Available in | 96 languages and variants, [1] local languages for map data |
---|---|
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Owner | OpenStreetMap Foundation |
Created by | Steve Coast |
Products | Editable geographic data, tiled web map layer |
URL | www |
Commercial | No |
Registration | Required for contributors, not required for viewing |
Users | 10.6 million [2] |
Launched | 9 August 2004 [3] |
Current status | Active |
Content license | Open Database License |
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed geodata sources. OpenStreetMap is freely licensed under the Open Database License and as a result commonly used to make electronic maps, inform turn-by-turn navigation, assist in humanitarian aid and data visualisation. OpenStreetMap uses its own topology to store geographical features which can then be exported into other GIS file formats. The OpenStreetMap website itself is an online map, geodata search engine and editor.
OpenStreetMap was created by Steve Coast in response to the Ordnance Survey, the United Kingdom's national mapping agency, failing to release its data to the public under free licences in 2004. Initially, maps were created only via GPS traces, but it was quickly populated by importing public domain geographical data such as the U.S. TIGER and by tracing permitted aerial photography or satellite imagery. OpenStreetMap's adoption was accelerated by Google Maps's introduction of pricing in 2012 and the development of supporting software and applications.
The database is hosted by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, a non-profit organisation registered in England and Wales and is funded mostly via donations.
Steve Coast founded the project in 2004 while at a university in Britain, initially focusing on mapping the United Kingdom. [3] In the UK and elsewhere, government-run and tax-funded projects like the Ordnance Survey created massive datasets but declined to freely and widely distribute them. The first contribution was made in London in 2005. [4] [ non-primary source needed ] In April 2006, the OpenStreetMap Foundation was established to encourage the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and provide geospatial data for anybody to use and share.
In April 2007, Automotive Navigation Data (AND) donated a complete road data set for the Netherlands and trunk road data for India and China to the project. [5] By July 2007, when the first "The State of the Map" (SotM) conference [6] was held, there were 9,000 registered users. In October 2007, OpenStreetMap completed the import of a US Census TIGER road dataset. [7] In December 2007, Oxford University became the first major organisation to use OpenStreetMap data on their main website. [8] Ways to import and export data have continued to grow – by 2008, the project developed tools to export OpenStreetMap data to power portable GPS units, replacing their existing proprietary and out-of-date maps. [9] In March 2008, two founders of CloudMade, a commercial company that uses OpenStreetMap data, announced that they had received venture capital funding of €2.4 million. [10]
Yahoo! (2006–2011), [11] [12] Bing (2010 – till date), [13] and DigitalGlobe (2017 [14] –2023 [15] ) allowed their aerial photography, satellite imagery to be used as a backdrop for map production. For a period from 2009 to 2011, NearMap Pty Ltd made their high-resolution PhotoMaps (of major Australian cities, plus some rural Australian areas) available under a CC BY-SA licence. [16]
In 2012, the launch of pricing for Google Maps led several prominent websites to switch from their service to OpenStreetMap and other competitors. [17] Chief among these were Foursquare and Craigslist, which adopted OpenStreetMap, and Apple, which ended a contract with Google and launched a self-built mapping platform using TomTom and OpenStreetMap data. [18]
OpenStreetMap uses a topological data structure, with four core elements (also known as data primitives):
The OpenStreetMap data primitives are stored and processed in different formats. OpenStreetMap server uses PostgreSQL database, with one table for each data primitive, with individual objects stored as rows. [21] [22] From this, several database dumps are created, which are available for download. The complete dump is called planet.osm. These dumps exist in two formats, one using XML and one using the Protocol Buffer Binary Format (PBF).[ citation needed ]
OpenStreetMap data and derived tiles were originally published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-SA) with the intention of promoting free use and redistribution of the data.
In September 2012, the licence was changed to the Open Database Licence (ODbL) published by Open Data Commons (ODC) in order to define its bearing on data rather than representation more specifically. [23] [24] As part of this relicensing process, some of the map data was removed from the public distribution. This included all data contributed by members that did not agree to the new licensing terms, as well as all subsequent edits to those affected objects. It also included any data contributed based on input data that was not compatible with the new terms.
Estimates suggested that over 97% of data would be retained globally, but certain regions would be affected more than others, such as in Australia where 24 to 84% of objects would be retained, depending on the type of object. [25] Ultimately, more than 99% of the data was retained, with Australia and Poland being the countries most severely affected by the change. [26]
All data added to the project needs to have a licence compatible with the Open Database Licence. This can include out-of-copyright information, public domain or other licences. Software used in the production and presentation of OpenStreetMap data may have separate licensing terms.
