Introduction

The ESA Hub Fellowship was a deeply enriching and practical learning experience that significantly strengthened my skills in geospatial data production, validation, and humanitarian mapping. From the beginning, the fellowship introduced me to the mission of ESA Hub and the critical role that open geospatial data plays in disaster response, resilience building, and inclusive decision-making. I developed a strong understanding of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) ecosystem, humanitarian mapping principles, and the workflows of the HOT Tasking Manager, which laid a solid foundation for meaningful contributions to real-world projects.

Throughout the fellowship, I gained extensive hands-on experience in mapping and contributing to several humanitarian and disaster response projects. Using tools such as iD Editor and JOSM, I digitized key features including buildings, roads, waterways, and other critical infrastructure from high-resolution satellite imagery. I actively contributed to projects supporting humanitarian response in Sudan, Mapping for disaster resilience in Elgeyo Marakwet, and emergency response efforts for Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, among many other projects. These contributions helped improve the availability and quality of geospatial data in under-mapped and disaster-affected regions, supporting responders and planners on the ground.

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As of December 13th, 2025, Swift and Portal interlockings have been renamed to “Old Swift” and “Old Portal”. Tracks and signals have also been renamed (2 turned into 22 and 3 turned into 33). I’ve already put in the edits.

OSM: osm.org/#map=16/40.75308/-74.09527

Openrailwaymap: https://openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=40.7532&lon=-74.1037&zoom=15

NYW1-23-b: https://archive.org/details/AMTK-NEC-employee-timetable-supplemental-bulletin-20251213-NYW1-23-b

Current NEC ETT: Amtrak - Northeast Corridor Employee Timetable 2025-11-03, Special Instructions

As always, I put all bulletins and new employee timetables in this list on Archive.org

Amtrak’s FOIA office is now really fast. I can get bulletins the same day they are requested. Back in August they were much slower but now that I’m doing these every month they are on top of it.

During the fellowship, I learned how to validate more effectively, especially by using filters, search functions, and setting up map paint styles. I became better at identifying issues, mapping across different countries, and validating data from other regions. This helped me understand mapping more deeply, including the different shapes of buildings across countries. I also gained a stronger grasp of quality standards and grew more comfortable using JOSM shortcuts. For example, while validating building footprints in Africa and later in Asia like Japan, North and South America, I noticed differences in building construction styles and settlement patterns. By applying filters and map paint styles, I was able to quickly identify inconsistencies such as overlapping polygons or missing tags and correct them. This experience not only improved my technical validation skills but also gave me a broader perspective on how mapping standards can be applied across diverse contexts.

During my validation mapping in Japan, I encountered a task where the same area had been mapped using two different imagery sources of Bing and Esri. This created alignment issues and inconsistencies in the data. Through the fellowship, I learned how to handle imagery offsets, switch between imagery layers and use search tools to trace a particular mapper’s edits. By applying these skills, I was able to identify the discrepancies, adjust the imagery and improve the overall quality of the map. This experience was particularly meaningful because it showed me how technical validation techniques like managing imagery sources and targeting specific edits can directly enhance data accuracy. It was a proud moment to see how my improved skills contributed to cleaner, more reliable mapping outputs.

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contributors

may I point you to our online mapathon?

Missing Maps London Online: Zoom

Our next Missing Maps mapathon will be Tuesday the 7th of April and will take place online from 19:00 – 21:15 (Europe/London)

The early month meeting is focused on new mappers with breakout rooms for iD, JOSM and mappers who want to learn about validation usually with JOSM. Get your free ticket .

This Mapathon will take place online! If you wish to attend, then please get a ticket and details for joining will be shared with you.

This event is London based in name only! Since we have moved to virtual events we have been getting attendees from all over the world - we heartily welcome this!

Schedule 19:00: Introduction to Missing Maps and practical information

19:15: iD Training / JOSM Training / Validator Training

21:00: Closing discussion and potential talks

I’m finally back to mapping after an unplanned 4-month break.

