Help us map where it counts

09.11.2024 - Joost Schouppe

With OpenStreetMap data becoming ever more relevant, more and more external parties want topics of interest to them to be mapped in great detail. Do you want to help on topics that we care most about? Have a look at the top mapping tasks list on the wiki!

Let us just highlight two organizations we are working with. First, Fietsberaad Vlaanderen is integrating their Velopark project with OpenStreetMap. A tool was developed to easily link OSM bicycle parkings to the official data in Velopark. This will in turn make it easier to fully integrate OSM data in their tool. As a little incentive for your contributions, you can apply for volunteer fees if you contribute to the project. More details via the forum.

Second, our corporate member the Belgian National Crisis Centre, intensively uses OpenStreetMap data in their crisis management application Paragon. With help from the community, they already developed the fire station data in OSM to be the best source for this info in Belgium. Current projects focus on:

• Hospitals: some hospitals are actually missing a main tag! But mostly the task is about adding official references (which will make it easier to link official data sources) and emergencies entrances
• Schools: for Paragon, having schools as polygons is a real added value. OSM is really not complete when it comes to schools! Some were mapped without a name, some are just a point, some are entirely missing
• Police stations: a lot of police stations in OSM cannot be found in official data. This is often because the station has closed, or it is not really a police station (but a back-office, a customs office, …)