User:LA2
Add your event to OpenStreetMap CalendarLA2 is the username for Lars Aronsson, Sweden [1]. The same name is used on Wikipedia, OpenTom and Twitter.
In February 2006, I posted a presentation of myself and my GIS perspective on the OSM-talk mailing list.
Links
- Swedish road conditions and weather forecast.
- GPS Review, latest rumors on what to buy
- My geo tagged photos on Wikimedia Commons and also on GEOsnapper and flickr
- An old collection of links for collaborative mapping at susning.nu (page in Swedish, but you'll find the links)
Gazetteer
In 2005, before OpenStreetMap had a city name search function, I started a gazetteer (place name register) with links to the maps. This has now moved to a subpage of its own: /Gazetteer.
Diary
April, 2026: I added Katarinaleden to OSM, as described on Sv:Sverige/Vandringsleder/National trails. Here's the story: I started to investigate the nature and geography around my summer cabin, and found out there is a walking trail for pilgrims, named after St Catherine (Katarina), daughter of St Bridget. The information I could find was a few years old, but included maps as PDF files, drawn in 2016, one page per stage of the trail. These maps were good enough for me to add the stages as relations in OSM, which I did. The trail doesn't show on openstreetmap.org but it is shown at hiking.waymarkedtrails.org. However, nobody seems to manage this trail. It was never marked or signed, but relied entirely on maps. Someone organized a walk in 2023, but I have no signs of later activity. Some years ago (but more recent than 2016), the trail was outlined at Paxwalk.org based on a description in a booklet, but that outline deviates from the PDF maps I used. I found a defunct website that back in 2019 had textual descriptions of the stages, and I added links through the Wayback Machine to our wiki's list of National trails. The textual descriptions agree more with the 2016 PDF maps than with the Paxwalk outline. The last stage 6 coincides with some other trails, all leading from Motala to the destination in Vadstena, and this stage is marked on Naturkartan.se, however with some differences from the route I added to OSM. The description at Naturkartan says the stage is being marked in 2025, so that would be a good reason to adjust the map according to the new reality on the ground. What's needed here is for some organization to take on the responsibility to maintain the trail, and then perhaps to adjust the route to roads and paths that are in working order. Perhaps some signs should be posted, and then the maps (both in OSM and Paxwalk.org) should be corrected.
May 9, 2013: I'm now also user LA2 at Mapwarper.net.
July 12, 2012: During Wikimania 2012 in Washington DC, I learn about MapStory, a project for free historic maps and timeline data.
January 25-28, 2009: I map parks and public buildings in central Linköping: Trädgårdsföreningen, Länsstyrelsen, Slottsparken, Folkungaskolan, Lärarseminariet (Engelska skolan). Instantly updated Mapnik layer from Cloudmate.
December 9, 2008: Geonames country files. The Swedish file contains 97,974 lines, of which the first is headings. There are 71,412 unique coordinates. 51,964 coordinates occur only once, 14,424 occur twice, ...and one coordinate (60°33'00" N 15°08'00" E) occurs 15 times (the village Djurås and various spellings of Västerdalälven/Österdalälven). I'm trying to understand what accuracy the values have.
| No. | Field | Means | Values |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RC | Value "1" for 97967 records, "4" for 6 records. | |
| 2 | UFI | Numeric values that are almost unique. | |
| 3 | UNI | Similar to UFI. | |
| 4 | LAT | Latitude in decimal degrees | |
| 5 | LONG | Longitude in decimal degrees | |
| 6 | DMS_LAT | Latitude in degrees, minutes, seconds | |
| 7 | DMS_LONG | Longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds | |
| 8 | MGRS | Looks like "32VPJ5508196462". | |
| 9 | JOG | Looks like "NO33-04", 62 different values. | |
| 10 | FC | For fields 10, 11, see my diary for June 13, 2006. Field 10 has 8 different values: "P" for 31566 records (populated places), "H" for 23241 (hydrology: lakes, streams), "T" for 21655 (terrain: rocks, hills, mountains, ports, islands), "S" for 20692 (settlements: farms, houses, airfields), "A" for 652 (administrative units), "L" for 123 (land areas: regions, industrial zones), "V" for 41 (vegetation: heaths, forests), and "U" for 3 records. | |
| 11 | DSG | 123 different values, indicating the type of object. "PPL" (populated place) for 31214 records, "LK" (lake) for 12684, "FRM" for 10870, "FRMS" for 7076, "ISL" (island) for 6332, "HLL" (hill) for 6268, "STM" (stream) for 3399, etc. | |
| 12 | PC | Blank for 97427 records, "4" for 399 records, "3" for 118, "2" for 19, and "1" for 10 records. | |
| 13 | CC1 | Country Code 1 | "SW" for all records. |
