weeklyOSM 826

14/05/2026-20/05/2026

[1] tracking geese sightings around the University of Waterloo | map data © by OpenStreetMap Contributors.

Mapping

• A proposal for the surface=laterite tag, intended to describe roads, tracks, or paths surfaced with lateritic soil has been open for a request for comments since 19 May. Lateritic soil is a cohesive iron oxide-rich tropical and subtropical material that hardens when dry but can become slippery, adhesive, and potentially impassable when wet.

Community

• Arjun is working on a method to convert commercial vehicle telematics data into useful GPX traces for OSM contributions by using a local OSRM instance.
• João M Anestor, a Brazilian mapper, has asked , on the OpenStreetMap Community forum, how to map/update the unclassified highways in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil) that are no longer in use, are in the process of being decommissioned, or have been officially retired from active use.
• Anne-Karoline Distel is currently drafting a tag proposal for settlement=transhumance, intended to map areas of historical seasonal settlement used for animal herding. According to the proposal, the initiative emerged after the author identified four previously undocumented transhumance sites in Ireland.
• Geotribu has published ► about its new GeoRDP, in their press review of 15 May, covering Panoramax, geOrchestra, duckdb, QGIS, ALLMAPS, exhibitions at the Institut de France, and the Meshtastic networks. Plus some lovely OpenStreetMap posters and other geo-stuff.
• Séverin Ménard has criticised the offline maps in OpenStreetMap apps that are often too large (sometimes over 600 MB), which makes usage difficult in countries with expensive internet access such as in the Global South.
• Andy Townsend has introduced improvements to the rendering of paths and tracks on his map.atownsend.org.uk (UK coverage), across both the raster and vector map versions, with a greater emphasis on displaying path quality, including indicators of whether routes may be muddy.
• Rtnf is maintaining a selected list of OpenStreetMap Carto’s icons and each of their tagging references. Consult the list to plan which POIs need to be mapped next in order to make your city map look more complete in OpenStreetMap.

Humanitarian OSM

• For the first time the Humanitarian Data Exchange, a widely used platform for sharing humanitarian data, is releasing disaster-specific OSM datasets in collaboration with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. This has allowed OSM data to be downloaded over 440 times in response to recent disasters in Madagascar and Mozambique, including within the disaster-affected countries themselves. Read more in an OSM User Diary post by Sam Colchester.

Maps

• TEK Notícias has looked ► at the dashboard Analisa.pt, created by Tiago Antunes, a developer from Lisbon (Portugal). This dashboard provides statistics, analyses, alerts, and information on public contracts compiled from official and third-party sources, for informational purposes only. The web platform, developed with TypeScript, Next.js, PostgreSQL, OpenStreetMap, and Leaflet library, calculates geospatial indexes about quality of life and investment, covering 155 indicators across 12 categories, for hundreds of Portuguese cities.
• geoObserver published ► about veganguide, an OpenStreetMap based map that makes it easier to find vegan and/or vegetarian restaurants, snack bars, and fast-food outlets. We have reported earlier on veganguide.

OSM in action

• [1] waddleloo is an AI-powered crowdsourced platform for tracking geese sightings around the University of Waterloo. Users can submit photos of geese observed on campus, and the AI models will analyse the images to count the birds and detect goslings, nesting behaviour, and signs of aggression. Verified sightings are then integrated into an OpenStreetMap-based live campus map.

Open Data

• Philippe Schütz announced , on LinkedIn, that more than 1,000 geospatial datasets are currently available on geo.admin.ch, the Swiss Confederation Platform, a development made possible through collaboration among numerous federal agencies and cantonal authorities.

