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
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:
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.
After lakes (light blue) were added, the OpenStreetMap of Växjö looks more complete. Roads no longer end in nowhere, but close to the lakeshore.
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.
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