When using OSM’s iD editor in New South Wales, Australia, there are multiple background layers you can enable that show aerial/satellite imagery. Different imagery sources can vary greatly in terms of how recent and/or blurry they are. Here I’ll discuss my experience using them.

DCS NSW Imagery

This is my preferred imagery source, primarily because it’s very clear even at high zoom levels. You can see lots of detail which makes it great for mapping.

Unfortunately it’s also the oldest of the imagery sources for NSW. In Armidale it’s dated 2018, but other towns can be as old as 2009! You can enable the “DCS NSW Imagery Dates” overlay to see what date the imagery for a given area was taken.

Esri World Imagery

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Hello, I would like to ask if in your country there are officially designated areas designated by local authorities (such as municipalities, civil protection agencies, emergency services, etc.) for:

Short-term population management (assembly points, waiting areas, temporary gathering places after an event). Long-term population management (tent camps, temporary housing sites, large shelters). Management of external rescue operations in response to the call (logistics bases, areas dedicated to external rescuers arriving from elsewhere, equipment sorting areas). These areas would be part of civil protection / emergency management planning, mapped and designated in advance, not improvised during the event.

Do such areas exist in your country? And if so, are they publicly available (e.g., through official maps, open data, local plans)?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/existence-of-designed-civil-protection-areas-in-your-country/134249

I had the privilege of presenting about weeklyOSM at COSCUP 2025, Taiwan’s largest open source conference, held on August 9–10, 2025, at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) in Taipei. This year also marked COSCUP’s 20th anniversary, making it an especially meaningful event to join in celebrating open source.

About My Presentation

My talk, titled “Behind the Scenes of weeklyOSM: How We Share OSM News Every Week,” focused on the inner workings of our community-driven newsletter.

For those unfamiliar, weeklyOSM is an independent, multilingual publication that has summarized developments in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) world every week for more than a decade—now surpassing 780 editions.

Key Topics

During the session, I highlighted:

• weeklyOSM’s Mission – Connecting mappers worldwide by bringing local stories to a global audience. We aim to be the heartbeat of the OSM community, delivering the pulse of mapping activities around the globe.
• Independence – weeklyOSM operates as an independent media platform, unaffiliated with any organization (including OSMF), and delivers news in over 15 languages to ensure accessibility for everyone.
• Our Toolchain – A closer look at OSMBC (OpenStreetMap Blog Collector), the open-source platform we use for collecting, authoring, translating, reviewing, and publishing news.
• How We Collect News – From OSM diaries, community channels, and social media, to direct submissions, ensuring comprehensive and balanced coverage.
• Taiwan’s Role – Taiwan’s active mapping scene and unique events, such as night market mapping parties, which exemplify how local stories can inspire and educate a global audience.

Why COSCUP Was the Right Place

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Background

I’ve mapped in OSM for many years now, but more of my work and been Bike-Pedestrian related, and I’ve only just come back around to mapping streets their widths and their number of lanes as a means to start evaluating crossings in our area. This means, despite my many years of mapping, I’m pretty terrible at getting the number of lanes forward/backward/both_ways and the corresponding turns associated with them correct. It’s just not that intuitive, although I can’t think of a better option.

My solution

A while back I discovered the JOSM ‘map paint styles’ specifically the lanes and enhances lane styles and combined with some tagging presets I’ve gotten acceptable at mapping major roads and the ability to visualize if I’m doing things right is a huge benefit.

The 12m (39’) of road that once visualized, haunts me.

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Five years ago, I started mapping on OpenStreetMap, and I have to say that I have never had problems with my Italian community, especially because opinions are expressed in a detailed and cordial manner, even when they differ.

Since I discovered that there were recommended guidelines in the wiki for managing bounding boxes, I have tried to remind all users—whether beginners or experienced—about them, to make it easier for us locals to verify edits.

Unfortunately, I have encountered non-Italian users who have expressed their disapproval through teasing, humiliation, and everything associated with bullying.

This contrast between the Italian community (where people reason seriously) and the noisy part of the international community (where responses come in the form of provocations) has struck me deeply, leaving me sad and hurt.

At this point, I asked myself whether it really makes sense to continue improving the mapping of the territory where I live if I am surrounded by users who do not respect me…

The answer is yes, because OpenStreetMap is an open system, in need of data and people who try to do their best, also helping “younger” users. The more of us maintain a healthy environment, the healthier the community becomes, and the fewer those who ruin it will be.

Regarding the insults and teasing I have received, I have already taken all possible actions. The most effective measure has been to block, wherever possible, on all known social platforms the people who publicly and privately mocked me.

