in mapping. There is scarce information available online, what little there is often requires a Facebook account. Ch 2 days ago
Khumalo 01
Overview
This is inspired by laambda19’s diary post on their mapping project, I want to document my work the same way with clear examples of before and after, adding more detail to the Bulawayo map. Aerial photography and local knowledge are the main driving force in mapping. There is scarce information available online, what little there is often requires a Facebook account. Changes made*I added colour to buildings and roofs before & afterNothing to see on Carto renderers but in simple3D renderers 2 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 14Iglesia Santa AnaTemplo parroquial 4 days agoTemplo parroquial 4 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 13Waterways without IntermittentThis is a overpass turbo script overpass-turbo.eu/index.html?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%2F%2F%20fetch%20waterways%20excluding%20those%20tagged%20intermittent%3Dyes%0A%28%0A%20%20way%5B%22waterway%22%7E%22%5E%28stream%7Cditch%7Criver%7Cdrain%7Ccanal%7Cyes%29%24%22%5D%5B%21%22intermittent%22%5D%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%20%20relation%5B%22waterway%22%7E%22%5E%28stream%7Cditch%7C 4 days ago This is a overpass turbo script overpass-turbo.eu/index.html?Q=%5Bout%3Ajson%5D%5Btimeout%3A25%5D%3B%0A%2F%2F%20fetch%20waterways%20excluding%20those%20tagged%20intermittent%3Dyes%0A%28%0A%20%20way%5B%22waterway%22%7E%22%5E%28stream%7Cditch%7Criver%7Cdrain%7Ccanal%7Cyes%29%24%22%5D%5B%21%22intermittent%22%5D%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%20%20relation%5B%22waterway%22%7E%22%5E%28stream%7Cditch%7Criver%7Cdrain%7Ccanal%7Cyes%29%24%22%5D%5B%21%22intermittent%22%5D%28%7B%7Bbbox%7D%7D%29%3B%0A%29%3B%0Aout%20body%3B%0A%3E%3B%0Aout%20skel%20qt%3B 4 days agoweeklyOSM - Apr 13weeklyOSM 768
03/04/2025-09/04/2025 [1] Customised route planning with Bikerouter | © bikerouter © Margrit Höhme | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Mapping Please cast your vote in the proposal to map grab rails in (wheelchair accessible) toilets. Comments are being requested for these proposals: A tagging scheme proposal for windmills and watermills that aims to clarify the…
Continue read 4 days ago 03/04/2025-09/04/2025 ♦ [1] Customised route planning with Bikerouter | © bikerouter © Margrit Höhme | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors Mapping
Note: This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, Raquel Dezidério Souto, SeverinGeo, Strubbl, TheSwavu, YoViajo, barefootstache, derFred. OpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 12Yanzi (燕子镇) Mapping Project
Yanzi (燕子镇) Mapping Project
Overview
This is the first entry in a series of Chineese towns I plan to map out. Considering the lack of mapping detail in the vast majority of China, I plan to add detail to those places which lack even the basics, such as Yanzi. At first, only the location of the town was mapped as well as a VERY rough outline of the residential landuse. If there 5 days ago
Yanzi (燕子镇) Mapping Project
Overview
This is the first entry in a series of Chineese towns I plan to map out. Considering the lack of mapping detail in the vast majority of China, I plan to add detail to those places which lack even the basics, such as Yanzi. At first, only the location of the town was mapped as well as a VERY rough outline of the residential landuse. If there are any mistakes, please tell me! I tried my best to overcome the language barrier Changes Made
♦ After♦ Stats (12.04.25)
OpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 11NaCover 6 days agoCover 6 days agoOpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 11Sorting into ChunksThis blog post is part of a series of blog posts about the new OSM file format “OMA”. This is the sixth post. At the end of the article you’ll find links to the other blog entries.
The Oma file format uses a set of bounding boxes to sort the data geographically. The default set used by the converter consists of three grids. The Default Grids The fir 6 days ago This blog post is part of a series of blog posts about the new OSM file format “OMA”. This is the sixth post. At the end of the article you’ll find links to the other blog entries.
