Targeted Stakeholder: Analytical and Spatial Specialists working in Ministeries, NGOs and other regional government organizations

Open Street Map is a collaborative project to produce a free editable map of the world. Primary reason behind creation of OSM was restrictions on use or availability of map information access across the world and advent of inexpensive portable navigation devices using GPS. It is an excellent example of volunteered geographic information. Based on success of Wikipedia, it serves as a repository of freely available data on roads, bike trains, features such as reservoirs, points of interest such as restaurants etc.

OSM map data power thousands of websites, mobile apps and hardware devices and these data are used as a base transportation layer for several of these websites. OSM is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, cafes, railway stations, and much more all over the world.

How can the ICT product/innovation benefit the project?

OSM data can be useful in deriving freely available transportation information for many areas around the world. Detailed data on boundaries of national parks, road network, rivers and more are available in several cases. These are then further useful as base data and input data for Spatial Analysis and modeling efforts.