Week 9

Editing OpenStreetMap and exploring OpenStreetMap data with {osmdata}

Summary

Learn about OpenStreetMap, how to edit OSM, and how to access OSM data using the {osmdata} package.

Overview

OpenStreetMap is both the largest community-created map of the world and a free, open-source geographic database. We will learn to edit OpenStreetMap and accessing OSM data using R for visualization and analysis.

Key Objectives

• Introduce OpenStreetMap and concept of volunteered geographic information (VGI)
• Practice editing OpenStreetMap
• Practice accessing OpenStreetMap using the {osmdata} package

Prepare

Editing OpenStreetMap, requires an OSM account. If you don’t have an OSM account already, please set up an account before class this Wednesday and share your username as part of your weekly check-in response.

Required readings

• Mark Padgham and Robin Lovelace “1. Osmdata” (osmdata, August 15, 2023), https://docs.ropensci.org/osmdata/articles/osmdata.html.
• Alan McConchie “OpenStreetMap Pasts, OpenStreetMap Futures,” July 27, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNTSZGnQVRw.

Optional readings

• Geoff Boeing “The Right Tools for the Job: The Case for Spatial Science Tool-Building,” Transactions in GIS 24, no. 5 (October 2020): 1299–1314, doi:10.1111/tgis.12678.
• Dani Arribas-Bel and Jon Reades “Geography and Computers: Past, Present, and Future,” Geography Compass 12, no. 10 (2018): e12403, doi:10.1111/gec3.12403.