Using OpenStreetMap data in QGIS
Keith Jenkins

Keith Jenkins
GIS Librarian
Cornell University

This talk was inspired by Metro Extracts

R.I.P.
Mapzen
(2013-2018)

"Using OpenStreetMap data"

visualizing or analyzing
(not editing)

Why OSM?

Open data

many sites and tools for getting OSM extracts

Most complete street map of the world

Barrington-Leigh C, Millard-Ball A. (2017)
The world’s user-generated road map is more than 80% complete.

Also, OpenStreetMap is more than just streets...

building outlines, waterways, railroads, trails, placenames, schools, banks, churches, mosques, temples, libraries, museums, hospitals, fire stations, forests, cemeteries, gardens, shops, offices, swimming pools, playgrounds, tennis courts, sports fields, and much more

OSM License and Copyright

OSM requires attribution, and linking to the copyright page

OSM Community Guidelines

The Elements of OSM

nodes, ways, tags, relations

Nodes (points)

Ways (lines, polygons)

Tags (attributes)

building=yes
building=house
building=commercial

highway=primary
highway=residential
highway=footway

OSM wiki has a guide to OSM tags

TagInfo provides tag usage statistics

Relations

Data Formats

.osm
OSM XML

.pbf
Protocolbuffer Binary Format

Conversion tools
ogr2ogr osm2pgsql imposm osmosis osmium etc.

Acquiring OSM data

Export .osm from OpenStreetMap.org

Adding OSM data to QGIS

Add directly from .osm and .pbf file

some rendering and stability issues when accessing .osm/.pbf directly

convert to .gpkg or .sqlite (or .shp)

  ogr2ogr -f "GPKG" "D:/test/output.gpkg"
  "D:/test/input.osm"


  ogr2ogr -f "SQLite" -dsco SPATIALITE=YES
  "D:/test/output.sqlite" "D:/test/input.osm"

ogr2ogr will create separate layers for points, lines, polygons

ogr2ogr splits several common tags into separate columns

POLYGONS
name, type, aeroway, amenity, admin_level, barrier, boundary, building, craft, geological, historic, land_area, landuse, leisure, man_made, military, natural, office, place, shop, sport, tourism

LINES
name, highway, waterway, aerialway, barrier, man_made

POINTS
name, barrier, highway, ref, address, is_in, place, man_made

Columns can be customized by editing GDAL's osmconf.ini file

If this sounds complicated,
don't worry!

QGIS Plugins make everything easier.

QGIS Plugins QuickMapServices QuickOSM OSMDownloader

QuickMapServices plugin

Basemap images from various online providers

Settings > More Services > Get contributed pack