Map tiles provided by the OpenStreetMap project were licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.0 until 1 August 2020. The ODbL license requires attribution to be attached to maps produced from OpenStreetMap data, but does not require that any particular license be applied to those maps. "©OpenStreetMap Contributors" with link to ODbL copyright page as attribution requirement is used on the site. [27]
Map data is collected by ground survey, personal knowledge, digitizing from imagery, and government data. Ground survey data is collected by volunteers traditionally using tools such as a handheld GPS unit, a notebook, digital camera and voice recorder.
Software applications on smartphones (mobile devices) have made it easy for anybody to survey. The data is then entered into the OpenStreetMap database using a number of software tools including JOSM and Merkaator. [28]
Mapathon competition events are also held by local OpenStreetMap teams and by non-profit organisations and local governments to map a particular area.
The availability of aerial photography and other data from commercial and government sources has added important sources of data for manual editing and automated imports. Special processes are in place to handle automated imports and avoid legal and technical problems.
Ground surveys are performed by a mapper, on foot, bicycle, or in a car, motorcycle, or boat. Map data was typically recorded on a GPS unit or on a smart phone with mapping app.
Once the data has been collected, it is entered into the database by uploading it onto the project's website together with appropriate attribute data. As collecting and uploading data may be separated from editing objects, contribution to the project is possible without using a GPS unit, e.g. by using Paper mapping.
Similar to users contributing data using GPS unit, corporations (e.g. Amazon) with large vehicle fleets use telemetry data from the vehicles to contribute data to OpenStreetMap. [29]
Some committed contributors adopt the task of mapping whole towns and cities, or organising mapping parties to gather the support of others to complete a map area.
A large number of less active users contribute corrections and small additions to the map.[ citation needed ]
Maxar, [14] Bing, [13] ESRI, and Mapbox are some of the providers of aerial/satellite imagery which are used as a backdrop for map production.
Data from several street-level image platforms are available as map data photo overlays. Bing Streetside 360° image tracks, and the open and crowdsourced Mapillary and KartaView platforms provide generally smartphone and windshield-mounted camera images. Additionally, a Mapillary traffic sign data layer, a product of user-submitted images is also available. [30]
Some government agencies have released official data on appropriate licences. This includes the United States, where works of the federal government are placed under public domain. In the United States, most roads originate from TIGER from the Census Bureau. [31] Geographic names were initially sourced from Geographic Names Information System, and some areas contain water features from the National Hydrography Dataset. In the UK, some Ordnance Survey OpenData is imported. In Canada Natural Resources Canada's CanVec vector data and GeoBase provide landcover and streets.[ citation needed ]
Globally, OpenStreetMap initially used the prototype global shoreline from NOAA. Due to it being oversimplified and crude, it has been mainly replaced by other government sources or manual tracing.[ citation needed ]
Out-of-copyright maps can be good sources of information about features that do not change frequently. Copyright periods vary, but in the UK Crown copyright expires after 50 years and hence old Ordnance Survey maps can legally be used. A complete set of UK 1 inch/mile maps from the late 1940s and early 1950s has been collected, scanned, and is available online as a resource for contributors. [32]
The project has a geographically diverse user-base, due to emphasis of local knowledge and "on-the-ground" situation in the process of data collection. [33] Many early contributors were cyclists who survey with and for bicyclists, charting cycleroutes and navigable trails. [34] Others are GIS professionals who contribute data with an extension for ArcGIS. [35] Contributors are predominately men, with only 3–5% being women. [36]
By August 2008, shortly after the second The State of the Map conference was held, there were over 50,000 registered contributors; by March 2009, there were 100,000 and by the end of 2009 the figure was nearly 200,000. In April 2012, OpenStreetMap cleared 600,000 registered contributors. [37] On 6 January 2013, OpenStreetMap reached one million registered users. [38] Around 30% of users have contributed at least one point to the OpenStreetMap database. [39] [40]
As per a study conducted in 2011, only 38% of members carried out at least one edit and only 5% of members created more than 1000 nodes. Most members are in Europe (72%). [41] According to another study, when a competing maps platform is launched, OSM attracts fewer new contributors and pre-existing contributors increase their level of contribution possibly driven by their ideological attachment to the platform. Overall, there is a negative effect on the quantum of contributions. [42]
