Validation/correction of OSM using various data sources

Communities Canada
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1

FYI, at work, I am currenlty developing a street name and address validator for the whole of Quebec, using comparisons between these data sources:

  • Odonymie Québec
  • Adresses Québec (AQ Réseau Routes et AQ Géobâti)
  • Rôle foncier (property registry)
  • DGEQ (Election Director in Quebec)
  • Statistics Canada ODA (Open Database of Addresses)
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Canada Post (using their API)

In the process, a lot of street names will be validated and corrected in OpenStreetMap

The results and stats should be published as a scientific paper later on.

2

There are no issues with the data validation aspect, but as usual, there is a problem if this information is transferred to either database due to the incompatibility of their respective licenses.

From what I know from the various sources you mentioned, “correcting” street names in OpenStreetMap is not possible due to licensing issues. It is copying from another copyrighted source.

Fortunately, publishing a scientific paper on data validation is no problem. You could even address licensing issues in the Discussion section :wink:.

By the way, I moved this topic as a new thread.

3 Likes
3

OP could try to ask for permission. It there is only one copyright holder for each database and they are open to share the data, it might be possible. E.g. Adresses Québec is CC-by-sa. The “by” could probably be satisfied with a changeset comment. The share-alike they might be willing to waive for OSM.

4

I usually also check the acutal street name on the sign using street-level imagery, so this should not be an issue. These are on-the-ground facts and street names are usually made by municipalities and are not copywritten. Geographic names cannot be copywritten in Canada, so no issue here. The geobase of roads that was imported into OSM at the beginning for Canada uses local/provincial databases of streets and roads. All these municipalities and province ministries did not sign any waiver to make their street names and street geometry available. It is simply public domain data.

5

I disagree. I do not know how municipalities and their respective provinces handled the situation. However, I do know that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the federal government and a province was required for their data to be included in the National Road Network (NRN/Geobase). Without a MOU, provincial data was not included in the NRN, and the federal government resolved the problem by capturing the data itself. This was initially the case for some provinces (e.g., Quebec, New Brunswick, and others). Over the years and governments, some joined the project, others withdrew, and I don’t know the current status of each province in the NRN.