I usually have a casual but relatively consistent approach to mapping: every time I have to go somewhere new and my exact destination isn’t in OSM, I add it once I arrive; if the opening times of a place I visit regularly change, I update them, and so on. As of late, though, this just hasn’t happened. Either map data has become good enough for my everyday needs in Gothenburg, Sweden or I’ve been paying less attention than usual. Probably a little bit of both.

Right now, on the other hand, I’m visiting my family in Agrigento, Italy, and mapping is the perfect holiday activity for me: it can (to some extent) be done without a computer, which is a nice change of pace, and it gives me an excuse to be outisde, enjoy the warm weather and take all the side streets I haven’t explored before or have forgotten about. Plus, there’s so much to do here compared to Gothenburg!

Today I simply went for a walk and answered a bunchn of quick questions on StreetComplete. In the next few days, I want to try something more systematic, like updating information about what’s happening inside each of the buildings of the main street: a lot has changed since I last came. I’m also pondering trying to get one or two family members involved; we’ll see.

Started this year with a weekend mapping project: locate and map public traffic camera feeds from city’s website. Day 2 and I’m halfway done, about 130 out of ca 260 have live feed links now. Roughly 5 of them weren’t previously mapped at all.

Purpose of this diary entry is to save the checker scipt in publicly accessible place for unlikely reuse. Script scrapes all possible camera IDs and cross references them against already mapped feeds via overpass.

EDIT: Project was mostly completed as of 2026-01-02, changeset/176761784 outlines up to 10 missing cameras yet to be mapped.

Overpass query to get already mapped ones:

[out:json][timeout:25];
area(id:3600079510)->.searchArea;
node["contact:webcam"~ristm](area.searchArea);
out geom;

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Link to the Time Lapse Video of Amaravati (2015-2025)

Time lapse video of OSM has been of interest to me for more than 10 years. I learned to use QGIS in 2015 and made a physical map of Andhra Pradesh in my first attempt. Learning QGIS with its myriad menus and concepts of GIS was daunting to venture further during my infrequent attempts. Finally I made my first time lapse video after 10 years. I found OSM contributor radiotrefoil's diary entry on the subject posted about an year back very helpful. Still I had to struggle to make a good video for OSM edits for Amaravati, the green field capital of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh, a province of India. This is an attempt to document my learnings and make it easier for others.

Choosing an area of interest and fetching data

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My New Year’s resolution is to try not to lose any interest in mapping!

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How do I do that?

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I don’t know.

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What about you guys, what is your New Year’s Resolution related to mapping?

Last weekend I traveled to the west coast of Java, specifically Anyer in Banten. The journey was done by train from Jakarta to Cilegon, followed by a local shared minivan taxi to Anyer.

Throughout the trip, I collected field observations using Sakumap. The result was a raw GeoJSON file containing coordinates and timestamps for each entry.

For observations I considered significant, I wrote a detailed report on the OSM Wiki. Less critical features such as restaurants, fuel stations, farms, and forest areas were added directly to OpenStreetMap by importing the Sakumap GeoJSON into iD Editor or JOSM, without additional documentation on the wiki, as the overhead did not seem justified.

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Hey, this is my first post here and I think it would be fitting if I’d tell all of you why I even created an account here and started making my own edits on OSM.

Background

First, you need to know that I’m a student at Westpomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin in department of computer science. That means that me, and 90% of people there are nerds with interests like: trains, transportation, hacking, programming, opensource and… well… maps.

How it started?

It all started during a normal day at University. We were walking from one building on campus to another when I noticed that my friend has a map open with a lot of pins and some questions on his phone. I asked him what it is and he told me about “Street Complete”. That’s it! I already knew that my ADHD butt found a new hyperfocus for the indefinite amount of time. I installed it and 3 of us started adding the detail information on the map around our campus.

Street Complete era

So… for the next few days I had Street Complete open on my phone during every tram ride and every walk. I wanted to fill every question. This took some time, I answered some question around the Poland in Szczecin, Kielce, and recently in Wałcz.

