Completing all the buildings & addresses in OSM

Julien Minet & Joost Schouppe OSM Belgium

Why?

Adding a friture is easy in a mobile app - if there's data already

But less so when they are missing

And of course, geocoding!

Why mapping addresses & buildings is a lot of work

Manual work

Import tool

   - Brussels import: before the dawn of time; no tool needed

   - Flanders: buildings+addresses available since 2016. Slow import since early 2019 with specialized tool

   - Wallonia: PICC open data since 2019

   - added Wallonia & Brussels (for updating) to the tool early 2022.

buildings.osm.be

built by Glenn Plas

Quick demo

buildings.osm.be → JOSM

buildings.osm.be → JOSM

Quick demo

Conflating in JOSM

Quick demo

1. Use the buildings.osm.be tool
2. In JOSM, copy-paste the buildings
3. (Simplify them)
4. If overlapping, conflating (utils plugin 2)
5. Run validator, double check everything
6. Upload

Quick demo

It's a lot about shortcuts...

• copy: CTRL + C
• paste: CTRL + ALT + V
• simplify: CTRL + SHIFT + Y
• conflate: CTRL + ALT + G
• add extra nodes: N

Quick demo

When you find weird stuffs (the most interesting!)

• different building shape → correct the shape + tag with "source:geometry=outdated"

Quick demo

When you find weird stuffs (the most interesting!)

• new building → add it and tag with "source:geometry:ref=missing" + "start_date"=* + "fixme"="housenumber missing"
• razed building → keep it but tag it with "razed:building=*" or "demolished:building=*"

Organisation

- Landing page & Instructions for mappers

- Element chat room

- Where we work (umap)

Feedback for the government

- direct feedback

- OSM data = feedback

Feedback for the government

On 5883 imported buildings:

• 76 new buildings not in PICC -> "source:geometry:ref=missing"
• 17 razed buildings -> "razed:building" or "demolished:building"

Ex. with Neufchâteau (OSM diary post)

How far along are we?

Addresses

Some notes...

• OSM address notation is compact (we expanded for analysis)
• Addresses are weird
• Differences in building scope (between mappers, between datasets)

What's next?

Focus

• Blank areas (no buildings, no addresses)
• Buildings without addresses
• Buildings with address but need update (new buildings, bad shapes, ...)
• All buildings of Belgium

Don't miss the others challenges!

How can you help?

Let's work together

• Contact OpenStreetMap Belgium
• Use our feedback / compare datasets

For government/region data producer

Start mapping...

• read the documentation

• subscribe to the Element channel
• let's organise with the umap...

For OSM contributors

Join us

tinyurl.com/helpusmap

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Belgium/top_mapping_tasks

osm.be/contact