weeklyOSM 756

09/01/2025-15/01/2025

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Live Maps Bandung Easy Mobility [1] | © Bandung City Government | map data © OpenStreetMap Contributors

Mapping

  • Requests for comments have been made on these proposals:
    • catenary_mast:*=* to add further specifications on catenary masts, a vertical support structure used in railway electrification systems to hold up the overhead wires (also known as catenary wires) that supply electric power to trains.
    • pratictioners=* to tag the number and field of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, or therapists, available at facilities such as clinics, legal offices, or wellness centres, aiming to enhance the mapping of professional services.
    • contact_line=* to tag the type of contact line in railway systems, specifying details about overhead wires or third rails that supply electrical power to trains.

Community

  • Markus
  • LySioS has introduced
  • Josh Glenn blogged about his engagement in reporting OSM usage without proper attribution. A similar collection already exists
  • Nick Doiron discussed the need for more language-specific fonts in OpenStreetMap, focusing on the Unicode blocks used globally. Using Python scripts, he analysed OSM data to identify language scripts in use, noting gaps like Glagolitic, which appears in Croatia and beyond. Past updates improved font support for scripts like Arabic and Ethiopic, but further refinements are needed for accurate representation.
  • OpenStreetMap Utah’s 2024 review highlighted a productive year with 11,246 km of new pavements, 3,115 km of new roads, and 67,998 newly mapped buildings. Key achievements included 800 km of new hiking trails and the addition of 34,959 natural features. The community utilised tools including Rapid and Mapillary to enhance pedestrian and outdoor infrastructure, while also supporting updates to local points of interest. The efforts were bolstered by collaborations with OpenStreetMap US and the Trails Stewardship Initiative, making 2024 a milestone year for mapping Utah.
  • Séverin Ménard is providing
  • Martin Koppenhoefer and Something B have addressed the issue of images with unclear copyright status uploaded to the OpenStreetMap Wiki. They agreed to replace such images with those that have explicit licensing rather than removing them outright. This approach acknowledges that many of the images were likely uploaded in good faith by OSM mappers, despite the lack of proper licensing information.
  • Gregory Marler shared a YouTube video titled ‘Using Every Door to Improve OpenStreetMap’, which provides an introduction to the Every Door app. The video covered the installation, getting started, and tips for using the app to add and edit detailed map data effectively.
  • Ilya Zverev has reviewed

OpenStreetMap Foundation

  • FOSSGIS tooted
  • The LCCWG Subcommittee for OSMF Affiliation Models have outlined their latest progress on the project to improve the OSMF affiliation scheme.
  • The OSM Operations Team reported that they had to retire two OpenStreetMap tile render servers. Unfortunately the OSM tile service will now be slower to access from Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Southeast Asia.

Events

  • Dennis Raylin Chen has shared his experience of attending the State of the Map Asia 2024 conference in Bangladesh.
  • Journalist Antonio Laranjeira has published a summary of the talks and workshops presented at SotM LatAm 2024 in Belem, Brazil last December.

OSM research

  • Philipp Mascherbauer, Jonas Mariën, and Francesca Conselvan published some results of the EU Moderate Project. This project uses a ResNet-34 network classifier trained to detect photovoltaic installations on rooftops from aerial images. By combining OpenStreetMap data with aerial imagery, building rooftop images are extracted and prepared for classification. The source code is available at GitHub.
  • Evelyn Mühlhofer, and other scientists from ETH Zürich, have developed osm-flex, a standalone, lightweight, and highly flexible Python-based OpenStreetMap data extraction tool. Further applications of the tool are mentioned in the paper, such as the results of a multi-faceted and high-resolution climate risk assessment.

OSM in action

  • [1] The Bandung City Government has developed ‘Live Maps Bandung Easy Mobility’, an OpenStreetMap-based interactive map that visualises routes and live tracking of public transportation in Bandung, Indonesia.
  • The NABU website features

Software

  • Andy Allan tooted that the Thunderforest.com vector tile generation servers now process OpenStreetMap data updates every 60 minutes, a significant improvement on the previous four-hour cycle. This has been achieved through upgraded hardware and updated versions of osm2pgsql, GEOS, PostgreSQL and PostGIS, increasing processing throughput by 10 times compared to 2024. These hourly updates are reflected in Thunderforest’s APIs for vector sources, styles, and map tiles, increasing mapper motivation through faster map updates. While further reducing the update frequency to 10 to 20 minutes is feasible, internal caching limits the visible benefits, so hourly updates are considered sufficient for now.
  • MGame is an open source rally game built using OpenStreetMap data. Developed by gre-42, it allows players to race through tracks generated from real-world map data, including iconic locations such as New York City and alpine roads. The game combines OSM’s geospatial accuracy with immersive gameplay, offering a unique intersection of mapping and entertainment.
  • Geoawesome highlighted essential QGIS plugins that enhance geospatial projects.
  • The ohsome-py Python package is a client for the ohsome API, designed to facilitate the extraction and analysis of historical OpenStreetMap data. The package simplifies handling ohsome API requests and responses by converting them into pandas or GeoPandas data frames, making data analysis and visualisation easier.