As a passenger in a moving car, I like to do OSM field mapping, constantly scanning the view outside and noting every detail I can spot. The catch is, I need to do it fast. Too fast to worry about proper tagging or structured data entry. What I really want is an app that shows my current location on a basemap, lets me tap anywhere on it to drop a point, and attach a rough plaintext note. Later, once I’m back home, I could export all those coordinates and notes as a GeoJSON file, import it into iD Editor or JOSM, and take the time to think about proper tags.

A few weeks ago, while traveling to Bandung, I tried doing “quick, live mapping on the road” with Vespucci. It turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Each time I spotted something, I had to stop the GPS autofollow, download OSM data, add a node, pick a tagging preset, fill out the details, upload, and then repeat the whole cycle. By the time I was done with one object, I’d already missed several others. That constant stop-and-go completely killed the flow of observation.

What I wanted instead was a much simpler loop: keep the GPS autofollow running, spot something interesting, click on the map, type a quick note, and move on. No tagging, no data downloads, no breaking the momentum. Just rapid-fire, location-anchored note-taking while the car keeps moving.

At first, I tried building a dedicated Android app to do this. Unfortunately, my Gradle setup was corrupted, and fixing it meant re-downloading everything, which would have taken far too long. That’s when I remembered a small web app I had built three years ago for a similar purpose, although back then it didn’t have GPS tracking. So instead of starting from scratch, I decided to just add the GPS feature to that old app.

The result is now live at http://altilunium.github.io/sakumaps/v2.

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Eastern Road Travels

I’ve been continuing an anti clock-wise journey around Grenada.

Other Projects

Yeah there have been a month or two when work here stops. Often its just other projects but sometimes it’s a but like my day job.

Progress

I think this period started with Egmont, where I have family, through Calivigny, Fort Jeudy then all the Westerhalls. A lot of coastal details too at times. I did go inland but do not recall how far. Had fun doing the river along La Sagesse Beach Road and all the associated buildings. Loved doing Felix Park Rd. I met Dr G and spent an afternoon with him there. Very nice to meet a local botanist that I could learn from.

So now in August I’m nearing the end of Hope. From then on it’s all North and into 2026.

Good afternoon from sunny, hot, and muggy northeast Florida!

I am still learning OSM, who is not, and having a blast doing it. It is increadibly fun and incredibly fascinating. Always see and find something new every single day! Love it!

Right now I decided to make the jump to JOSM. I know it is a little or a lot complicated. Best way to learn is jump and start going. When I downloaded it the current version, 19423, was not active I down loaded a earlier version and needed to update. I was literally looking at help files, Googling it, asking questions, a lot. But, and don’t ask me how, I eventually landed the current version, 19423, on my computer. It was one of those moments that you have no clue how you did something but who cares its finally done.

To get started I did the LearnOSM again. I sometimes have to do it over and over to get the idea. Its a good refresher as well. For someone like me who has multiple challenges the fact OSM allows for going back and being able to go over is really good. I saw some updates that and changes that need to be done based on the new JOSM version. I need to figure out who to send those to. Now I am on working on the LearnOSM JOSM - Detailed Editing. Thank you also for OSM having the ability to work on a mock community. That is tremendous and helps so so much.

I do wish that some of the tutorials were more accessible for people with challenges. I think that will allow for a entirely new population of folks to get mapping. We that are disabled and something like OSM for a lot of us is a pair made for each other. Its quiet and you can do it any place and in any environment. It really is a awesome combination. I have a lot of suggestions to make this happen. Need to find out whom to talk to about this as well.

Here are a few….

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I noticed that on OpenStreetMap we were missing types of surfaces for many important roads in Kosovo.

Car navigators use surfaces when routing and calculating travel times.

So entering this information became a goal, a time bound mission I could do on my own within a short period of time and see the results, which is just what I like.

The roads in OpenStreetMap are largely classified as primary (highways), secondary (regional roads), tertiary (local roads) and residential.

I decided to work on the first three and smaller sections connecting these classified as primary_link, secondary_link and tertiary_link. The first three for the most part are asphalt in Kosovo, and it’s easy to guess when this may not be the case. Being larger, it’s also easier to confirm on aerial photography that they are indeed paved in asphalt.

First, getting a view of the situation. Here, Overpass turbo is great.

This code will highlight all the primary road surfaces that haven’t been specified.

[out:json][timeout:25];
way["highway"~"primary"]["surface"!~"."]({{bbox}});
out geom;

Change primary with secondary, tertiary, primary_link and so forth.

Next, map editing.

Going through roads one by one and looking at status is tedious. Here comes JOSM and the amazing filtering function I hadn’t used before.

Open Windows > Filter and enter:

highway=primary

Check E (enable) and I (inverse).

For the downloaded area of the map, this will highlight surfaces that need to be specified. Referring to all the aerial imagery available, change them to surface=asphalt and upload.

