Analysis of OpenStreetMap Data Quality for Selected Counties in Poland in Terms of Sustainable Development

Abstract

One potential source of geospatial open data for monitoring sustainable development goals (SDG) indicators is OpenStreetMap (OSM). The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the spatial data quality elements of OSM against the national official data—the database of topographic objects at a scale of 1:10,000. Such spatial data quality elements as location accuracy, data completeness and attribute compatibility were analysed. In the conducted OpenStreetMap tests, basic land-cover classes such as roads, railroads, river network, buildings, surface waters and forests were analysed. The test area of the study consisted of five counties in Poland, which differ in terms of location, relief, surface area and degree of urbanization. The best results of the quality of OSM spatial data were obtained for highly urbanized areas with developed infrastructure and a high degree of affluence. The highest degree of completeness of OSM linear and area objects in the studied counties was acquired in Piaseczyński County (82%). The lowest degree of completeness of the line and area objects of OSM in the studied counties was obtained in the Ostrowski County (51%). The calculated correlation coefficient between the quality of OSM data and the income per capita in the county was 0.96. The study complements the previous research results in the field of quantitative analysis of the quality of OSM data, and the obtained results confirm their dependence on the geometric type of the analysed objects and characteristics of test areas, i.e., in this case counties in Poland. The obtained results of OSM data quality analysis indicate that OSM data may provide strong support for other spatial data, including official and state data. OSM stores significant amounts of geospatial data with relatively high data quality that can be a valuable source for monitoring some SDG indicators.