Software

• Tina and Eugene wrote, on the OsmAnd blog, about the beta version of the Astronomy plugin for OsmAnd, allowing you to explore the sky as you explore a map on Earth; step by step, with clear orientation, useful context, and the ability to plan what to look for next. The plugin is only available with a paid plan.
• HeiGIT has presented the new ohsome quality API country reports on HDX, helping humanitarian users quickly assess if the OpenStreetMap data on roads and buildings is complete, current, and fit for purpose.
• Travis Hathaway, the project lead maintainer, has introduced osmprj, a new CLI tool (alpha) for managing OpenStreetMap data with PostgreSQL. Built on top of osm2pgsql and osm2pgsql-themepark, it introduces a project-based workflow with configurable data sources and schema themes, aiming to simplify setup, syncing, and reproducibility.
• To investigate multilingual names, confusedbuffalo has built OSM Incomplete Names Validation, a website to find OSM elements where the primary name tag does not match any of the language specific names, such as name:fr. Having the name duplicated in its correct language tag is recommended for internationalisation. There have been discussions on the OpenStreetMap Community forum about transliterated names.
• Starting 25 May 2026, Venetis Charalampidis will begin work on OSM Road Closures as part of the Google Summer of Code 2026. This platform enables road authorities to submit temporary road closure data, allowing routing services to avoid the routes affected. We reported earlier on the work done in 2025.

Programming

• geoObserver posted ► an article on how to quickly create 3D models of cities using Map3d. You can export model results in a .GLB file, a binary version of the Graphics Library Transmission Format. We published a link to a review of Map3d in issue #763.
• Ian Wagner posted, on the Stadia Maps blog, about the importance of real-time traffic data to OSM-based routing engines. OSM provides a world-class geographic foundation, but it remains a static dataset. Without real-time traffic integration, routing engines must rely on algorithmic proxies (such as road class and legal speed limits), which often lead to unreliable ETAs and logistics bottlenecks.

Releases

• rphyrin has released Altilunium LocationPad v26.5.20, fixing a GeoJSON export bug, which was accidentally discovered while preparing ► an article about eRepublik.
• Sergey tooted about the Röntgen 0.15.0 update including 15 new community-requested icons for use in the iD editor.
• Bastian Greshake Tzovaras shared that there is now a Panoramax instance for sharing street-level imagery of Argentina and outlined some of the challenges in the local context.

Did you know that …

• … you can read the 2006 IRC meeting logs that led to the formation of the OpenStreetMap Foundation?

Other “geo” things

• An article on Clubic described ► the Galileo High Accuracy Service that offers 25 cm accuracy (more than the US’s GPS), and that mobile operating systems like iOS and Android may not take advantage of such precision, due to their proprietary algorithms that merge information from multiple GNSS constellations. The article also mentioned OpenStreetMap and its ecosystem, which are providing maps on mobile phones.
• dgTerritorio (Portugal) is inviting you to send ► proposals for papers to present at this year’s meeting of Ibercarto by 8 June. The XII meeting of Ibercarto will be held ► in Lisbon, Portugal on 15 and 16 October 2026. The guidelines for submissions have been published ►.
• snhoybekcxnb has posted, on the Mapillary Forum, an easy way to add imagery to Wikipedia and Wikidata items using WikiShootMe and Mapillary. We covered WikiShootMe earlier in issues #670 and #735.
• Miguel García Álvarez explained ► the history behind the Carta da Africa Meridional Portugueza (edited by A A d’Oliveira, 1886), colloquially known as the Mapa Cor-de-Rosa (literally ‘Pink Map’). This map represented one of the biggest geopolitical ambitions of late 19th-century Portugal during the Scramble for Africa: the attempt to build a continuous Portuguese empire across southern Africa, linking Angola on the Atlantic coast to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean.
• Rob shared a few thoughts about the setup of Avif , an app from the Czech Ornithological Society. The web app uses OSM and in his opinion is relatively clunky (as compared to eBird). The data collected is licensed under CC-BY-SA and it can be displayed in various formats on the web app, embedded in an , and even exported.

Upcoming Events

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_This weeklyOSM was produced by HeiGIT, MatthiasMatthias, PierZen, Raquel IVIDES DATA, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred, izen57, jcr83. We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions. _