| 14 | ADM1 | Administrative level 1 | Evenly spread over 22 numeric values (län). |
| 15 | ADM2 | Administrative level 2 | Blank for all records. |
| 16 | POP | Population | Blank for all records. |
| 17 | ELEV | Elevation | Blank for all but 17 records. |
| 18 | CC2 | Country code 2 | Blank for 97,775 records, "SW" for 97, "NO" for 86, "FI" for 12 and "DA" for 3 records. Where this occurs, DSG is "LK" (lake) for 76 records, "MT" (mountain) for 59, "STM" (stream) for 32, "PK" (peak) for 6, CHNM for 6, "STRT" (strait?) for 4 records. These are apparently border objects such as FJD (fjord) Svinesund and STM (stream) Trysilelva. |
| 19 | NT | Values "N" for 82869 records, "V" for 12377, "D" for 2726, "C" for 1. | |
| 20 | LC | Language code? | Blank for all but 2 records, having values "swe" and "eng". |
| 21 | SHORT_FORM | Blank for 97,645 records, values for 321 recods. | |
| 22 | GENERIC | Generic name | 465 unique values, such as "berget", "åsen", "fjärden" |
| 23 | SORT_NAME | Full name in upper case without diacritics | 68,265 unique values |
| 24 | FULL_NAME | Full printable name, including diacritics | 69,948 unique values |
| 25 | FULL_NAME_ND | Full name with no diacritics | |
| 26 | MODIFY_DATE | Date when the records was updated | Format YYYY-MM-DD. Data have been modified at 91 different dates, ranging from 1994-01-14 to 2007-02-28. |
Coordinates are given as decimal degrees (fields 4,5) and as degrees-minutes-seconds (field 6,7). For many records, seconds are set to zero (0), implying that the values have been rounded. Seconds 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 are also more common than other values, indicating that another level of rounding has been used for some records.
| Records | Modified year | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| 72762 | 1994 | Data from 1994-01-14 and 1994-05-04 all have seconds=0; more variations on 1994-09-20. |
| 435 | 1995 | Data from 1995-08-28 and 1995-09-29 all have seconds=0; more variations on 1995-10-13. Coordinates from 1995-11-17 have seconds in steps of 5. |
| 2661 | 1996 | Data from 1996-01-22 have seconds in steps of 5. 1996-02-12 all variations. |
| 213 | 1997 | |
| 4466 | 1998 | |
| 1330 | 1999 | |
| 535 | 2000 | |
| 13894 | 2001 | |
| 1026 | 2002 | |
| 645 | 2003 | Most data have seconds=0, with some exceptions on 2003-01-03. |
| 6 | 2007 | Data from 2007-02-28 have seconds=0. |
On 1995-11-17, some 286 records were modified, having seconds in steps of 5. Their latitudes range from 59°10'10" to 59°18'05" and 1ongitudes from 18°19'05" to 18°46'20" with one trailing value at 18°59'55". This is a very narrow bounding box around Stockholm's southern archipelago (Ormö, Ingarö, Värmdö).
The 17 records that have elevation are not Sweden's 17 most important mountains, just some randomly picked hills:
| MODIFY_DATE | DSG | DMS_LAT | DMS_LONG | ELEV | FULL_NAME | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-09-22 | MT | 613900 | 164500 | 462 | Blacksås | |
| 1997-09-22 | MT | 613900 | 164500 | 462 | Blaxås | Just an alternative spelling for the previous record. |
| 1997-09-22 | MT | 624600 | 165300 | 372 | Björnberget | |
| 1997-09-22 | MT | 625500 | 172700 | 458 | Björnberget | Another peak having the same name. |
| 1998-03-27 | HLL | 654800 | 225700 | 106 | Degerberget | |
| 1998-06-11 | HLL | 650700 | 212500 | 130 | Kälen | |
| 1998-08-12 | HLL | 624400 | 180500 | 209 | Hultomberg | |
| 1998-08-12 | HLL | 624400 | 180500 | 209 | Hultomsberget | Just an alternative spelling for the previous record. |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 621759 | 172150 | 180 | Nolbykullen | A productive day when several records are updated, all in the neighborhood of Sundsvall. |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 621844 | 171655 | 257 | Midskogsberget | |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 622208 | 171914 | 241 | Södra Stadsberget | |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 622356 | 171740 | 150 | Norra Stadsberg | |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 622356 | 171740 | 150 | Norra Stadsberget | Alternative spelling |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 623002 | 174914 | 76 | Barsviksberget | |
| 1998-09-16 | HLL | 623047 | 174955 | 98 | Vårdkasberget | |
| 1998-09-16 | MLWND | 623634 | 175700 | 175 | Härnö Torn | |
| 1998-12-03 | HLL | 604500 | 162900 | 307 | Kungsberget |
April 9, 2008: In this week's planet.osm there are 180,049 occurrences of "FIXME" (down 5120 or -2.8 % since March 26), belonging to 160,017 ways, 19,336 nodes and 17 relations. The most common patterns are note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" (121,425 occurrences, down 8,681), FIXME="add the proper tags" (15,527, down 3), note="FIXME previously tagged segment" (9,521, down 2,822), and note="FIXME unreviewed oneway" (8944, down 277).