Some companies freely license satellite/aerial/street imagery sources from which OpenStreetMap contributors trace roads and features, while other companies make data available for importing map data. Automotive Navigation Data (AND) provided a complete road data set for Netherlands and trunk roads data for China and India. In June 2018, the Microsoft Bing team announced contribution of 125 million U.S. building footprints to the project – four times the number contributed by users and government data imports. [43] Amazon uses OpenStreetMap for navigation and has a team which revises the map based on GPS traces and feedback from its drivers. [44] As of February 2021, Apple was the most prolific corporate editor, responsible for 80% of edits to existing roads. [44]
According to a study, nearly 17% of all edits to the map came from corporate teams during 2019–2020. The top 13 corporate contributors during 2014–2020 include Apple, Kaart, Amazon, Facebook, Mapbox, Digital Egypt, Grab, Microsoft, Telenav, Developmentseed, Uber, Lightcyphers and Lyft. [44] There was some vandalism on some occasions attributed to corporate editors. [45] [46]
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) is a nonprofit organisation promoting community mapping across the world. It developed the open source HOT Tasking Manager for collaboration, and contributed to mapping efforts after the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, and the 2016 Ecuador earthquake. The Missing Maps Project, founded by the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other NGOs, uses HOT Tasking Manager. The University of Heidelberg hosts the Disastermappers Project for training university students in mapping for humanitarian purposes. When Ebola broke out in 2014, the volunteers mapped 100,000 buildings and hundreds of miles of roads in Guinea in just five days. [47]
OpenStreetMap applications utilize multiple components to provide services. The map data is rendered using pre-generated tiles for various levels of zoom. Editing applications typically support display of imagery, and field mapping data in the form of GPS traces and voice, photo, video annotations to aid in editing map.
OsmAnd, Locus Map, Maps.me, and Organic Maps are some of the mobile applications for general public use. Some of these also support editing OSM.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2024) |
The official OpenStreetMap website provides a slippy map interface based on the Leaflet JavaScript library (and formerly built on OpenLayers), displaying map tiles rendered by the Mapnik rendering engine [48] The basic map views offered are Standard, Cycle map, Transport map and Humanitarian. The website uses Ruby on Rails to enable users to edit maps and view changesets. The application interfaces with OSM PostgreSQL database for storage of user data and edit metadata. The default map is rendered by Mapnik, stored in PostGIS, and powered by an Apache module called mod_tile.
The map data can be edited from a number of editing appliations, utilising satellite/aerial imagery, GPS traces, and local knowledge. JOSM, iD, StreetComplete, Rapid, and Potlatch are the top 5 editing tools for contributions during 2018–2023 according to a study by the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology. [49]
iD [50] is used for editing on the OSM website. It was originally developed by Mapbox, with initial financing from the Knight Foundation and is available under open source. [51] "RapiD" is a web based editor derived from iD. It is developed and used by Facebook for "map with ai" project to add artificial intelligence (AI) detected maps of roads to OSM. [52] JOSM, Potlatch, [53] and Merkaartor [54] are more powerful desktop editing applications that are better suited for advanced users.
Vespucci [55] is the primary full-featured editor for Android; it has been regularly released since 2009. StreetComplete, an Android app launched in 2016, [56] allows users without any OpenStreetMap knowledge to answer simple questions for existing data in OpenStreetMap, and thus contribute data.
A geocoder indexes map data so that users can search it by name and address (geocoding) or look up an address based on a given coordinate pair (reverse geocoding). Several geocoders are designed to index OSM data, including Nominatim (from the Latin, 'by name'), which is built into the official OSM website along with GeoNames. [57] [58] Komoot's Photon search engine provides incremental search functionality based on a Nominatim database.
The Overpass API searches the OSM database for features whose metadata or topology match criteria specified in a structured query language. [59] QLever is a triplestore that accepts standard SPARQL queries to return facts about the OSM database. Heidelberg University has developed a geographic information retrieval system that answers natural language queries based on OSM data. [60]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2024) |
A variety of route planning libraries and services are based on OpenStreetMap data. OpenStreetMap's official website has featured GraphHopper, the Open Source Routing Machine, and Valhalla since February 2015. [61] [62] Mobile applications such as CycleStreets, Komoot, Maps.me, Organic Maps, and OsmAnd also provide offline route planning capabilities.
As OSM is a crowd sourced project with complex tagging scheme, there is potential for introduction of unintentional errors and intentional errors. Contributors use history menu on the OSM website, tools like OSMcha, OSM Inspector and Osmose to monitor, review and fix errors.
