It's not ideal, there are so many that to really check which building is the more accurate takes time. Determine which imagery is the most up to date and which is best aligned. More time than to map the building using the buildings_tool plugin from JOSM.

I used to do validation on HOT projects but there is so many imperfections and buildings really are quicker to map than correct that I gave up. These days I do clean up on the enamel bucket scale rather than the test tube scale.

Most NGOs and people like census or delivery people want to know roughly where a building is and how many there are. Multiply the number of buildings by say six and you have a rough estimate of population. Having an incorrect number of buildings is a pain in the neck.

So yes it isn't perfect but neither is HOT mapping and I think it's worth doing even if I don't make a change set comment on each building I intend to delete before deleting.

The process is to load a block of the database into JOSM so typically it will be 24 hours out of date but not more than 56 hours. Then I run a script which identifies buildings with more than 50% overlap.

These get loaded into a JOSM Todo list and individually inspected. One of the two buildings is then normally deleted. It's not perfect but I've added in some hundred or so untagged buildings and deleted more than a couple of thousand duplicate buildings in Zambia.
I note that they are trying to do a census using building data from OSM so this is to try and clean up Zambia or as much as I can before they start.

I'm not deleting buildings that do not appear in Bing only ones that overlap usually by 90% another building. Some have been uploaded twice, some have been mapped twice by the same mapper. Most are HOT mapped.

Hopefully that will reassure you.

There are untagged ways in here with lots of relationships on bus stops. Any chance of them getting cleaned up?

There is an untagged way here at the bus stop. highway=service perhaps?

Try looking at the history of the village to see who made the change. To the best of my knowledge I haven't added any postcodes.

There seems to be a large number of untagged ways here

b=Nonwe ?

name=Nonwe?

name=Rusambi perhaps?

currently n=Rusambi

way/311554998#map=19/36.68523/2.80106

There seems to be a lot of duplicate buildings in here. Could you take a look please.

Could you take a look at this duplicate building?

way/588378427#map=19/36.61216/2.87488

Thanks

If you look at the history you'll see this area was tagged as a building but had buildings within it. I removed the building=yes tag but thought to try to indicate it was healthcare. I've removed the landuse tag as you suggested.

Yes I was using a script to identify duplicate buildings but then they are manually examined in JOSM before taking any action.

Not valid as not in the wiki? Lots of things are not in the wiki.

Have fun, next time if it's one of mine just correct it and send me a note.

Thanks John

I'm not sure if you can tell from imagery. I tend to use unclassified between settlements since 4x4s and motorcycles can use practically anything. I find Bing to load faster, and ESRI clarity useful for picking out highways. The question was asked because I'm cynical and I've seen Apple mappers change unclassified to track but you seem sane enough. I've extended the paths into the settlements to make the job of the routing software a little easier and I'm glad to see someone else adding highways in Niger.

Are you local?

If not on what basis are you reclassifying to paths?

according to the African highway wiki a highway connecting two settlements is never a track. Probably an unclassified.

osm.wiki/Highway_Tag_Africa

You appear to have mapped a building over an existing building that was mapped a year before you mapped.

This doesn't add to the data quality side of things.

I'll clean up but please do not remap existing buildings.

For comparison have a look at "corktown footbridge ottawa". I first mapped it in 2011, look at the path leading up to it. If you look at the history you'll see at least 8 changes. My original has been deleted.

Locally the road my house is on has had 19 changes, a nearby residential street has 11 changes.

As Africa gets more mappers so I think you'll see more refinements.

John

Cheerio John

It depends on the requirements. Looking at it the highway connects a number of villages. Satellite imagery is accurate to 60 meters. The tiles are corrected by Bing etc. If you look at the imagery four years age you'd have seen the images at different levels did not always line up.

From a functional point of view there is a highway that connects these settlements. It might be a few meters off from time to time but routing software can find a route. The highway is connected across the settlements.

This is basic mapping. Getting more accurate mapping takes more time and there are parts of Africa that don't yet have even the larger settlements mapped.

Over time I expect the map to get refined which is not unreasonable.

I understand your mapping standards are high and you would like more accurate mapping but I don't think the resources were available four years ago to map to the standards you desire.

Sorry John

Can you be more specific? As you say it was some years ago.

In general I map where settlements are, I suspect ones with huts may move, and highways that connect them. I live in hope that some local mappers will sort things out. This one even looks like a HOT project?

John

Is this landuse residential really called area to be digitalised?

Is it really a settlement?

Is the settlement name really "Area to be digitalised"