Project of the week/2010/Mar 28

Swimming in data

Many of the coastlines in OSM came from an import of the PGS coastline data. It was a fantastic benefit to be able to add this coastline data to OSM, and we're better off having had it. And there are many places that have aerial imagery that is good enough to improve on PGS coastlines. So that is the project of the week for 28 March, 2010, check your favorite bit of coastline and improve what you can with overhead imagery.

Those without a favorite bit of unimproved coastline might take a look at the crenelated coasts of North America for examples of what can be improved. This http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?lat=41.044&lon=-72.1591&zoom=14 is a portion of Long Island with aged PGS coastline that fails to meet our current standards for Good Coastiness. Sure, it will be fixed up by the time the second reader gets to it, but have a look at that area in the original bulk import form, http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/693806 . Okay, perhaps we can make our current imports a little friendlier to view.

Tagging examples

http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?lat=41.044&lon=-72.1591&zoom=14

Existing coastlines tagged like this are worth inspecting and perhaps improvement to match aerial imagery.

natural=coastline
source=PGS

When you improve some coastline, remember to update the source tag.

natural=coastline
source=Yahoo