Programming

  • Yasunori Kirimoto has explored building a geospatial server using the open source BBOX server, which supports the OGC standards for features, maps, tiles, assets, processes and routing. He demonstrated, using QGIS Server, how to provide WMS, raster tiles, and vector tiles, with configuration files allowing customisation. Docker simplifies the deployment, and the setup highlights the flexibility of BBOX Server to efficiently distribute geospatial data.
  • Terence Eden blogged about some simple scripts to create a clustered marker globe using OpenFreeMap and MapLibre GL JS.
  • Bert’s blog detailed the creation of an interactive 3D hiking map for the Ordesa canyon in Spain using MapLibre GL JS. The project integrates terrain data from Spanish IGN, vector tiles from OpenFreeMap, and trail data from OpenStreetMap (via the Overpass API). The terrain was processed into PMTiles for efficient hosting, and the GR11 hiking trail was visualised alongside hill shading effects.
  • Swiggy Bytes’s two-part blog series explored leveraging OpenStreetMap data for hyperlocal delivery routing by evaluating road quality and using machine learning to detect and fix issues. Part 1 introduced the OSM-APLS and delta-coverage metrics to evaluate OSM’s road accuracy. By analysing delivery trips, they identified routing configurations, concluding that the ‘motorcycle short-fastest’ mode was optimal for accurate distance calculations using GraphHopper. Part 2 presented a machine learning pipeline to detect missing roads, connectivity issues, and incorrect travel directions in OSM. Using unsupervised and self-supervised approaches, the system flagged and fixed errors, improving coverage and accuracy of road networks.
  • Andrii Holovin, in the discussion section of his project yamap, proposed

Releases

  • Anna Zanchetta introduced Maptcha, an open source CAPTCHA designed to improve OpenStreetMap. Currently in its alpha stage, Maptcha is being tested with potential users. Those interested can participate in the test via this link and provide feedback within approximately one week. The results will be presented at FOSDEM 2025 in the Geospatial Devroom.
  • react-leaflet has been updated to v5.0.0. The breaking changes include React v19 as a peer dependency and the LeafletProvider component was removed from the core package.
  • Baba, the Panoramax Android app, has been updated to version 1.4.0. Upload progress is now shown in the notification and failed uploads can be sent again.

Did you know that …

  • kinderkiez.net is a service, available in English and German, that allows users to create custom children’s play mats with maps based on OpenStreetMap data?

OSM in the media

  • Freie Presse featured (
  • Wieland Breitfeld shared

Other “geo” things

  • The Copernicus Browser is a central tool for accessing and visualising Earth observation data, including Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and other Copernicus mission datasets. It allows users to explore geospatial information interactively, filter data by time and cloud coverage, and apply visualisation options like True Colour, NDVI, or custom spectral bands. Logged-in users can create time-lapse animations, visualise terrain in 3D, and access advanced tools like histograms for statistical analysis.
  • The mosquito (Aedes aegypti) spreads deadly infections including dengue. In his PhD thesis, Steffen Knoblauch used big spatial data methods to predict mosquito distribution and bite risk, potentially improving disease control and reducing public health costs.
  • Frédéric Cantat noted
  • Pokémon GO has launched a major update that refreshes spawn points worldwide and updates the map with new OpenStreetMap data. The update, the first since 2022, increases the variety of Pokémon spawn points, improves distribution in urban areas and increases coverage in rural areas. Niantic uses OSM’s regularly updated planet file to adjust the game’s map to better engage players in different locations.
  • Christopher Beddow has looked at how street-level imagery has changed over time. He started by investigating the early 20th century with city recordings and goes on to discuss Google Street View and similar services today. He talked about important moments including the Aspen Movie Map (1978), early road surveys, and the CityBlock project at Stanford. This project was the first step in creating street view and similar services. Now there are other options such as Mapillary and Panoramax, which use open-source and crowdsourcing methods. With new developments in computer vision and LiDAR, we can expect even more realistic 3D maps and experiences that we may be able to view on more than just our phones and computers.

Upcoming Events

WhereWhatOnlineWhenCountry
Comuna 13 – San JavierJunta OSM Latam – Inicio de organización del SotM Latam 2025 Medellín 2025-01-18flag
UtrechtNieuwjaarsborrel OSGeo.nl, OSM.nl en QGIS Gebruikersvereniging Nederland 2025-01-19flag
Panoramax monthly international meeting 2025-01-20
HannoverOSM-Stammtisch Hannover 2025-01-20flag
Missing Maps London: (Online) Mid-Month Mapathon [eng] 2025-01-21
LyonRéunion du groupe local de Lyon 2025-01-21flag
Bonn184. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn 2025-01-21flag
San JoseSouth Bay Map Night 2025-01-22flag
LüneburgLüneburger Mappertreffen 2025-01-21flag
Lübeck149. OSM-Stammtisch Lübeck und Umgebung 2025-01-23flag
OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting 2025-01-24
ChambéryMapathon en ligne saison 24/25 CartONG 2025-01-27flag
Stadtgebiet BremenBremer Mappertreffen 2025-01-27flag
БеоградSrbija OpenStreetMap okupljanje 2025-01-28flag
BerlinOSM-Verkehrswende #65 2025-01-28flag
MapRVA Map & Yap 2025-01-30
DüsseldorfDüsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online) 2025-01-29flag
London Borough of IslingtonGeoMob London 2025-01-30flag

Note:
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This weeklyOSM was produced by Elizabete, MatthiasMatthias, PierZen, Raquel Dezidério Souto, SeverinGeo, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, derFred, mcliquid.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.