Hi all. We’ve received requests to support OSM mapping in the West Bank. Based on initial data gaps analyses and a protection assessment, HOT will be coordinating a small private Tasking Manager project open to expert OSM users covering just 4km2 in Jenin.
This work is part of our program on Conflict & Displacement: Conflict & Displacement Program | Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact data@hotosm.org
Unfortunately, the West Bank has had a lot of remote mapping happen too it, aome of spectacularly poor quality.
Would it be possible to try and tidy up some of what is there first (or at least try and understand it to work around it)?
Depending on the goal of your mapping and the things that you want to map, you may be able to work around the current issues and do what you need to do, but you may not.
Given the untangling that might be necessary (and this obviously varies by location) you may need to request that the people who do the tasks are experts at OSM spelunking.
Edit: Actually, after looking at where Jenin is with regard to the previous problem imports, you might not run into those. A check of objects in Jenin finds that there was some “seagull mapping” (but a different group) there have been attempts to tidy that up by people at least adjacent to the area.
One thing that would be really helpful would be to publish the text of any tasking manager project here before making it live - that way people can suggest how to make it more watertight rather than relying on common sense that a remote mapper might not have.
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your comment and your interest in data quality in the West Bank. And thank you for looking into the OSM history of the Jenin. The small area we are doing has almost no building mapping done in it. As some parts are very dense, this project will only be open to advanced OSM users that are part of the HOT Global Validator Team on HOT’s Tasking Manager. This group has been vetted for their expertise. If you still want the project text, send me a DM and I’m happy to provide.
It would be great if we could expand our efforts past Jenin as you mentioned, but for now we are taking it one step at a time. I will continue to update here if needed.
Thanks again, Jessie