weeklyOSM 822

16/04/2026-22/04/2026

[1] We congratulate the instance at print.get-map.org on their 500,000+ generated maps | map data © by OpenStreetMap Contributors.

Mapping

- The proposal Civil Protection Areas was approved with 24 votes for and 7 votes against. The approved tag emergency:*=yes was proposed by AndreaDp271, who maintains a interactive map which shows the infrastructure for civil defence as mapped with OSM.
- The proposal Cable Landing Stations, created by Trailrunner13, was unanimously approved with 12 votes in favour. The approved tag telecom=cable_landing_station (CLS) is used to map a specialised telecommunications location where submarine telecoms cables terminate when they return to shore.
- The proposal Unified ETCS Signals (railway), created by AwFi, was approved with 17 votes for and 1 vote against. The proposal is meant to unify all the national ETCS (European Train Control System) markers tags into a harmonised tagging scheme valid everywhere.

Community

A new wiki page gathers together a list of projects analysing how many streets are named after women or men using OpenStreetMap data. It was initiated by Amanda McCann to bring together existing analyses.
Mateusz Konieczny has received funding from the OpenStreetMap Foundation to work on iD and the iD tagging schema. Read the full report on that work.
Unresponsive mappers, affiliated with Uber, doing low quality pavement mapping in the UK has led to complaints on the OSM Community forum. At least one of them ignored multiple user blocks and continued editing despite instructions from the DWG. rphyrin contacted Uber for clarification on the matter. Uber stated that it takes full responsibility for the incident, has temporarily paused all organised editing in the affected areas, and is working to improve its workflow before resuming such activities.
Victory114 shared their experience of joining the Unique Mappers Network in Nigeria and described their first steps with OSM, training activities, and humanitarian mapping, highlighting the role of the community in building GIS skills.

Local chapter news

For Christoph Hormann the FOSSGIS association, which represents the OSM community in Germany, was historically dominated by professional developers and he proposed revising the rules regarding FOSSGIS membership fees to ensure a greater level of participation.
At the latest FOSSGIS networking meeting 28 participants gathered ► to discuss topics such as careers, geodata management, and open-source strategies. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 17 June 2026.

Events

Attention: The deadline for SotM 2026 is tomorrow! Authors are invited to submit extended abstracts using the OSM Science 2026 Pretalx submission system. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 27 April 2026.
Wikimedia Deutschland hosted the OSM Hack Weekend Berlin in April 2026, where the OpenStreetMap community worked together on projects. On the FOSSGIS website, Lars Lingner and other participants reported ► on the results.
The organisers of State of the Map Latam 2026 have announced a call for academic papers focused on OpenStreetMap research. Submissions are open until 1 June, with the conference taking place in person during October in Mexico City.

OSM research

Raquel Dezidério Souto is the author of Chapter 12 of Public Access to Beaches: Conflicts and Management, published by Editora IVIDES (Brasil). The chapter ‘Collaborative Mapping of Beach Access with OpenStreetMap’ presented the mapping of features related to the access of beaches and their surroundings. The ebook is available on Zenodo.org and will be released in Ramatuelle (France) in May 2026, as part of the activities of the Beach Access Network.

Maps

^[1] We first reported ► on MapOSMatic all the way back in Wochennotiz Number 4 in August 2010. We congratulate the instance at print.get-map.org on the 500,000 maps so far generated and thank Hartmut Holzgraefe for operating and developing the service.
OpenFuelMap project displays fuel stations in France based on OpenStreetMap data and enriches them with current fuel prices. The map enables comparisons and highlights the use of open geodata for practical applications.
Andy Townsend has built a railway map using the SVE01 schema.
stlnbg highlighted that motorcycle parking in OpenStreetMap is often missing or lacks details such as fees or capacity. parkmymoto is a dedicated map that visualises this data and aims to encourage more complete mapping.
The veganguide platform displays vegan restaurants, shops, and venues based on OpenStreetMap data.