Taste for more

Right now I’m at my family house in a village where most OSM information where updated several years ago. I went on a walk and - as usual - opened Street Complete. It was great until I came by a few buildings that were demolished few years ago, but were never deleted from the map. I knew that I can’t just leave them there and I couldn’t do this from Street Complete. I went back home and booted my laptop. I opened the OSM editor for the first time and started making edits around the village. Adding houses that were build recently, deleting stuff that no longer existed, updating the zones, etc.

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My diary entries are all my own thoughts and do not represent OpenStreetMap, The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) or any organisation using the HOT systems. Any errors are all my own work.

Back in January 2025 I found myself mapping a HOT project in Kulob, Tajikstan. I had wanted to find a project to gain some experience of mapping water features and this project fit the bill. In support of a local tuberculosis screening programme, Médecins Sans Frontières required the update or addition of roadways, waterways and residential areas. No buildings. This was not a high priority project, so did not get much interest from the general HOT community. Only 11 mappers, with 3 completing tasks. Local mappers would be updating feature and area names. I mapped about 85% of the project, so I have a little stakeholder interest in the data use.

Around the same time I had started attending the Missing Maps London on-line mapathons early in month and mid-month events. As well as getting mapping advice, this put me in touch with the wider HOT mapping community. It turned out that Jorieke, the Kulob project manager, is a regular of the Missing Maps sessions. Along with several of my HOT on-line mapping colleagues, we met at SOTM Europe in Dundee .

Today Jorieke sent me a link to a podcast interview with one of the MSF doctors using the OSM data in Kulob. We rarely get to know about how our mapping supports end users, you can hear it here and discover other mapping related podcasts.

I was visiting Sa Pa, Vietnam, and navigating with Organic Maps. I was looking for a street that would bring me back to the city center. I could not see any on OSM or Google Maps. I walked for a while and was able to see a street that led in the right direction. It turns out that it connected to another street that brought me where I wanted to go. This made me realize how much of the useful information in maps depends on people walking, running, or commuting through those streets. You cannot see these kinds of streets from satellite images. You can only know them, but knowing them, you may not use GPS tracking to record them. I think this leaves only runners and anyone who likes walking to discover most of the streets that are not currently on the map.

Klick hier für Deutsch

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Dear OSM Community

The OSM Apps Catalog presents existing apps based on OSM data.

I have plans to redesign the OSM Apps Catalog. In particular, I want to make the landing page and the detailed view of the apps more accessible to a wider audience.

To understand what this needs, I have created a survey. Please fill it out and share your perspective with me. I would be very grateful if you could forward the survey to people who are not particularly interested in technology. This perspective is especially important to me.

Click here for the survey.

Best regards

Markus aka ToastHawaii

dataset column i: A0025A

rel62578,r2613711,r2613712,r2613713,r2613714,r2613715,r2613716,r2613717,r2613718,r2613719,r2613720,r2613721,r2613722,r2613723,r2613724,r2613725,r2613726,r2613727,r2613728,r2613729,r2613730,r2613731,r2613732,r2613733,r2613734,r2613735,r2613736,r2613737,r2613738,r2613739,r2613740,r2613741,r2613742,r2613743,r2613744,r2613745,r2613746,r2613747,r2613748,r2613749,r2613750,r2613751,r2613752,r2613753,r2613754,r2613755,r2613756,r2613757,r2613758,r2613759,r2613760,r2613761,r2613762,r2613763,r2613764,r2613765,r2613766,r2613767,r2613768,r2613769,r2613770,r2613771,r2613772,r2613773,r2613774,r2613775,r2613776,r2613777,r2613778,r2613779,r2613780,r2613781,r2613782,r2613783,r2613784,r2613785,r2613786,r2613787,r2613788,r2613789,r2613790,r2613791,r2613792,r2613793,r2613794,r2613795,r2613796,r2613797,r2613798,r2613800,r2613801,r2613802,r2613803,r2613804,r2613805,r2776569

[out:xml][timeout:25];{{geocodeArea:Köln}}->.searchArea;rel["admin_level"~"6|9|10"](area.searchArea);out meta;

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Panama Canal Authority–Supported Open Data Initiative

Background and Context

The Los Chorros de Ciri basin, located west of Panama City, is a hydrologically and socially important watershed that supports rural communities while contributing to regional water security. In recognition of this dual importance, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) funded a high-resolution mapping project focused on community-oriented outcomes and long-term public benefit.

