Leveraging OpenStreetMap for Asset Inventories

Overview

1. Housekeeping
2. Why
3. How
4. In the Field

At Kendall County, we don’t do much with utilities or public works. But we have this idea that we’ve talked about with some of our peers who do. When we saw the theme for this meetup, we figured it was a good enough excuse to finally give this idea a test drive.

So, can you do asset inventories in OpenStreetMap? Sure, of course you can! But we’re more interested in asking: what would it look like if you did? And why would you want to?

We’ll start by talking through some of the technical details of the process, then we’ll shift to look at some real examples. If there’s time, we might even do a live demonstration!

Disclaimers! Soapboxes! Bragging!

When we say “asset”…

• Above ground
• Publicly accessible
• Easily identifiable

You can map almost anything in OSM, but one of the guiding principles in OSM is verifiability. You should be able to look at a place in aerial imagery or visit in person and say “yeah, that really is a picnic table”.

There are people mapping all kinds of utilities, even underground, but we wanted to focus on features that were more likely to be encountered by the general public, and which would be more directly beneficial to having mapped. We chose public park amenities: fountains, playgrounds, benches, and the like.

Kendall & OSM

• Supporting member - OSM Foundation
• Supporting member - OSM US local chapter
• Regular participant in OSMUS Government Working Group

We don’t get anything out of these memberships, other than a nice warm feeling inside. That, and the knowledge that we work for the coolest county ever.

GWG:

The mission of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) and U.S. Government Working Group is to seek out mutually beneficial relationships between the public and open data communities.

So, yeah. I would love to encourage all of you to dive in and get involved with OSM in your areas. I’m not here to give you the full sales pitch, but talk to me later.

Why would you?

So, why might you do this? Why would you put your inventory information, your asset locations, etc., into a publicly editable space? Seems crazy on its face.

I think there are some good reasons why it isn’t crazy, and in fact make OSM look particularly attractive.

Cost

Using OpenStreetMap is free! ¹

• No user types
• No special licenses
• No credits
• No add-ons

With open source things, one of the biggest factors for organizations is cost. And with OSM, you don’t have to pay for anything if you don’t want to!

1. Just don’t forget the attribution

Apps

Rich ecosystem of applications already exist!

• Multi-purpose: editing, viewing, etc.
• Cross-platform: Linux, Mac, PC, iOS, Android, Web
• Most are also free

Whatever you’re doing and wherever you’re working, there’s a tool out there for you.

Backend

Website, API, database all managed by the OpenStreetMap Foundation

You don’t have to worry about it! ¹

The openness of how OSM operates is almost its own selling point, to me. With other geospatial for-profits, have you ever wondered how your licensing costs are actually being spent? You don’t get to know!

1. If you want to worry about it, the OSMF does everything out in the open, and welcomes membership and participation!

Flexibility

ATYL: Any Tag You Like

• Open-ended attribute scheme
• Add necessary attributes as you go
• Never republish, start/stop a service

Collaboration

• Other users in your org
• Other orgs
• Local volunteer mappers

Alan Levine from Strawberry, United States, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Admittedly, this is one part that can be a double-edged sword. But anyone else on OSM can easily work on the same features.

Maybe you don’t review your data but once or twice a year, or when imagery gets updated. We’ve had local mappers adding roads, buildings, sidewalks, and the like, sometimes within days of those things being built in the real world.

Deep History

• All edits (geometry, attributes)
• Every feature
• Even deleted stuff!

Whatever worries you about your data, whether it’s vandals, accidental deletes, or something else, this should reassure you. For every feature in OSM, every edit is stored in the database as a series of changes, similar to a git repository. There is no edit to the database that can’t be recovered or reversed!

Also: a recovery or reversal is itself a tracked edit, so a record of both vandalism and remediation would both be part of the history.

Shown here is the boundary of the City of Plano, as it was first imported from a 2009 Census shapefile, and with several annexations and boundary adjustments made since then. Each of these were queried from OSM on the same day. The point is that old data is as accessible as new data with the right query

How to Do it, Generally

Add your data!

• Make sure your data is all in OSM
• Some of it might already be there…
• Conflate!

There are ways to bulk-load data into OSM, but you have to be very careful when attempting such a thing, especially if it’s the kind of feature that is likely to already be mapped.

New to OSM? Check out LearnOSM for info to get you started!

Tag it!

Some helpful tags:

tag	description
ref	an official identifier, when applicable
operator	who manages the asset
access	can the public go here / use this?
check_date	when an item was inspected, inventoried, etc
start_date	when an item was installed, built, opened, etc

Other tags

Check the OSM Wiki for the most common features and their tags.

Many editors have presets, too.

Sidewalks, Bike Paths

• Split lines and tag smoothness
• No ref tags

Urban Trees

Bart Everson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

• natural = tree
• taxon = quercus virginiana
• taxon:en = Live Oak
• denotation = urban
• historic = memorial
• memorial = tree
• inscription = Dedicated to the memory of John Doe

Be aware that the more granular the data is, the more arduous it will be to updat e and maintain.

Benches

Uoaei1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

• amenity = bench
• seats = 0
• backrest = no

But we have this other system…

What if you have another system for work orders, maintenance logs, and the like?

• Use a tool to convert OSM → standard database ¹
• Join tables on the ref tag / foreign key.
• Using Esri? It’s not hard to pass your OSM updates to a GDB

1. I gave a whole workshop on this. It’s not hard!

In the field

OSM Go!

https://osmgo.com/

• Android & Web
• Basic edits and inventorying
• Adds check_date automatically
• Great presets and tag filters

Adding features with OSM Go!

Checking and updating atributes on existing features with OSM Go!

Simple inventory: checking yes / no on features with OSM Go!

Live Demo?

Questions?