Open Data

Wikidata’s SPARQL Query Service now has a facility to download query results that include coordinates as KML or GPX. GeoJSON has been available since last year. The text from the first column in the results is used as the value for naming POIs. There is a sample query available.

Software

Pascal Neis has introduced a new ‘OSM Activity’ calendar to his ‘How did you contribute to OpenStreetMap?’, covering not only edits but also discussions and notes. The tool now also displays mapping streaks and expands user activity insights.
Clearance is an open source tool designed to enhance the reliability and increase confidence in collaborative OpenStreetMap data by acting as a quality control proxy between OSM and data consumers and functioning as a standard OSM data source (OSM PBF file or overpass API). Its source is available freely at GitHub as is its frontend. The project has been funded since 2025 by the NGI0 Commons Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet Programme.
Kevin Ratzel has updated his Suggest-A-Brand tool to support contributions to the Name Suggestion Index. It now includes Wikidata search, additional input fields, and has been migrated to Codeberg.
Mapillary has published an interactive demo of its public API, which shows central functions such as image data, object recognition, and traffic sign layers. The open source project serves as a reference for developers and does not require any frameworks.
Tobias Jordans has released ► a series of improvements for the ‘OSM Schulabgleich’ (OSM school matching) tool for Germany. These include deep-linking via map and OSM parameters, an improved search function (including pasting OSM URLs), and enhanced data matching that now also includes amenity=college. The comparison tables, interactions, and editing features have also been refined. It has the ability ► to log in with an OSM account and perform edits directly.
In response to ongoing performance issues, stricter blocking rules are now being enforced on the Overpass servers. Especially, large or abusive users may be temporarily cut off so that the service becomes reliable again for smaller requests such as from Overpass Turbo.
Park and Rest is a new mobile app that allows you to find overnight parking spots with nearby services and activities and it is built entirely on OpenStreetMap data. Users are encouraged to give back to OpenStreetMap by adding new POIs and updating existing data. The app is proprietary and currently only available via the Google Play Store.
WebODM is an open-source tool for processing drone imagery into orthophotos and 3D models. The resulting data can be used to support mapping and updates in OpenStreetMap.

Programming

The default map style OSM-Carto is now using osm2pgsql’s flex output after the OSM Foundation completed the rollout. This paves the way to retire the legacy pgsql output and simplifies future development of osm2pgsql.
The plugin Pinhead SVG Icons was marked for permanent deletion in the QGIS repository on 23 April. But you can still use the icons through QGIS Resource Sharing instead, since they’ve already been merged there.

Releases

The migration of the BRouter server (we reported earlier) has now been completed and tagged as version 1.7.9, which has lookups.dat version 11. To fully benefit from the new tags and improvements, the routing profiles will need to be updated accordingly.
BRouter version 1.7.9 introduced additional languages and extended the use of pseudo tags in routing profiles. It also enabled enhanced database access and improved handling of routing data. BRouter-Web was not changed this time.
OsmAnd 5.3 for Android and iOS have been released. They introduced a globe view, 3D buildings, and an astronomy plugin with sky overlays. The update also enhanced routing, tracking, and visualisation features for OpenStreetMap-based navigation.
Route-Crafter version 0.2.2 introduced user interface adjustments and allows selecting an Overpass API endpoint or specifying a custom URL.

Did you know that …

… pgRouting is an extension for PostgreSQL/PostGIS with which routing and network analyses can be carried out directly on geodata, e.g. OpenStreetMap?
… if you see outdated map tiles on OpenStreetMap then reloading the page without cache might help you? On Windows and GNU/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).

Other “geo” things

GeoValida introduced a tool that analyses satellite time series to detect land use changes and identify risks such as illegal clearing. The platform targets spatial analysis and decision-making use cases.
Junta de Andalucía explained how rivers, mountains, and other geographic features are used as natural borders. Junta highlighted global examples and their relevance for mapping and datasets such as OpenStreetMap.
After 16 years and 8 billion USD the US Department of Defense has cancelled the OCX programme for a new GPS ground control system. Instead, the existing system will be upgraded to maintain navigation services for military and civilian use.
The first release of the year of QField for QGIS came packed with new features as well as a bundle of improvements and polishing.
Enrique Yunta Cantarero showed ► how to connect Claude AI with QGIS via the Model Context Protocol, enabling control via natural language. This allows geoprocessing, layer management, and map creation directly from a chat interface.