And voila, almost all primary, secondary and tertiary road surfaces in Kosovo have been completed. In some rear cases I couldn’t tell from aerial imagery available what the status was. I also didn’t work on residential roads which are much more in number but less critical for navigation and where local knowledge would be quite helpful.

Happy mapping!

Hey gang!

I went on a roughly 2-week hiatus because I was visiting my uncle down south. However, I am back and hopefully able to work on OSM more

The first thing I did when I came back was deal with some very old vandalism that was somehow undetected? So I managed to clear all that up and am now remapping it correctly

Anyways, thats enough from me! Goodbye!

NK-Mapper

ok

Another year has passed since my last entry, and it’s about two years ago that I resided in Bonaire for half a year. I want to visit again, but there’s that man on the side of my shoulder whispering things about a sustainable world :) (Meaning I can’t simply visit for a couple of weeks, but should stay for a longer period of time.)

Last year (2024), the Dutch government made high resolution aerial photos of Bonaire. I’ve already updated and mapped several areas based on this. As this information is both high resolution and recent it is very useful for mapping. You can find more information about this on https://www.beeldmateriaal.nl/dataroom-caribisch-nederland

In 2023 I stayed at the Hausmann Follies apartment complex. To compare the image quality, look at these photos:

Bing resolution:

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Introduction

Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team (HOT) is an international team dedicated to humanitarian action and community development through open mapping.

Accurate and up-to-date data is essential for effective humanitarian response. Validators use tools such as JOSM and the HOT Tasking Manager to identify and flag errors and mistakes. From experience, i know that this is a complex and time-consuming endeavor.

One tool to save time and enhance the validation process is OSMCha.

The funding for OSMCha is currently at risk, which could lead to the degradation of this invaluable tool. In this diary, i want to highlight the essential role OSMCha plays in my own (and other’s) validation and quality maintenance workflow.

What is OSMCha

OpenStreetMap Changeset Analyzer (OSMCha) is a tool designed to monitor and analyze changes made to OpenStreetMap data. It enables data validators to quickly identify potential issues, track changes, and ensure data quality.

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peraia δευκαλιωνος 35

In collaboration with a local team in Grünstadt, Mannheimer Mapathons e.V. completed the mapping of the historic Jewish cemetery in early 2024 after five months of data collection. The cemetery was used by the important Jewish community from around 1700 to around 1937 and comprises 464 gravestones that are still visible. A high-precision Sparkfun RTK Facet GPS receiver was used for the survey. A map has been available online since May 2024. In recent weeks, with the support of the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies, the names and dates of many of the oldest purely Hebrew gravestones have been catalogued and integrated into the map data. The translation work will continue with the aim of supporting both descendants and historical research.

In Zusammenarbeit mit einem lokalen Team in Grünstadt hat Mannheimer Mapathons e.V. nach fünf Monaten Datenerhebung Anfang 2024 die Kartierung des historischen jüdischen Friedhofs abgeschlossen, berichtet RCD49. Der Friedhof wurde von der bedeutenden jüdischen Gemeinde etwa von 1700 bis ca. 1937 genutzt und umfasst 464 noch sichtbare Grabsteine. Für die Erfassung kam ein hochpräziser Sparkfun RTK Facet GPS-Empfänger zum Einsatz. Seit Mai 2024 ist eine Karte online verfügbar. In den letzten Wochen wurde mit Unterstützung von der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg begonnen, Namen und Daten von vielen der ältesten rein hebräischen Grabsteine zu erschließen und in die Kartendaten zu integrieren. Die Übersetzungsarbeit wird fortgesetzt, mit dem Ziel, sowohl Nachkommen als auch historische Forschungen zu unterstützen.

I have continued mapping Happy Valley Goose Bay. I noticed that the ESRI world imagery isn’t particularly good. I could do with some more or better data, and I may have to do some drone flights to get it.

I have also started to reach out for data in the surrounding towns.

Bliss

Map update during Summer Holidays mostly using StreetComplete, Osmand, JOSM

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Hello!
I’ve been mapping in OpenStreetMap for a few years now, and I believe the current method of mapping routes is quite painful and wastes hours of editors’ times to just upkeep it, So, here is my idea on how we could fix it.

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The Idea

In essence, it is to have just one start node and one end node, the router (using the bus profile) then calculates the route deterministically, with additional points in between added only as needed to achieve the desired path.

For example, in the case above, the route can be simplified from 123 ways down to just 5 nodes representing the path. (In reality there would be nodes at every station, so it wouldn’t be as few as 5)

This approach is;

• Resilient to edits,

• So many times easier to maintain.

I’ve compiled Valhalla on Linux and created a quick proof of concept program showing this can already be implemented (unofficially) in custom code.

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