One of the trickiest challenges in OSM is when a river (or any linear water feature) doubles as a regional or administrative boundary.

Rivers shift course over time; floods, erosion, and meanders, while boundaries often remain legally fixed. The result? Misalignments, overlapping lines, or confusing gaps on our maps.

For many contributors, editing such overlaps is daunting. Boundaries are sensitive, technically complex, and mistakes can cause big issues. Yet, leaving them mismatched affects disaster planning, legal clarity, and overall map quality.

My Question to Experienced Mappers 🙏

How do you decide whether to follow the legal boundary or the current river course?

Rivers don’t wait. Boundaries don’t move. But as mappers, we can bridge the gap. I’d love to hear your experiences and solutions!

Qwajo OSM

Using OpenStreetMap (OSM) and JOSM (Java OpenStreetMap Editor) has completely transformed my perspective on places in Ghana. What used to be just names on a map are now vibrant locations I explore, analyze, and contribute to in meaningful ways.

With each mapping session, I am a digital explorer, uncovering hidden details about my country. While tracing highways, POIs, buildings, and rivers, to ensure that every corner of Ghana is well represented, I explore!. From the bustling streets of Accra to the serene landscapes of the Volta Region, my virtual travels take me everywhere without even leaving my seat.

As I explore and see places, I contribute data to solve real-world problems. Through OSM, I have contributed to flood risk assessments, improved accessibility to schools, and even helped emergency responders find critical locations. It’s amazing to know that my little edits can make a big difference in someone’s life.

Mapping is no longer just a hobby; it’s a passion, a responsibility, and a way to make a mark on the world.

One edit at a time! The journey continues!

As it stands, I believe the need to rekindle the interest in volunteerism among members of the open mapping community is a necessary evil. This belief results from personal experience as well as other colleagues’ experiences. I joined the open mapping community through Youthmappers in 2016 and have been actively involved since then. Mapping has been fun and competitive since I joined the community. Thus, at the local chapter level, national and international levels, I have enjoyed a series of mapathons that were fun and competitive. A major event I can recall is the Malaria mapping challenge, where mappers from the University of Cape Coast were rewarded with some GPS devices at the end of the challenge to boost their mapping activities. Memories from the challenge put smiles on my face to this day. I can recall that some members of UCC Youthmappers were happy to answer a midnight call, trade sleep, and map to contribute to the malaria challenge and help the chapter compete as well.

I take a closer look at some of the local chapters in my home country these days and that zeal and interest seems to be dying off. That is a worry that needs attention, especially from the Gurus in the community. We have to encourage old members to share the positive impacts and personal experiences they have had so far with members who are losing interest to revitalize their interests.

Also, competitions should be enrolled more often and at all levels to be sure no one is left out. Finally, all members contributing every bit of data should be given some recognition so everyone feels involved. Let us keep the community running and keep the volunteering spirit moving!

It was indeed a great privilege to be among the 28 selected interns from the 1008 applications received by HOT from 81 countries. I must say, spending October to December 2022 with the HOT trainers and other resource persons in and around the world of open mapping was an experience worth the time and effort. Post HOT Data Quality Internship program, I can confidently say I am a better mapper than I was before. But being a better mapper alone was not the aim of the DQI but rather how the information acquired will be shared and passed on from person to person so that together quality data will be created in the open mapping community. In view of this, I have taken it upon myself to visit other local mapping communities in Ghana starting from UCC Youthmappers to share this piece of knowledge with them. It has been a wonderful journey so far, and i hope to continue and make it much better!

Have you ever taken a look at your own mapping done over a year or two ago? If you haven’t yet done that, take a few minutes and check out some old projects or areas you have mapped. A few questions you might ask yourself upon a glance at your own mapping would be; Did I really map these features?; What happened to my mapping skills?; How could this happen? Of course! that is you.

But you should rest assured that is not your doing. I came across an area mapped by an experienced mapper who was and has been my inspiration since I joined the OSM community and at the first glance I was disappointed. But upon checking the history of the mapped features, I realized the digitization was done years back.

This realization brought back theories I learned in class during my undergraduate studies. “Maps do not stand the test of time”, meaning they are easily outdated. But this is true when it comes to paper maps since it takes a lot of money and effort to make them and yet they do not last in terms of representing newer environmental development.

Its a different story for OSM, yes area never gets mapped, but we can constantly keep updating data to catch up with the ever-evolving and ever-changing environment so that the world does not classify OSM data are not good enough. Let’s Keep Mapping Daily, The Work Never Ends!