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News — 19 May, 2017

OpenStreetMap on the Humanitarian Data Exchange

The Export Tool is now pushing customised OpenStreetMap (OSM) data through to the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) platform. Buildings, points of interest, roads and waterways datasets for the countries of Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali are now available as SHP, GPKG, IMG and KML files. The integration tool, nicknamed OSM2HDX has the ability to automate data updates at set intervals and allows the administrators to select any country for export.

The Export Tool is now pushing customised OpenStreetMap (OSM) data through to the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) platform. Funding was generously provided by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to enhance the tool and extend it to HDX. Led by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), HDX is now hosting OSM datasets for buildings, points of interest, roads and waterways.

 



The integration tool, nicknamed OSM2HDX is not limited to these 5 features. It was designed with flexibility and expansion in mind, making use of YAML to customise datasets, specifying which OSM features and tags should be included. This is the same language that will be used to extract map features and attribute information from OSM by the Export Tool after it’s re-launch in July this year. YAML, or the ‘YAML Ain't Markup Language’ is a simple human-readable structured data format, that is converted into the Standard Query Language (SQL) to request for information from the OSM database.

 

buildings:

 types:

   - polygons

 select:

   - name

   - building

   - building:levels

   - building:materials

   - addr:housenumber

   - addr:street

   - addr:city

   - addr:full

   - office

 where: building IS NOT NULL

 

Keeping the flexibility trend going, the OSM2HDX integration tool also has the ability to set automated data update intervals and allows the administrators to select any country for export, unlike the current version of the Export Tool, that is restricted to many regions in the Southern Hemisphere. Pilot datasets that were produced as part of the OSM2HDX development include Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali, which are now available as SHP, GPKG, IMG and KML files on HDX.

 

 

Senegal

  1. Buildings |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_senegal_buildings

  2. Points of Interest |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_senegal_points_of_interest

  3. Roads |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_senegal_roads

  4. Waterways |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_senegal_waterways

 

Guinea

  1. Buildings |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_guinea_buildings

  2. Points of Interest |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_guinea_points_of_interest

  3. Roads |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_guinea_roads

Waterways |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_guinea_waterways

 

 

Liberia

  1. Buildings |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_liberia_buildings

  2. Points of Interest |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_liberia_points_of_interest

  3. Roads |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_liberia_roads

  4. Waterways |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_liberia_waterways

 

Sierra Leone

  1. Buildings |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_sierra_leone_buildings

  2. Points of Interest |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_sierra_leone_points_of_interest

  3. Roads |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_sierra_leone_roads

  4. Waterways |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_sierra_leone_waterways

 

Mali

  1. Buildings |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_mali_buildings

  2. Points of Interest |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_mali_points_of_interest

  3. Roads |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_mali_roads

  4. Waterways |  https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_mali_waterways

 

HDX is a great place to find data that can be easily downloaded and used for humanitarian purposes, and the data team have already put the OSM2HDX tool to use, generating datasets for Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Please watch the OpenStreetMap on HDX demo video on the HOT YouTube channel, to learn how to access the OSM datasets on HDX, and take full advantage of the site’s functionality, like the OSM feature attribute links, accompanying metadata, and how to contact the contributor and view the area of interest on OSM Analytics.


HOT would also like to extend a special thank you to the HDX team for working closely with us to get all the requirements needed, as well as to the developers Brandon Liu and Seth Fitzsimmons for making it happen and creating an integration tool that will streamline the flow of OSM data, into the hands of humanitarians.