OpenStreetMap in GIScience: Experiences, research and applications

摘要

Web 2.0 technologies and the wide dissemination of relatively inexpensive, location aware devices have reshaped the way in which geospatial data have traditionally been collected and disseminated. Individuals, most with no mapping experience, are voluntarily contributing to the growth of digital datasets that span a wide range of land use and land cover (LULC) themes (Stefanidis et al., 2013), a role traditionally held by governments and private sector businesses. This volunteered geographic information (VGI-Goodchild, 2007) represents a rich source of information on people, place and their intertwined relationship with society, presenting new opportunities for research and a better understanding of the complex world that we live in. OpenStreetMap (OSM) represents one of the best examples of the success of VGI. As noted by Arsanjani et al. in the introductory chapter of their book, "OpenStreetMap in GIScience: Experiences, Research and Applications," OSM was first introduced as a tool for overcoming traditional barriers to the use of quality geospatial information such as cost and accessibility, providing a free and editable source of global geospatial data. Launched in 2004, and building on similar technologies and concepts such as Wikipedia at the time, OSM soon grew from a system supported by a few registered users to a digital geospatial ecosystem in its own right. At the time of writing this review, February 2016, there were almost 2.5 million registered OSM users, with the number of users continuing to grow daily (OpenStreetMap, 2016). Not only is OSM growing as a leading repository of geospatial data, the community has also been expanding into other areas such as the creation of a humanitarian network and supporting the development of open source software. These qualities, among others, have attracted the attention of many academics, researchers, businesses and governments to increasingly accept OSM as a potential source of quality geospatial information. Such a myriad of interests has resulted in a host of applications which use OSM data, along with various innovations which seek to improve the quality of these data and the way users interact with and access this information.