Improvements in Thailand: Reducing the Risks of Armchair Mapping

Communities ประเทศไทย (Thailand)
1

Thailand has long been a hotspot for armchair mapping, driven by both organizations and individual contributors. While mapping remotely can sometimes help fill gaps, it comes with significant downsides, particularly when road classifications are added without ground surveys.

Why Armchair Mapping Can Be Problematic

  1. Safety Risks
    Road geometries added without proper surveys can create dangerous situations. I’ve personally encountered this, and others have even needed rescue due to such errors.

  2. Data Quality
    Unsurveyed data reduces the overall quality and trustworthiness of OpenStreetMap. When users encounter inaccurate or misleading data, they’re less likely to rely on it.

  3. Outdated Imagery
    In Thailand, available satellite imagery is often 3–5 years old, especially in rural and farming areas. These images rarely reflect current conditions, making remote mapping unreliable.

  4. Contributor Frustration
    Many mappers have stopped contributing over the years because of the frustrations caused by large-scale armchair mapping campaigns, such as those by Facebook and Grab, which often lacked local knowledge.

How Did This Happen?

Much of this unsurveyed data originated from bulk imports by organizations like Facebook (highway=track/unclassified) and Grab (highway=residential/service). Over time, even local mappers, including myself, began following this trend, thinking it was the norm.

While some of these areas—particularly in urban settings—have since been surveyed, retagged, or backed with GPS data, the vast majority of rural and remote geometries in Thailand remain unsurveyed.

A Better Solution

After discussions in global discussions in 2024, I learned about a practical solution: using the highway=road tag for unknown road geometries.

  • Why Use highway=road?
    This tag is intentionally non-routable and rendered differently (or not at all). It prevents misleading navigation while signaling the need for ground surveys. By tagging such roads as highway=road, mappers are encouraged to verify them on the ground and improve coverage.

Making Changes in Thailand

In Chiang Mai, I’ve started converting highway=track and highway=path geometries in rural and remote areas to highway=road when there’s no evidence of ground surveys (e.g., GPS traces or additional tags). Many of these were originally added by me or imported by Grab (downgraded from highway=residential).

How You Can Help

  1. Learn More
    Read about the highway=road tag and the pitfalls of armchair mapping.

  2. Survey and Upload
    If you conduct ground surveys, upload your GPS traces to OpenStreetMap as proof of survey. If you take photos, contribute them to platforms like Mapillary, KartaView, or Panoramax.

  3. Collaborate
    I plan to work with Grab to verify which of their additions are supported by local surveys. Let’s push for better practices and improve the map together.

By making these changes, we can create safer, more reliable maps while encouraging on-the-ground contributions to fill in the gaps.

Here’s to kicking off 2025 with a focus on better maps and collaboration. Happy New Year and happy mapping! :tada:

4 Likes