I plan to change the methodology i’m using for the LINZ building import in New Zealand. Currently i’ve been using the existing Rapid/Mapwithai workflow described here Import/New Zealand Buildings - OpenStreetMap Wiki but due to a long list of issues experienced from adding source tags to hundreds of thousands of building nodes to conflation failing often i’ve decided to develop my own workflow.
I plan to do the conflation myself instead of relying on Mapwithai. This allows me to map buildings in rural areas easier as i can more easily identify where they area and use more updated data as the LINZ building dataset is updated quite often compared to the version in Rapid/Mapwithai from 2023.
I’ve already imported around 150,000 buildings in New Zealand using the old workflow over the past year so i have significant experience with how the process works. This methodology change should not change the end result in any way, the buildings will still share the same tags the existing import has been using for over the past decade. I will however update the source tag from source=esri/LINZ_NZ_Buildings to source=2025LINZ-Building-Import to reflect the different methodology. All buildings will still be manually reviewed before uploading. I also plan to create a new section on Import/New Zealand Buildings - OpenStreetMap Wiki both linking to this post and the process used so other people can follow along.
For now only spaces with no buildings will be suitable for a building import, same as the current method. Updating of existing buildings with higher quality footprints is a much harder problem to solve, and will likely be its own project later.
I have already conducted a trial and got several members of both the Oceania and worldwide OSM community to review. Below is a list of all changesets involved.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/170914301
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/170914305
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/170914317
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/170914324
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/170914332
If you have any comments or feedback please comment below instead of on any changesets. I plan to start this from 6th of September if all feedback has been resolved.
Thanks, Phoebe