Automatically inferring / refining hiking trails in OpenStreetMap from multiple GPX tracks – existing solutions?

[Jofban]

Hi, welcome to OSM!

@KRPark

3. achieve full automation—human intervention must be minimised because we intend to gather data from large numbers of consumers.

Are you aware of Automated Edits code of conduct - OpenStreetMap Wiki?

Also possibly related threads:

So much trust in Strava Heatmap

I have seen a lot of notes and edits where people say it is based on Strava heatmap. It seems to me people are basing too much on one source that may not be completely accurate. I have looked in to Strava a bit and maybe I am missing something. Is there some reason we can use that as a reliable source? I wonder, how do we know that the people (maybe sometimes a small number of people) are even sticking to trails or roads. Could a heatmap be based on one or two people who bike or jog in a certai…

Use of Strava to realign roads

A copuple of days ago I have found several changesets, from two different users, realigning roads (which at first seems not to improve OSM data). I asked both users about their criteria for the changes and now both users answered that their were using Strava data (Strava imagery within JOSM) AFAIK, Strava sumarizes tracks taken during ycling and running or walking, so it seems to me that the tracks tend to be in the outer border of the road, or outside the road. On OSM the road models the cen…

There is also this (theoretic, but still) current discussion:

GPS "on the ground" vs. perfect geographic reference

Hi, here’s a “somewhat” theoretical question - but theoretically life saving Assume a perfectly true mapping of a path, e.g. along a cliff edge, but all GPS tracks along the path are displaced in the same fashion relative to the map. Since someone on the ground does not know their own true coordinates, the perfect coordinates of the map are not useable for them. On the other hand, it seems safe to assume that all GPS tracks continuing along the path didn’t fall off the cliff, whereas th…

They don’t quite capture your questions, but I think they are interesting reads.

@KRPark

1. Are there established open-source libraries or scripts that already implement a full (or near-full) pipeline for multi-track trail inference + OSM update?

I guess “near-full” means that you would be working on the missing parts.
They probably don’t exist, because it’s 1. very tedious to create and 2. would need extensive discussion with likely no result.

@KRPark

2. If not, which algorithms / workflow components have proven reliable in practice for off-road trails?

Visiting the place and mapping it according to survey.

@KRPark

3. How do you usually validate that an automatically generated path is really a trail and not just a set of parallel zig-zagging points (common in forests)?

See answer 2.

Apart from that, GPX trails only give you the trajectory of the path, but no other information (like surface, trail_visibility, sac_scale, …). Those can only be added via survey.

But fret not! All of this only applies to the last step (Updating OSM) which is likely to stay manual for a long time. However, I imagine it useful to have those trails anyway (on a different site) and be able to mark certain corridors as checked (either saying “there is no path”, saying “path route updated”, or mapping it). In that sense, it would become similar to Strava, but better.

Thanks for your interest in OSM, and engaging with the community in this way. It’s really helpful! Perhaps others can help you with the technical details.