A framework for measuring the fitness for purpose of OpenStreetMap data based on intrinsic quality indicators

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Hongchao Fan
• Subject Area: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 314644317

The quality of OpenStreetMap data is normally evaluated by comparing with commercial or authority data, before it will be used for a project in different application domains. However, there are three problems with this kind of so-called extrinsic quality assessment. Firstly, the results cannot directly answer the question about whether the OSM data is good enough for a certain purpose, because the extrinsic quality indicators are designed as standard to indicate an overall level of the quality. Secondly, the results may not be able to reflect the true quality of OSM data, because the existing tools (as those described by ISO) are not inclusive enough or appropriate to eloquently evaluate OSM data, because the nature of OSM, as a VGI project, is fundamentally different to what geospatial experts have dealt with so far. Thirdly, the reference data is often not available due to contradictory licensing restrictions or high procurement costs. In this project, we attempt to develop a framework that provides in a systematic way the methods and measures to evaluate the fitness for purpose of OSM data, without using reference data. For this issue, one sub-objective is to define systematically a taxonomy for different types of usage of OSM data in different application domains that includes the relevant indications and advises: (i) what kind of information is required? (ii) what is the quality requirements? (iii) which quality indicators can be used for a certain usage in an application domain? (iv) how can the quality indicators be calculated without using reference data? and (v) how credible is the evaluation of the fitness for purpose? The framework is going to serve as procedure guidelines when using OSM data in projects in application domains such as urban planning, routing & navigation, disaster management, marketing, geocoding, map application, etc. To achieve this, an intensive study in the history data of OSM (OSM-Full-History-Dump) will be carried out based on the existing experiences available in practices and literatures, in order to analyse the nature characteristics of OSM, derive the factors which influence OSM data quality, and parse them hierarchically and quantitatively. On this base, existing intrinsic quality indicators will be adjusted and improved, and new intrinsic indicators will be introduced.The main contribution of this project is the so far most exhaustive systematic identification and connection among intrinsic and extrinsic quality indicators and measurements to a number of application domains. The framework developed in this project shall have wide applicability or at least be generalizable for using any kind of VGI data in the defined application domains. Moreover, the method of developing the framework can be deployed for further application domains in case similar VGI data is used.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1894: Volunteered Geographic Information: Interpretation, Visualisation and Social Computing
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Alexander Zipf