Prepared by Ian Lopez presented by Eugene Alvin Villar for State of the Map 2013 Philippines

1. Using OpenStreetMap Quality
Assurance Tools
Ian Lopez
December 2013

2. What are “Quality Assurance
Tools” in the OpenStreetMap
context?

3. According to the OpenStreetMap Wiki, Quality
assurance tools “help lead to better quality of OSM
data. Often, the tools achieve this by providing a list of
bugs in the data, which mappers can then go and fix
using editing tools. The bugs are either automatically
detected based on rules and data analysis, or the tools
provide a means of manually reporting them, or some
combination of the two. There are many different ideas
for how to do this, and what kind of bugs to focus on,
hence many different tools. ”

4. It means that those tools help improve
OpenStreetMap data by looking for and
identifying various errors, whether automatically
or from on-the-ground surveys. Once identified
and connected, errors can be fixed.
There are various tools that identify various
types of errors.

5. Some QA Tools used by PH-based OSM
contributors:

6. Notes
Notes, a feature in the OSM website, is used to improve OSM data by adding
details that can be added by more experienced OpenStreetMap
contributors.
It is similar to OpenStreetBugs in many aspects (ability to create or comment
anonymously, allows everyone to report cartographically-relevant
information for OSMers to act upon)
To add a note, click the bottom tool bar button on the right side of the main
OSM map. Then, leave a short message on the map if something is missing
or obviously wrong, like “new residential road starts here" or “restaurant
closed, replaced by a barber shop". Add the message understandably and
thoughtfully. In some cases, you may have to be specific (Example: new
bakery along X Avenue between 54th and 56th Streets).
Notes about notes: Do not add personal notes using this feature.

7. A screenshot showing a recently-added note

8. Keep Right
Keep Right checks for data consistencies in OSM data. It checks on the
following:
•Highways that do not intersect
•Highways and waterways that intersect (without a bridge or tunnel tag)
•Overlapping ways
•Geometry glitches
•Turn restrictions
•Missing tags
•FIXME-tagged items
•Intersections without junctions

9. A screenshot showing various errors and issues in Keep Right

10. Validator (JOSM Plugin)
Validator used to be a JOSM plugin, but is now an integral part of JOSM. It’s a
feature that checks and fixes invalid map data. It checks on and fixes the
following:
•Duplicated nodes and ways
•Self-intersecting ways
•Overlapping ways
•Crossing ways
•Turn restrictions
•Missing tags
•FIXME-tagged items
•Intersections without junctions
•Untagged ways

11. A screenshot showing JOSM’s Validator in action

12. OSM Inspector
OSM Inspector is a web based debugging tool for advanced OpenStreetMap
users offered by Geofabrik, a German company that specializes in
cartography. It shows layers specializing in different views, like routing,
tagging and geometry. However, some layers like addresses, boundaries and
public transportation are limited to Europe. Some countries like Netherlands,
Austria and Germany have specialized layers connected with data imports.

13. A screenshot showing OSM Inspector

14. Other QA Tools used by PH-based OSM
contributors:

16. Attributions
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Slide 1: Map of UP Los Baños, Laguna. Taken from http://tools.geofabrik.de/map/?
type=Geofabrik_Topo&lon=121.24150&lat=14.16223&zoom=16
OpenStreetBugs screenshot from http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-street-bugs-goodreporter.html
Information taken from various OpenStreetMap Wiki articles: OpenStreetBugs, Notes, OSM Inspector
Other screenshots created by Ian Lopez