Analysing the use of OpenAerialMap images for OpenStreetMap edits

Abstract

ABSTRACT OpenAerialMap (OAM) is a crowdsourcing platform for uploading, hosting, sharing, displaying, searching, and downloading openly licensed Earth image data from around the world. OAM was launched with the primary goal to facilitate rapid disaster response mapping after natural events, such as floods or hurricanes. Images contributed to OAM can be used as a background layer in OpenStreetMap (OSM) editors to edit map features, such as buildings or facilities, which may have been affected by such events. This study analyzes how the provision of OAM images is associated with changes in underlying editing patterns of OSM features by comparing the number of edited OSM objects between 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after an image has been shared through OAM. The comparison also involves other aspects of OSM editing patterns, including geometry types and OSM primary feature types of edited objects, type of feature editing operations, edits per user, and contribution distribution across continents. Results show that the number of point features added to OSM more than quadrupled within the first 2 weeks after OAM image upload compared to that of 2 weeks before, and that the number of ways added almost doubled. This suggests that the OSM community utilizes provided OAM images for OSM map updates in the respective geographic areas. The study provides a showcase which demonstrates how information from one crowdsourcing platform (OAM) can be used to enhance the data quality of another (OSM) with regards to completeness and timeliness.