Upcoming Events

Where	Venue	What	When
Rostock	ehemalige KGA Groter Pohl	Bäume erfassen Groter Pohl	2026-04-19 – 2026-04-26
	Pinneberg	Hamburger Mapping-Spaziergang (in Pinneberg)	2026-04-25
Torreón	On line	OpenStreetMap: Mapeo libre	2026-04-25
Grad Zagreb	Sveučilište Algebra Bernays, Gradišćanska ulica 24	State of the Map Croatia (DORS/CLUC 2026)	2026-04-25
Chennai Corporation	Ranganathan Street, Chennai	Mapping at Ranganathan Street, Chennai	2026-04-25
Mumbai	The Food Town, Mulund West	OSM Mumbai Mapping Party No.9 (Central Line)	2026-04-25
		~~B of A – EC AM’s Mapathon -Global Service Month~~	2026-04-27
Brno	Kamenice 753/5, Brno, Kamenice 753/5, Brno	Dubnový Missing Maps mapathon na Ústavu botaniky a zoologie	2026-04-27
		Missing Maps : Mapathon en ligne – CartONG [fr]	2026-04-27
Stadtgebiet Bremen	Online und im Hackerspace Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2026-04-27
Saint-Étienne	Zoomacom	Rencontre Saint-Étienne et sud Loire	2026-04-27
	Online	Mappy Hour OSM España	2026-04-28
Wien	Schlupfwinkel (Kleine Neugasse 10, 1040 Wien)	78. Wiener OSM-Stammtisch	2026-04-28
Kiel	Mango’s, Kiel	Kieler Mapper*innentreffen	2026-04-28
Berlin	Online	OSM-Verkehrswende #74	2026-04-28
Hannover	Kuriosum	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover	2026-04-29
Düsseldorf	Online bei https://meet.jit.si/OSM-DUS-2026	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)	2026-04-29
Sydney	Parramatta	Social Mapping Event in Parramatta	2026-04-30
Essen	Linuxhotel Essen	FOSSGIS-OSM-Communitytreffen im Linuxhotel	2026-04-30 – 2026-05-03
	Weil der Stadt	MA1PPING	2026-05-01
Augsburg	Augsburger Linux-Infotag 2026	Workshop: JOSM – Java OpenStreetMap Editor – Eine Einführung	2026-05-02
	Sovigliana-Vinci	Mappando si Vinci! – 2 Maggio 2026	2026-05-02 – 2026-06-02
Braunschweig	Stratum 0	Braunschweiger Mappertreffen im Stratum 0 Hackerspace	2026-05-02
नई दिल्ली	Jitsi Meet (online)	OSM India – Monthly Online Mapathon	2026-05-02
Salzburg	Bewohnerservice Elisabeth-Vorstadt	OSM-Treffpunkt	2026-05-05
		Missing Maps London Mapathon (with Training) Beginner Friendly (Online) [eng]	2026-05-05
		iD Community Chat	2026-05-06
Stuttgart	Stuttgart	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen	2026-05-06
Richmond	Shockoe Bottom	Surveillance mapping with MapRVA	2026-05-07
	Rio de Janeiro	Capacitação OSM 2026 – IVIDES DATA ® – Dia #2 – Editor iD	2026-05-08
	online	SOSM Association Annual Meeting	2026-05-08
København	Cafe Bevar’s	OSMmapperCPH	2026-05-10
Delhi		OSM Delhi Mapping Party No.29 (South Zone)	2026-05-10
		Missing Maps : Mapathon en ligne – CartONG [fr]	2026-05-11
臺北市	MozSpace Taipei	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #88	2026-05-11