The short answer is: no, these historical map sheets should not be used for tracing into OpenStreetMap. They are a useful historical reference.

The licence situation varies by map series, and I do not want to give a single blanket statement. Many of the sheets are now 50+ years since they were published and are now out of copyright, while for others the copyright position is unclear. For example, with some Department of Overseas Surveys (DOS) sheets covering Eswatini, Zambia and Malawi, the original organisation no longer exists and I have not been able to clearly establish who, if anyone, is the copyright successor.

For the Zimbabwe sheets, I have tried contacting the Surveyor-General without success so far.

My view is that these maps are best treated as a useful historical reference, not as a source for directly adding geometry to OpenStreetMap. They should not be traced into OSM. There is significantly better aerial imagery and modern source material available for mapping current roads, buildings and other features.

Where the historical maps can be useful is for researching factual and historical information, such as older place names, rivers, settlements, railways, roads, schools and other features. Even then, care is needed, as some names and features may have changed over the last 30+ years.

The situation is different for the South African topographic series, where OpenStreetMap has direct usage permission and has had helpful assistance from the Chief Directorate: National Geospatial Information (CD:NGI).

For Namibia, I know the Namibian Surveyor-General is aware of my site, and I have not received any complaints or concerns.

I realise the situation is not ideal, but the aim of the project is to preserve and make accessible important historical map material that is becoming increasingly difficult to find. If I receive any formal concerns or complaints, I will of course respond appropriately and adapt the project where necessary.

Zimbabwe next: osm.org/user/Firefishy/diary/408870

https://eswatini-topo.openstreetmap.org.za/ is now online.

Zimbabwe, Malawi and Lesotho are in progress, but will need crowdfunding to progress them further.

https://eswatini-topo.openstreetmap.org.za/ is now online.

Zimbabwe, Malawi and Lesotho are in progress, but will need crowdfunding to progress them further.

Correction: Not all the Eswatini sheets I have are full sheet scans. Many have already been cropped.

For Namibia I only have a few as full sheet scans. The copyright of the original sheets is ambiguous as they were published by the South African government prior to Namibian independence. The South African national mapping agency are more than happy with us using their South African sheets and they are listed on osm.org/copyright . I’ve contacted the Namibian national agency before, but never had a reply.

For Eswatini all are full sheet scans. For Zimbabwe ~60% of the sheets I have already, the majority are full sheet scans. All sheets I have the year they were published. I am paying a professional GIS person to help crop and georectify the sheets to allow creating a seamless mosaic.

Eswatini copyright on artistic works is 50 years, many of the sheets are already out of copyright and would be a suitable source for OpenStreetMap. I will reach our to the national mapping agency of Eswatini. I intend to copy all sheets to archive.org

What is the URL of the tiles you are using? Processed tile.openstreetmap.org usage data is published here: https://planet.osm.org/tile_logs/

fantomas, the disk space requirement isn’t an issue. The users table is 35 GB, the spam will be ~ 15 GB. By comparison the way_nodes table is 3735 GB.

Thank you. Enjoyed reading about your Sark mapping adventure.

Could you expand on what you mean? Do you mean using OpenStreetMap tile limits? It is very rare for us to enforce any limits on tile users.

Approximately 9.5 million users account have been removed for various reasons. The primary reason for the account removal was because the account was created exclusively for posting SEO spam, most of these limited the spam to their user profile page.

I estimate around 1.5 million active accounts are still due to be removed because they were created only to post SEO spam.

In the next couple of weeks I will publish sample ham/spam data and ask the community for help in creating a service to help us identify spam.

Nice! I’d be interested to hear what the accuracy is like.

I think the device can also be fed NTRIP data and switched into RTK onboard mode.

Nice work!

We also have a strong policy against spam and unsolicited commercial advertising. Spam is removed and reported, it will negatively affect your search engine rankings.

Could you give a link to the map where you are seeing them? Or post a photo to community.openstreetmap.org and post community site link here.

You do not appear to have any edits. What is the issue?

Likely better ask this question on the forum: https://community.openstreetmap.org/c/communities/br/55

Happy cow is a vegan online business directory / review site. Often establishments display they are registered, similar to CAMRA membership.

@rafnow87 Wow! Thank you.

I’ve had no luck purchasing the sheets. After good communication with the archive they went silent and appear to be ghosting me. :-(

Hi,

Quick introduction, I am a complete outsider to your edits and whatever is being removed.

I briefly looked and it looks like you also map historic and abandoned railway lines like I do. I map primarily in South Africa. eg: https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=standard&lat=-32.88052423094326&lon=25.803322792053223&zoom=14

OpenStreetMap has a strong preference to map the current word, and there is definitely a huge amount to map. Mapping historic stuff can be challenging. I have been changed much of railway=abandoned to railway=razed over time, the line and rail is gone, maybe a track bed is left at best. I try not get my mapping in the way of mapping the current world. I map a lot of current state too.

Mapping stations, halts, sidings that have gone are also challenging. I need to ensure they do not “appear” in current data. So prefix abandoned:railway is often used.

Be respectful to all other mappers and try work out their point of view too.

Happy mapping

/ Grant