User:Adavidson/test/section1

I. Introduction

So far there are no scientific papers dealing with the question of how the data for a specific, definable subject area are modeled in OpenStreetMap (OSM) - an online community project for the collection and provision of freely usable geodata - and to which If necessary, such modeling can be improved. To fill this gap, the aim of this diploma thesis entitled "Public Transport in OpenStreetMap - Designing, Implementing and Testing a Scheme for the Modeling of Versatile Data" will be examined as follows:

a) the intersection between OSM on the one hand and On the other hand, geospatial data of a defined, delimited topic area shows how

b) the modeling of the data is shaped in the present,

c) which improved form it should adopt in the future and

d) which steps for an improvement as well as its discussion and establishment in the OSM Community are necessary.

As can already be seen from the title of the paper, Public Transport (PT) is the topic whose presentation should be highlighted in OSM. The reason for this choice lies, on the one hand, in the almost omnipresent presence of public transport and its many manifestations in public space (even if it is only a school bus causing traffic jams in commuter traffic) and, second, in the fact that public transport serves as a guarantee of mobility For many OSM participants, this is the only precondition for their data collection activities. In addition, public transport geospatial data (as opposed to data from many other subject areas) can be used as the basis for a variety of applications - in particular routing applications are highlighted as an example. In addition, public transport is divided into real (infrastructure elements such as railroad tracks, bus stops, train stations, etc.) and abstract objects (network information such as tram lines, transport networks, tariff zones, etc.), so examining its mapping in OSM can provide important insights into general separation and mixing OSM data with real and abstract references. Furthermore, conclusions can be drawn from the consideration of the different classes of infrastructure elements and the assignment of geodata to these classes to the way in which geodata are classi fi ed in a project such as OSM and what difficulties arise. Finally, as a further reason for the choice of public transport as a subject area, it should be mentioned that it forms an exemplary cross-section of complexity in terms of its modeling in OSM: for example, passenger lifts are less complex in the data than bus lines, which are composed of many different components and information - both However, elements are equivalent components of public transport.

Gradually, the present work should provide answers to some central questions, which resulted from the preliminary considerations on the overall issue. From these questions emerge the individual problems for which solutions are to be found:

• Which public transport elements are currently recorded in OSM?
• How are they modeled?
• Which elements are usually uniform, which are modeled in different ways?
• Which important elements are missing or are only rarely recorded?
• What unimportant elements could be omitted?
• How can incentives be created to capture missing items?
• How can the modeling of public transport in OSM be improved?
• How should the collaboration with the community shape itself in order to increase the degree of acceptance and widespread use of improved modeling?
• What concrete benefits can be derived from improved modeling, both in terms of data reuse and visualization?

I.1 goal of the work

The aim of the present work is to provide a basis for motivation for the OSM community, based on which spatial data relevant to the mapping of public transport in OSM will be collected and modeled in a more uniform and complete way than is currently the case. To this end, in the more theoretically oriented part of the thesis, essential basics and basic concepts are to be developed. Afterwards, on the basis of a comprehensive stock analysis of the previous OSM data scheme for public transport infrastructure elements and network information, an adapted and extended scheme will be developed. The aim is not to focus on the conformity of the modeling scheme to the existing data models and standards of public transport, but rather a high degree of comprehensibility and traceability for the OSM participants in every respect; secondly, attention should be paid to an adequate degree of standard conformity. Subsequently, the schema should be discussed with the community so that it can be supplemented and reworked on the basis of the feedback resulting from the discussions. In the more practically orientated part, the developed schema should then be used as an example in order to shed light on its feasibility. Its advantages over the previous scheme should finally be clarified by means of a comparative cartographic visualization. In addition, an already existing, web-based software tool for the representation and quality assurance of OSM data will be expanded to include public transport functionalities. The goal of this enhancement is to motivate the OSM community to use the revised data schema by providing a tool to visualize the data modeled according to the custom schema and to search for any discrepancies and deficiencies in them Data allows.

I.2 Structure of the work

As an introduction to the various subject areas, at the interfaces of which the contents of the present work can be found, Chapter II introduces OpenStreetMap and public transport. Afterwards, the presentation of public transport in cartography as well as various data models and standards of public transport are in the foreground. Chapter III looks first at all current activities and priorities within the OSM community regarding public transport. This is followed by a comprehensive stock analysis of the existing OSM data schema for public transport infrastructure elements and network information, the results of which are finally structured and interpreted. Subsequently, in Chapter IV, based on the stock analysis, an adapted and extended OSM data schema for the modeling of public transport infrastructure elements and network information will be developed, concretely formulated for future application, and then tested to test its practicality. In addition, the participation of the OSM community is described, because only through their cooperation, the goals of the work can be achieved. The extension of the software tool OSM Inspector with regard to the visualization and quality assurance of data on public transport, respectively, as well as the individual steps required for the implementation of this extension and the peculiarities that have occurred, are presented in Chapter V. In Chapter VI, concepts are designed to visualize the custom data schema, both for public transport infrastructure elements and for public transport network information. Finally, the results of this work are summarized in Chapter VII, which also discusses outstanding issues. The chapter and thus the entire work conclude with an outlook.