
OpenStreetMap node density map 2014 - lelf
http://tyrasd.github.io/osm-node-density/#2/32.2/5.6
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lucb1e
Looks like The Netherlands is one of the most dense countries in the world. I
wonder why that is, we (speaking as a Dutch person) hardly seem to use OSM
while in Germany it's very popular.

One explanation is the recent addition of the government's address and
building data, which gives us close to perfect outlines for every building in
the country plus an extra node per address. Or we just have a high number of
people per square kilometer regardless of the recent (now almost finished)
data import.

Edit: Looks like it's simply our density in general and not this import; last
year the Netherlands also stood out while we hadn't even imported 10% yet.
From last year:
[http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/tyr_asd/diary/19549](http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/tyr_asd/diary/19549)

~~~
lelf
[https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/AND_Data](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/AND_Data)
?

~~~
lucb1e
That and 3dshapes[1] helped a lot of course, but since we started importing
BAG data in March the map size (looking at the OsmAnd map file) roughly
doubled. Thought that might also influence this density map a lot but it
doesn't seem so.

[1]
[https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/3dShapes](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/3dShapes)

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phaer
The site runs over https but loads leaflet over http, so that it get's blocked
at least by recent versions of Firefox, Chrom[e/ium] and Internet Explorer.

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Security/MixedConte...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Security/MixedContent/How_to_fix_website_with_mixed_content)

~~~
finnn
Actually the link was an http link. You likely have HTTPS Everywhere that
changed that.

~~~
phaer
You are right, I missed that. But you should have protocol relative urls on
servers which run https.

~~~
finnn
It's not my site. I'd force everyone to https if it was

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Vik1ng
Blogpost from the guy who made it:
[http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/tyr_asd/diary/22363](http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/tyr_asd/diary/22363)

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malandrew
I found the map of greenland fascinating, since there is pitch black
internally. Everything is along the coast.

At the lowest zoom level what are geometric lines that criss cross Greenland
and the curvilinear lines and rings off the coasts?

~~~
analog31
Another interesting note: I would have expected North Korea to be dark, but
it's brighter than neighboring China.

~~~
guard-of-terra
And South Korea is not nearly as bright as its population and wealth suggests.

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ajtaylor
The whole of Massachusetts is brighter than the surrounding states, and grows
brighter the closer you get to Boston. I wonder where all that data came from.
Was it a corporate or state data donation?

~~~
maxerickson
For the state, it's "MassGIS" data. Many of the points are from road center
lines that are a lot denser than is typical in OSM, but there is also land
use/classification data (like wetlands or whatever).

~~~
ajtaylor
Thanks for the information.

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3rd3
It would be interesting to see this map adjusted to population density.

~~~
lucb1e
Well count the building tags and you got a rough population estimate for any
area.

~~~
3rd3
I tried to overlay this map with a map showing population density from Google
Images and then normalize it with a division filter. I couldn’t find an map
with a matching projection however. :(

~~~
throwaway_yy2Di
Check back here in a bit, I'll try to make one. I already have the OSM
database and some related glue code, it shouldn't be too far out the way.

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BoppreH
I'm sorry, but I don't see any much use in this visualization. It's pretty,
but gives almost no information at the global level, for two reasons:

1) It's not adjusted for population (
[http://xkcd.com/1138/](http://xkcd.com/1138/) ). They can normalize the data
to fix this.

2) The map is ludicrously distorted because of the Mercator projection.
Greenland looks bigger than the entire South America, when it should be an
eighth of the size. This directly affects the perceived density in each area.
Suggestion: if you are using an interactive geographical visualization, why
not display a globe?

However, it does look stunning.

~~~
maxerickson
There is no claim that the density means anything, so there isn't any need to
adjust it for population. I imagine the title "OpenStreetMap node density map
2014" was somewhat carefully chosen, and it manages to say what is shown.

If you read the link that Vik1ng posted, the author seems to be fairly clear
that they were just making a pretty picture (and quietly points out the
problems with the projection).

~~~
BoppreH
Density here is number of nodes by area, and if you distort the area it stops
being density. It's like comparing the weight of different objects on
different planets. "My shoe on Earth weights twice as much as my sandal on
Saturn" isn't very useful.

And thanks for mentioning the link, but I don't see where they say it was made
for a pretty picture.

~~~
maxerickson
Yes, I said "seems to be" to suggest that it was my impression of the page,
rather than a quote from it or whatever.

Part of that impression is that you can't really zoom in far enough to do
anything super useful with it, so it's probably just to look at.

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runlevel1
Interesting how brightly Bakersfield and Fresno glow.

I wonder if it's because the streets are so gridded and therefore not as prone
to aliasing.

~~~
Vik1ng
> Fresno

Data Import

[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Fresno_County,_Calif...](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Fresno_County,_California)

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twic
What are the rectangular features in northwestern Canada?

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maxerickson
On one side "CanVec" data has been imported and on the other it has not. If
you zoom in from here you see all the small streams that are showing up in the
visualization:

[http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157650655](http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/157650655)

That doesn't explain the differences on the imported side, but I guess that
could just be more imports vs less imports.