OpenStreetMap data has been favourably compared with proprietary datasources, [63] although as of 2009 [update] data quality varied across the world. [64] [65] A study in 2011 compared OSM data with TomTom for Germany. For car navigation TomTom has 9% more information, while for the entire street network, OSM has 27% more information. [66]
The 2010 Haiti earthquake established a model for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to collaborate with international organisations. OpenStreetMap and Crisis Commons volunteers used available satellite imagery to map the roads, buildings and refugee camps of Port-au-Prince in just two days, building "the most complete digital map of Haiti's roads". [68] [69] The resulting data and maps have been used by several organisations providing relief aid, such as the World Bank, the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOSAT and others. [70]
After Haiti, the OpenStreetMap community continued mapping to support humanitarian organisations for various crises and disasters. After the Northern Mali conflict (January 2013), Typhoon Haiyan [71] [72] in the Philippines (November 2013), and the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa (March 2014), the OpenStreetMap community in association with the NGO Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) has shown it can play a significant role in supporting humanitarian organisations. [47]
Several open collaborative mapping projects integrate with the OpenStreetMap database or are otherwise affiliated with the OpenStreetMap project:
Mapbox is one of the earliest companies to provide OSM based services. Custom maps can also be generated from OpenStreetMap data through various software including Jawg Maps, Mapnik, Mapbox Studio, Mapzen's Tangrams. [75] OSRM, GraphHopper, MapQuest and Mapbox's Valhalla are some of the route planning application providers.
Since 2007, the OpenStreetMap community has held an annual, international conference called State of the Map (SotM) where all stake holders gather to share progress and discuss issues. [6] There are also various national, regional and continental SotM conferences, such as SotM U.S., SotM Baltics, SotM Asia & SotM Africa.
Wikimedia projects provide locator map for cities and travel points of interest based on OpenStreetMap data. Wikipedia uses OpenStreetMap data to render custom maps using the Kartographer extension. [76]
A variety of popular services incorporate some sort of geolocation or map-based component. Notable services using OpenStreetMap for this include Facebook, [77] Apple Inc., Craigslist, [78] Flickr, [79] Foursquare, [80] Snapchat, [81] Strava, [82] and Grab. [83]
Navigation users include Amazon, Tesla, [84] Garmin, Moovit, [85] Organic Maps, [86] Geotab, [87] Komoot, [88] and Gurtam. [89]
Game developer users include Ballardia (World of the Living Dead: Resurrection), [90] Niantic (Ingress, Pokémon Go ), [91] [92] Hasbro ( Monopoly City Streets ), [93] [94] and Jutsu Games ( Infection Free Zone ).
Some innovative applications include Webots; creating a virtual environment for autonomous vehicle simulations [95] and OpenTopoMap rendering topographic maps based on OpenStreetMap and SRTM data. [96]
Meta (then Facebook) released the Daylight Map Distribution in 2020, intended as a validated and enhanced data release that companies could use in production. In May 2024, Daylight was sunsetted and superseded by the Overture Maps Foundation. [97]
The Overture Maps Foundation was launched in late 2022, and also provides enhanced data releases. It encourages its contributors to contribute to OSM. [98]
Some public transportation providers rely on OpenStreetMap data in their route planning services and for other analysis needs. In 2011, TriMet, which serves the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, found that OpenStreetMap's street data, consumed through the routing engine OpenTripPlanner and the search engine Apache Solr, yields better results than analogous GIS datasets managed by local government agencies. [99]
OpenStreetMap data is used in scientific studies. For example, road data was used for research of remaining roadless areas [100] and in the creation of the annual Forest Landscape Integrity Index. [101]
MapQuest is an American free online web mapping service. It was launched in 1996 as the first commercial web mapping service. MapQuest vies for market share with competitors such as Apple Maps, Here and Google Maps.
Bing Maps is a web mapping service provided as a part of Microsoft's Bing suite of search engines and powered by the Bing Maps Platform framework which also support Bing Maps for Enterprise APIs and Azure Maps APIs. Since 2020, the map data is provided by TomTom, OpenStreetMap and others.
The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo), is a non-profit non-governmental organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation was formed in February 2006 to provide financial, organizational and legal support to the broader Libre/Free and open-source geospatial community. It also serves as an independent legal entity to which community members can contribute code, funding and other resources.
Wikimapia is a geographic online encyclopedia project. The project implements an interactive "clickable" web map that utilizes Google Maps with a geographically-referenced wiki system, with the aim to mark and describe all geographical objects in the world.
Collaborative mapping, also known as citizen mapping, is the aggregation of Web mapping and user-generated content, from a group of individuals or entities, and can take several distinct forms. With the growth of technology for storing and sharing maps, collaborative maps have become competitors to commercial services, in the case of OpenStreetMap, or components of them, as in Google Map Maker, Waze and Yandex Map Editor.
