Latest revision as of 10:20, 15 February 2021

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an analysis of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database for the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland (correct to April 2011). 15; 640 OSM ways (polygons and polylines), resulting in 316; 949 unique versions of these objects, were extracted and analysed from the OSM database for the UK and Ireland. In our analysis we only considered “heavily edited” objects in OSM: objects which have been edited 15 or more times. Our results show that there is no strong relationship between increasing numbers of contributors to a given object and the number of tags (metadata) assigned to it. 87% of contributions/edits to these objects are performed by 11% of the total 4128 contributors. In 79% of edits additional spatial data (nodes) are added to objects. The results in this paper do not attempt to evaluate the OSM data as good/poor quality but rather informs potential consumers of OSM data that the data itself is changing over time. In developing a better understanding of the characteristics of “heavily edited” objects there may be opportunities to use historical analysis in working towards quality indicators for OSM in the future.

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The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fi4010285 under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by

• http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/5829 under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

• http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/285/pdf

• http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/285,

https://doaj.org/toc/1999-5903 under the license cc-by

• http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/285/pdf,

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fi4010285

• https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/285,

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/285/pdf,

https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/fi4010285,

https://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/journals/fi/fi4.html#MooneyC12,

https://doi.org/10.3390/fi4010285,

https://doaj.org/article/3ade62871b614117b9f1ff8a05b3c611,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2129108327 under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/