The Oma file format uses a set of bounding boxes to sort the data geographically. The default set used by the converter consists of three grids. The Default Grids The first grid uses a mesh size of 1 degree in both directions between -45° and 45° latitude. Towards the poles the mesh size increases and finally the area around the poles is put into a single bounding box. The grid looks like this: ♦ The second grid uses a mesh size of 10 degrees in both directions between -80° and 80° latitude. It does not include the areas around the poles. This grid looks like this: ♦ The third grid isn’t really a grid, it’s just the whole world as one big bounding box.1 Data Distribution in Bounding Boxes In practice, data isn’t evenly distributed around the globe. Large areas are covered by oceans where there is little data distribution, while other regions are densely covered. Using identical bounding boxes everywhere results in a few large chunks and many small chunks. It would be better to balance the sizes. This would speed up data access. As an example, look at the distribution of nodes in Germany: ♦ The Ruhr area (centre, left) contains about 10% of Germany’s nodes. And the area around Berlin contains another 8.6%, while for example the area just north of Berlin contains only 1.4%. Let’s see, how this affects the search times: I choose the street Bienenweg in Neubrandenburg for comparison. The search for this street takes 2.5 seconds. Compare this with the 4.7 seconds needed for the Viktorstraße in Wuppertal. Improving Bounding Boxes But how do you get a better set of bounding boxes? I tried some ad hoc algorithms, but could not find out, what really makes a good set of bounding boxes. Probably, this question could make a good master thesis (or even a PhD thesis). Anyway, I’d like to take a quick look at what I tried with data distribution: The first idea led to this set of bounding boxes: ♦ The nodes are still not evenly distributed, but the differences are somewhat smaller. Searching for the Bienenweg now takes 2.8 seconds, while searching for Viktorstraße has been reduced to 2.9 seconds. On average, this seems to be at least some improvement. I wondered if overlapping bounding boxes were a problem. So I tried the same thing with (almost) non-overlapping bounding boxes. The result looks like this: ♦ The distribution looks similar to before. Unfortunately, the search times are worse: still 2.8 seconds for the Bienenweg, but 3.5 seconds for the Viktorstraße. I also tried to increase the number of bounding boxes. It seems that this improves the results slightly. Unfortunately, the more bounding boxes you use, the more difficult it is to create the Oma files (crashes happen more often). I fear that the algorithm for sorting data into bounding boxes will have to be improved before further experiments can be made with this. In one of the comments to an earlier post Geonick pointed out a discussion about geoparquet.2 In that discussion, GitHub user jiayuasu claims that an algorithm called KDB tree is optimal for geoparquet. I have not had the time to look into this, but it might also be a good choice for OMA files as well. To summarise: The question of what makes a good set of bounding boxes for OMA files is still open. See also
OpenStreetMap User's Diaries - Apr 11Verschiedene Auszüge“Before 2011, if you asked most cartography professionals, they’d say OpenStreetMap was a toy. The turning point for me was a photo of a firefighter from a search and rescue team using a handheld GPS device—they used OSM maps to coordinate efforts after the Haiti earthquake.” “During natural disasters like Haiti in 2011, nearby countries send search and rescue teams, and organizations li 7 days ago “Before 2011, if you asked most cartography professionals, they’d say OpenStreetMap was a toy. The turning point for me was a photo of a firefighter from a search and rescue team using a handheld GPS device—they used OSM maps to coordinate efforts after the Haiti earthquake.” “During natural disasters like Haiti in 2011, nearby countries send search and rescue teams, and organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross deploy. They requested a map to set up a field hospital. The Haitian government was basically like, “What? How?” So you go to Google Maps, right? Like anyone would. But there was nothing—Haiti had no commercial map coverage at the time. Even if there had been, it was likely destroyed. Then we showed up—just four OSM geeks—because nobody else cared about geographic data. With the help of 500 volunteers with iPhones, we mapped the entire street network of Port-au-Prince in a week. That map allowed NGOs to move through the city and save lives. It was a turning point—after that, the World Health Organization started listening to us.” Flyers (April 3, 2025) “Expertos en cartografía: OpenStreetMap es la Wikipedia de los mapas” Medio Multimedia “So we talked to him about the state of mapping in India. It sounds like it’s progressing well with lively communities in the cities, although sometimes struggling to build formal organisations, partly because it’s a little bit illegal there, so has to remain a bit underground. That’s mostly because of tensions around showing of borders. I wonder whether vector tiles will soon allow us to do the same slight-of-hand trick that other map providers do, showing different border positions depending on your IP address location. It’s kind of comical how well that trick seems to work to take the heat off. Another thing which is daft, is that there’s no official openly published data on the border position which officially must be shown on maps of India. That would be a basic way of helping assert a particular desired border position. But no.” Harry Wood (April 11th, 2025) “Jack Horner pub last Tuesday. India, Apps & Notes” OpenStreetMap 7 days ago |