News — 25 October, 2017
Export Tool | 04 Applying Exported Data
This blog is the final in a series of ‘Learn Export Tool’ posts following the launch of the revamped tool on the 18th September 2017 and will share some examples of how OSM data can be used through the Export Tool. The first blog of the series was on ‘Selecting Area of Interest’, the second focused on ‘Data File Formats’ and the third looked at ‘Customising Map Features’.
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Export Tool allows users to create custom OpenStreetMap (OSM) extracts anywhere in the world, by selecting an area of interest, map features and file formats. Within minutes, up-to-date OSM data is exported, filtered and converted.
OSM data can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from recreational uses by an individual, to planning efforts by government bodies. It is quickly becoming the standard for baseline data around the world and is freely accessible under the Open Database License (ODbL), meaning that it can be queried, used, manipulated, contributed to and redistributed in any form as long as the contributors are credited.
This blog is the final in a series of ‘Learn Export Tool’ posts following the launch of the revamped tool on the 18th September 2017 and will share some examples of how OSM data can be used through the Export Tool. The first blog of the series was on ‘Selecting Area of Interest’ (September 25th), the second focused on ‘Data File Formats’ (October 2nd) and the third looked at ‘Customising Map Features’ (October 9th).
OSM not only provides the geospatial location of a feature, but it also contains detailed attribute information such as the name, address, capacity, structure type and number of levels for a building. Depending on the availability of attributes, known as tags, this additional information can be extremely valuable and impactful when used correctly, which differs from case to case. This blog looks at the use of OSM data extracted through the Export Tool in efforts towards hazard risk analysis and vaccination planning.
HOT has partnered with the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) and ImageCat on a Challenge Fund initiative, supported by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The project aims to develop an open global exposure database that can be used for multi-hazard risk analysis. The Global Exposure Database for All (GED4ALL), will be populated with OSM data at the building level, but exactly what data will be used?
GEM has years of experience conducting research in earthquake hazard risk assessment and developed a comprehensive ‘Building Taxonomy’ that helps to to describe and classify buildings in a uniform manner as a key step towards assessing their seismic risk. This taxonomy has been extended to include the impact of volcanoes, floods, storms, and droughts through collaboration with the British Geological Survey (BGS) and Epicentre at the University College London (UCL). The taxonomy looks at 13 building attributes, and although not all are generally available as tags in OSM, the information can be derived through further geometry analysis of the data, such as the direction, position, and shape of a building.
Table 1. GEM Taxonomy Vs. OSM Tags
Information relating to the building risk assessment building can easily be extracted from OSM through the Export Tool, which is also being used to populate GED4ALL. The data has been chosen to be exported into a geopackage file since only the building attributes identified by the GEM taxonomy are required, as the tags for the specified feature are filtered when a SHP or GPKG file is selected. Only features are filtered with the PBF file, with all the accompanying tags exported . The use of a YAML configuration was chosen, as this is the best way to select the data when specific building tags are known. The configuration was already saved in the Export Tool, which enables the user to simply select it from the ‘Configs’ section on the ‘3 Data’ tab.
Figure 1. Geopackage File Format
Figure 2. Saved Configs
Figure 3. GED4ALL Configuration
Figure 4. Exported Data
Once the export is ‘COMPLETED’, the geopackage can be downloaded and used with the OpenQuake Engine developed by GEM. OpenQuake is a free open source tool designed for earthquake hazard and risk modelling. The Risk Input Preparation Toolkit can be used to create an exposure risk input model required by OpenQuake for the risk modelling, based on the exported OSM data .
Figure 5. OpenQuake Platform
Data extracted through the Export Tool can also be used for vaccination planning, through a number of different ways. Population sizes can be estimated through the identification of villages and individual building counts. Selecting an appropriate location to set up distribution teams and store medical supplies, as well as creating the distribution map itself can be developed with the correct attribute information.
Figure 6. Vaccination Distribution
Building data can easily be selected through the Export Tool with the use of the Tag Tree, and OSM tags such as ‘capacity:persons’, ‘backup_generator’, ‘evacuation_center’, ‘shelter_type’, ‘water_source’, ‘kitchen:facilities’, ‘toilet:facilities’ and ‘toilets:number’ might prove useful to use when looking for a place suitable to use as a logistical base for distributing vaccinations. Health facilities, such as hospitals and clinics may be the first points of interest for distributing vaccinations, which can be extracted as a MAPS.ME file through the Export Tool to help route teams through mobile devices.
Table 2. YAML Configuration