This project represents a shift away from closed, single-purpose GIS deliverables toward open geospatial data that can support community planning, environmental stewardship, and collaborative mapping initiatives.

Project Objectives

The mapping effort was designed around the following goals:

• Generate high-accuracy base mapping of the Los Chorros de Ciri basin using drone photogrammetry
• Identify and document community presence within the watershed
• Release derived GIS products for public and open-source use

Data Acquisition and Processing

Drone Photogrammetry Surveys

Multiple drone missions were conducted in early September 2025, covering discrete but adjacent blocks within the basin. The surveys achieved consistent, high-resolution coverage suitable for both environmental and community-scale mapping.

Key characteristics of the datasets include:

• Area coverage exceeding 9 square kilometers across all survey blocks
• Ground sampling distance between 4 and 5 centimeters
• Full image reconstruction for all flights
• Dense point clouds exceeding hundreds of millions of points per block

These datasets were processed using WebODM Lightning and generated orthophotos, digital surface models, and digital terrain models suitable for GIS analysis and mapping.

Accuracy and Quality Control

Survey accuracy was evaluated using GPS and 3D error metrics derived during processing. Reported results indicate:

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I am proposing a major initiative to “ratify” and enhance the military fortification data on OpenStreetMap. This project actually began with a very specific personal goal: identifying and submitting newly discovered nodes for the UKBOTA (UK Bunkers On The Air) scheme.

UKBOTA is a fantastic amateur radio award program that encourages the “activation” of historical bunkers and pillboxes. While searching for sites to submit to their database, I realized that while many valid sites exist in specialized archaeological records, our coverage on OSM is often incomplete, misplaced, or lacks the specific metadata (like precise coordinates and typology) required for schemes like UKBOTA. This led me to a broader vision: cross-referencing our map with high-quality datasets—specifically the Extended Defence of Britain (eDoB) database.

The Vision

I have been in discussion with Matt Aldred, the lead developer of the eDoB Online viewer, about bridging his extensive research with our global map. The eDoB database is an evolution of the original Defence of Britain project, offering corrected coordinates, Lidar verification, and specific structural classifications.

By aligning these datasets, we don’t just help the radio community; we create a professional-grade, ratified record of these historical assets for everyone. With tens of thousands of potential nodes to process, doing this entirely by hand would be a nightmare. Therefore, I am proposing a structured bulk import and data enrichment project, conducted in full compliance with the OSM Import Guidelines.

Integration with Wikidata

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Normal

So it is almost the end of the year, I thought what if I created a summary blog of what I did.

In Hungary: I’m only doing small edits in my neighborhood if some changes happen

Outside of Hungary: Had a small “let’s map Europe” thing, and added forest/farmland land cover/land uses to several countries (Lithuania, Greece, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Austria, Republic of Cyprus) And also mapped in some U.S. states, main focus on West Virginia (finally finished it after almost 5 years of mapping: June 2020 till Feb 2025 - read diary entry here: osm.org/user/ottwiz/diary/406073) and Pennsylvania, where I clean up the huge multipolygon mess after some users not taking enough care broke a huge 1k sq km big multipolygon.

So this led me to start fixing up. Of course my goal is to map the forest cover of Pennsylvania as much as possible but it’s a way harder task than West Virginia was. Quality-wise, I try to make the quality of it better than it was, so more accurate and more aligns to the imagery than it’s just a roughly drawn something. (Of course if the terrain is rough, i compare the imagery with other services’ available for OSM)

Other than that, I mapped other states a bit as well like Washington, Alaska, Virginia, Texas just to name a few, but not all of them.

I wish you all a Mappy New Year! - Ottwiz

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I worked on Norse and Orchard in Golden Colorado. The area could use some mapping love.

Info from:

https://gis.jeffco.us/webmaps/pzpublic/index.html