Mapnik is an open-source mapping toolkit for desktop and server based map rendering, written in C++. Artem Pavlenko, the original developer of Mapnik, set out with the explicit goal of creating beautiful maps by employing the sub-pixel anti-aliasing of the Anti-Grain Geometry (AGG) library. Mapnik now also has a Cairo rendering backend. For handling common software tasks such as memory management, file system access, regular expressions, and XML parsing, Mapnik utilizes the Boost C++ libraries. An XML file can be used to define a collection of mapping objects that determine the appearance of a map, or objects can be constructed programmatically in C++, Python, and Node.js.
Stephen Coast is a British entrepreneur and the founder of the OpenStreetMap community-based world mapping project and CloudMade, a geography-related company.
The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a non-profit foundation whose aim is to support and enable the development of freely-reusable geospatial data. Founded in 2006, it is closely connected with the OpenStreetMap project, although its constitution does not prevent it supporting other projects.
The Open Database License (ODbL) is a copyleft license agreement intended to allow users to freely share, modify, and use a database while maintaining this same freedom for others.
An isochrone map in geography and urban planning is a map that depicts the area accessible from a point within a certain time threshold. An isochrone is defined as "a line drawn on a map connecting points at which something occurs or arrives at the same time". In hydrology and transportation planning isochrone maps are commonly used to depict areas of equal travel time. The term is also used in cardiology as a tool to visually detect abnormalities using body surface distribution.
OsmAnd is a map and navigation app for Android and iOS. It uses the OpenStreetMap (OSM) map database for its primary displays, but is an independent app not endorsed by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. It is available in both free and paid versions; the latter unlocks the download limit for offline maps and provides access to Wikipedia points of interest (POIs) and their descriptions from within the app. Map data can be stored on the device for offline use. Using the device's GPS capabilities, OsmAnd offers routing, with visual and voice guidance, for car, bike, and pedestrian. All of the main functionalities work both online and offline.
WorldMap is a web platform for creating, displaying, analyzing, and searching spatial data and other data forms across multiple disciplines.
Mapbox is an American provider of custom online maps for websites and applications such as Foursquare, Lonely Planet, the Financial Times, The Weather Channel, Instacart, Strava and Snapchat. Since 2010, it has rapidly expanded the niche of custom maps, as a response to the limited choice offered by map providers such as Google Maps.
Mapillary is a service for sharing crowdsourced geotagged photos, developed by remote company Mapillary AB, based in Malmö, Sweden. Mapillary was launched in 2013 and acquired by Meta Platforms in 2020. It offers street level imagery similar to Google Street View.
Vector tiles, tiled vectors or vectiles are packets of geographic data, packaged into pre-defined roughly-square shaped "tiles" for transfer over the web. This is an emerging method for delivering styled web maps, combining certain benefits of pre-rendered raster map tiles with vector map data. As with the widely used raster tiled web maps, map data is requested by a client as a set of "tiles" corresponding to square areas of land of a pre-defined size and location. Unlike raster tiled web maps, however, the server returns vector map data, which has been clipped to the boundaries of each tile, instead of a pre-rendered map image.
Under Chinese law, the use of geographic information in the People's Republic of China is restricted to entities that have special authorization from the administrative department for surveying and mapping under the State Council. Consequences of the restriction include fines for unauthorized surveys, lack of geotagging information on many cameras when the GPS chip detects a location within China, and incorrect alignment of street maps with satellite maps in various applications.
Locus Map is a multi-functional Android navigation app. Primarily it is designed and used for leisure time outdoor activities like hiking, biking, or geocaching. The app is also used by professionals e.g. by S&R teams or for collecting geospatial data.
JOSM(Java OpenStreetMap editor) is a free software desktop editing tool for OpenStreetMap geodata created in Java, originally developed by Immanuel Scholz and currently maintained by Dirk Stöcker. The editing tool contains advanced features that are not present in OSM's default online editor, iD.
iD is a free software online editor for OpenStreetMap (OSM) geodata created in JavaScript and released in 2013. It is the most popular and the default editor on the main OSM page. iD's features include choosing custom aerial imagery and native support for Mapillary photos. Specialized forks of iD include RapiD, developed by Facebook as an import tool for reviewing and adding roads detected by proprietary Facebook algorithms.
KartaView, formerly called OpenStreetView and OpenStreetCam, is a project to collect crowdsourced street-level photographs for improving OpenStreetMap operated by Grab Holdings. Collected imagery is published under a CC BY-SA license and while some of the project's code is released as open source, much of it still require proprietary software to function. This is one of the few alternative platforms that offer street view like Google.
Foody, Giles; et al. (2017). Mapping and the Citizen Sensor. London: Ubiquity Press. ISBN 978-1-911529-16-3. JSTOR j.ctv3t5qzc.