Piura Mapping Guide

Piura, Peru

The Piura MapGive Field Project will introduce field data collection techniques in OpenStreetMap (OSM). The workshop will introduce a suite of skills and tools designed to empower participants with the capability to map Piura comprehensively. The open map data created can be used for various types of analysis and visualization. Data collection will focus on mappable infrastructure and amenities within human geography themes.

Go to project 1359 on the HOT Tasking Manager

OSM License

In order to coordinate the various mappers collaboratting on this task the OpenStreetMap Tasking Manager (OSMTM) is going to need to access your OSM account. If you havent logged in when you select a grid square to edit it OSMTM will ask permision at that time. Once logged OSMTM will ask you which editor you prefer to use. For first time editors iD may be the easiest. If imagery has been provided for the grid square you have selected than you may be required to agree to the terms of a license to make use of the imagery. If a license agreement appears at this stage please review it before signing.

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OSM iD Editor Settings Brightness Adjustment

Often the default brightness settings in iD editor makes the background imagery difficult to see, but increasing the brightness will help. You can do this in the “Background settings” tab (Shortcut: b).

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Tracing Roads

To trace a road, use the Line tool in iD Editor (Keyboard Shortcut: 2) and trace along the middle of the road. See below for an example of too few nodes (left), too many nodes (center), and the right amount of nodes (right).

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Classifying Roads

highway = *

All roads are classified as some type of highway. Roads are primarily classified based on their function. Tertiary roads connect villages and major streets in towns of some importance. Secondary and Primary roads connect medium and large cities. Motarways are restricted access highways. Sometimes it is difficult to immediately recognize what type of roads exist. An option is being able to re-classify some of the roads at a later point.

In this project, most of the roads you collect will be either a tertiary road, residential road, track, or path.

surface = *

In addition to using the highway tag, one can indicate the physical surface of the road with the surface tag:

Generically, a hard surface (asphalt, cobblestone, concrete…) is indicated with surface=paved and a soft one (ground, sand…) with surface=unpaved.

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Tertiary Roads

####highway = tertiary:

The most obvious, widest paths that you see should be classified as “tertiary roads”. These roads are easily seen in the drone imagery and will seem wide enough for two cars to pass.

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Residential Roads

highway = residential:

This tag is used for roads in or around residential areas except the major roads. Generally we would want you to classify a road this way if you suspect that it is used mostly by people that live on the road. Roads lined by residential buildings are good signs. If your unsure than use 'unclassified' value.

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Unclassified Roads

highway = unclassified:

This classification is used for minor public roads typically at the lowest level of the interconnecting grid network. Unclassified roads have lower importance in the road network than tertiary roads, and are not residential streets or agricultural tracks. Unclassified roads are considered usable by motor cars.

Tip: if a minor roads is not a residential street or agricultural track, then mark is as an unclassified road.

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Paths

highway = path:

highway=path is a generic path, either multi-use or unspecified usage, open to all **non-motorized** vehicles . The path may have any type of surface.</h4>

This includes walking and hiking trails, bike trails and paths, horse and stock trails, mountain bike trails as well as combinations of the above.

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iD vector alignment

While editing you may encounter a situation where existing features exist that are not aligned well. You need to adjust the existing vectors in iD editor to match the imagery.

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Buildings

Tracing buildings takes good imagery and patience. Take your time and pay attention to angularity, alignment between buildings and reflecting the regularities between buildings.

Select new Area (Keyboard Shortcut: 3) in iD and put a node down at every corner of the buildings roof. Double clicking will complete the area. If you havent formed perfect right angles at every building corner don’t cry, you can ‘shift-click’ on the area to bring up the contextual area menu and use the tool to orthogonolize the area (Keyboard Shortcut: s).

Buildings should be traced as outlines of where the building meets the ground. This last piece is important. The roof outline is often easier to see in the imagery so you’ll find it often traced in OpenStreetMap but it’s wrong. If you see that the outline of the roof you traced does not align with where the building meets the ground you can ‘shift-click’ the path and use the tool to drag the path to the correct position.

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Rivers as Lines

Rivers are traced as lines. The entire process is captured in the GIF to the left. Please be sure to trace the river until its natural end. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Discovering New Points to Add

There are many different types of point of interest that can be added to the map. First draw a point, then search through the menu to see if something matches what you are looking for.