April 6, 2008: I have drawn some more roads to, from and in Halmstad, Tylösand, Laholm. I have also added lakes north of 57°N and east of 14°E, using the lake walker plugin to JOSM. Tiles@home works alright, but lowzoom is lagging far behind.
March 26, 2008: In this week's planet.osm there are 185,169 occurrences of "FIXME" (up 9,919 or +5.6 % since last week), belonging to 165,371 ways, 19,298 nodes and 9 relations. The most common patterns are note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" (130,106 occurrences, up 3,856), FIXME="add the proper tags" (15,530, unchanged), note="FIXME previously tagged segment" (12,343, down 588), and note="FIXME unreviewed oneway" (9,221, unchanged).
March 19, 2008: In this week's planet.osm there are 175,250 occurrences of "FIXME" (down 16,110 or -8.4 % since last week), belonging to 169,218 ways, 5,529 nodes and 9 relations. The most common patterns are note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" (126,250 occurrences, down 20,041), FIXME="add the proper tags" (15,530, all new), note="FIXME previously tagged segment" (10,722, down 2,209), and note="FIXME unreviewed oneway" (9,221, unchanged).
March 17, 2008: I draw the river Indalsälven from Storsjön (Östersund) to the coast, and various roads around Östersund, Lycksele and Burträsk.
March 12, 2008: In this week's planet.osm there are 191,360 occurrences of "FIXME" (down 8,256 or -4.1 % since last week), belonging to 185,827 ways, 5,044 nodes and 9 relations. The most common patterns are note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" (146,291 occurrences, down 7,995), note="FIXME previously tagged segment" (12931, down 704), and note="FIXME unreviewed oneway" (9221, unchanged).
I hand draw lake Bolmen near Ljungby and some other lakes near Värnamo in Småland, Sweden.
How to systematically clean up those FIXMEs. The Osmxapi page describes a most useful feature. Suppose we want to address ways tagged with a note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" within our home region, bounded by longitude 15-20° E and latitude 55-60° N. Here's what you can do:
wget 'http://www.informationfreeway.org/api/0.5/way[bbox=15,55,20,60][note=FIXME previously unwayed segment]' -O mymap.osm java -jar josm-latest.jar mymap.osm
Now JOSM starts with a huge area containing all ways that are tagged like that. This area is too big for an OSM download, but you can zoom in on any cluster of ways and download full OSM data for that smaller area.
March 11, 2008: Drawing lakes and streams downstream from Växjö, Alvesta, Åsnen. When the map says "source=Landsat, WMS" that is not a seal of quality, but just as much a warning. I don't know how good these Landsat images are. What exactly is lake, land, reed and sailing harbours? Some day in the future I hope we get a better source for water.
March 9, 2008: I draw lakes and rivers by hand based on the Landsat images in JOSM: River Stångån from Vimmerby to Linköping and Roxen with the lakes Krön, Juttern, Åsnen, Stora Rängen, Ärlången; river Svartån from Svartå (Stora Björken) to Örebro and Hjälmaren; lake Hjälmaren; Täljeån, Kvismare kanal, Hjälmare kanal, Arbogaån, Eskilstunaån.
March 5, 2008: In this week's planet.osm there are 199,616 occurrences of "FIXME" (down 12,335 or -5.8 % since last week), belonging to 194,271 ways, 4,879 nodes and 9 relations. The most common patterns are note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" (154,286 occurrences, down 12,635), note="FIXME previously tagged segment" (13,635, down 236), and note="FIXME unreviewed oneway" (9221, unchanged).
March 2, 2008: Tagging roads in central Östergötland, drawing Svartån (Mjölby-Roxen), lake Sommen (2485 nodes).
March 1, 2008: Tagging E4 Gränna-Väderstad, Tåkern, roads south of Vadstena and west of Mjölby, streets in Mjölby, Ödeshög, Väderstad.
February 29, 2008: Adding tags to old roads (line segments added two years ago) in Aneby, Gränna, Tibro, Hjo, Skövde, Karlsborg, Askersund, Zinkgruvan, Godegård. A lot remains to be done.
February 27, 2008: In this week's planet.osm there are 211,951 occurrences of "FIXME", belonging to 206,486 ways, 5012 nodes and 9 relations. (Apparently some objects have multiple FIXMEs.) The most common patterns are note="FIXME previously unwayed segment" (166,291 occurrences), note="FIXME previously tagged segment" (13871), and note="FIXME unreviewed oneway" (9221). These numbers will be compared to those of the following week, because I'm removing FIXME tags from a lot of roads.
February 26-27, 2008: During a visit to Jönköping, I collect and upload tracks from parts of the town (Söder/Torpa, Södra infarten/Haga, Liljeholmen/Rosenlund) and start to draw streets. I also try to introduce OSM to some more people. Boivie helps out with street names. I add highway= tags to some old streets in Huskvarna, Aneby, Gränna that I mapped before attributes were introduced. There are many more such invisible streets in Nässjö, Eksjö and other cities.