United States/Swimming Pool Mapping in NYC
Swimming Pool Mapping in NYC is a project under OpenStreetMap US's Mapping for Impact program in partnership with Rising Tide Effect.
Introduction
Numerous studies have shown that swimming has a tremendous effect on physical and neurological development in children who start at a young age. These skills translate to improved academic ability and increased self-confidence. However, nearly 80 percent of children from low-income families have little or no swimming ability. Rising Tide Effect is working to reduce social inequity and make our communities safer for children and people by sharing the aquatic experience.
This initiative will locate and inventory all swimming pools, starting in New York City, so that Rising Tide Effect can determine which ones are in underserved at-risk communities and suitable for programming so that either Rising Tide Effect can provide free swimming lessons and water safety education or find local partners to do so. In addition, all information will be presented to the relevant government agencies for future development and planning so that the currently inoperable pools can be repaired and put to good use. You can help support this cause by mapping indoor and outdoor swimming facilities and adding critical details where possible in New York City. Mapping these features will provide Rising Tide Effect with data to help advocate for and improve youth access to swimming facilities.
Getting Started
This mapping project will take place in multiple phases using remote and in-person methods to inventory indoor and outdoor pools in New York City. Due to the nature of the data needed - requiring on-the-ground and local knowledge; mapping activities will take place across a few different platforms. See the "Mapping Guides" section below for further instructions on mapping swimming pool features.
Do you know local information about a specific pool in NYC? Please contribute using our MapComplete task here. For all other mappers, please contribute using one of the organized tasking projects below:
Organized Tasking
| Approach | Tool | Project | Project Status | Mapping Status | Validation Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remotely map outdoor swimming pools visible on imagery | Tasking Manager | #312 | Published | 0% | 0% |
| Update attribute tags for outdoor swimming pools | MapRoulette | TBD | To be set up | 0% | 0% |
Once the outdoor remote mapping has been completed, we'll start working on indoor pools and update with the strategy below.
| Approach | Tool | Project | Project Status | Mapping Status | Validation Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To be planned | |||||
Data Needs
To support Rising Tide Effect, our goal is to map all indoor and outdoor swimming pools in NYC with the following attribute information:
| Priority | Requested information | OSM Tag(s) | Additional info |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Access | access=yes | Open to the public |
| access=private | Private or residential | ||
| access=customers | Accessible to customers or clients of the host facility | ||
| access=permissive | Permissively open to public | ||
| access=unknown | Access unknown | ||
| Name of Pool | name=* | Name of pool | |
| Operator/Owner | operator=* | Name of operating organization (i.e. NYC Parks, DOE, Private company, YMCA) | |
| operator:wikidata=* | Wikidata value for operator. NYC Parks Q1894232, NYC DOE Q408230, YMCA Q54834579 | ||
| Status | operational_status=operational | Operational and open during its regular season. | |
| operational_status=closed | Closed indefinitely or permanently | ||
| operational_status=needs_maintenance | Closed or restricted access for maintenance | ||
| operational_status=unknown | Status unknown | ||
| Website | website=* | Website with information about the pool, example Sunset Park Pool. | |
| Moderate | Hours of Operation | opening_hours=* | Please indicate opening hours for the pool during its regular season in proper OSM format.
|
| Indoor or Outdoor | location=indoor | Particularly needed for indoor pools | |
| location=outdoor | Helpful for outdoor pools under roofs; okay but not necessary for exposed outdoor pools | ||
| Bather Load | capacity=* | Maximum number of people allowed in the pool | |
| Size of pool | length=* | Please indicate unit (i.e. ft, m) | |
| width=* | Please indicate unit (i.e. ft, m) | ||
| swimming_lanes=* | Number of swimming lanes | ||
| Range of depth | mindepth=* | Depth of the shallowest point. Please indicate unit (i.e. ft, m) | |
| maxdepth=* | Depth of the deepest point. Please indicate unit (i.e. ft, m) | ||
| Temperature of water | temperature=* | Please indicate temperature as a numerical value in Celsius. | |
| Chemical compound type | water_purification=bromine | Used to indicate presence and type of chemical used | |
| water_purification=chlorine | Used to indicate presence and type of chemical used |
Mapping Guides
Mapping Outdoor Pools
For each task, please make sure to map all swimming pools visible on imagery. If you're new to identifying pools on imagery, look for parks and residential areas for potential swimming pools. Outdoor pools may also occur in commercial centers, such as on hotel property. All pools visible should be mapped! When you locate a swimming pool, create an area outlining the pool and tag with leisure=swimming_pool. For pools at apartment buildings and residential/backyard pools, also add the tag access=private. Access information will be critical for Rising Tide Effect's data needs.
If additional information is known, please add the attribute data listed in the Data Needs table.
For water parks, please instead use the leisure=water_park tag.
Mapping Indoor Pools
Hotels & Other Amenities
- If you have knowledge of an indoor pool with attribute data, please map as a point within the building footprint of the structure and tag with leisure=swimming_pool and location=indoor. Then, please add the attribute data listed in the Data Needs table.
- If you are aware that an amenity or facility has an indoor pool, such as a hotel, but unsure of additional attribute information, please add the tag swimming_pool=yes to the feature.
Sports & Fitness Facilities
- If you have knowledge of an indoor pool at a leisure=sports_centre or leisure=fitness_centre with attribute data, please map as a point within the building footprint of the structure and tag with leisure=swimming_pool and location=indoor. Then, please add the attribute data listed in the Data Needs table.
- If you are aware that a leisure=sports_centre or leisure=fitness_centre has an indoor pool but unsure of additional attribute information, please add the tag swimming_pool=yes to the feature.
More information about tagging swimming pools can be found on the Swimming and bathing page.
Stay connected and spread the word
As we map together in support of swimming access, join the #swimming-pools channel on the OSM US slack. Ask questions about mapping tasks or share ideas on how we can be mapping swimming pools in your local area.