Hi,
I’ve been preparing an import for the HIFLD for a couple months now.
This dataset is maintained by the US Department of Homeland Security,
and contains a wide array of data in the US.
The data varies a lot in type, accuracy, size, etc. and as such I make
individual documentation on importing with special instructions for each
individual dataset. There are a few different processes I plan to use
for each dataset that I will detail in this letter:
1: Imported nationwide all at once with review
If a dataset has about <1000 objects, I feel that it is reasonably small
enough that I could check each object individually, conflate as needed,
and upload all at once, (possibly using the one feature at a time option
in JOSM so that the bounding box isn’t large) This way I don’t have to
waste my time making micro-changesets in each state for like 1-2 objects
each. (this is the main strategy for most of the financial datasets)
2: Imported on a state/local level with review
This one I plan to do for the majority of datasets. This is for datasets
<50000 or so, where in each state there are about <1000 objects and if I
do it on the state level I’ll have the time to inspect every single
object individually and ensure high quality data. (This is the main
strategy for the communications datasets)
3: Imported using MapRoulette
I’m not very familiar with MapRoulette, but it was suggested as a viable
option for importing this data. For some very particular datasets, such
as the National Bridge Inventory, it would likely work best, because a
MR user could add a nearby bridge based on the data provided in the
point. This may also work well for some data in the public health
section for example, but it remains to be seen.
4: Imported on a state/local level without review
If the locals of a state are in support of having data added without
manual review before uploading, I am willing to have data added with
review being done after upload by the locals of a state. I don’t plan on
doing this unless it is explicitly requested.
Obtaining local support:
I am willing to do the legwork. I plan on spending some time in each
state to find any mappers that are active in the state and can speak on
behalf of the local community, so I make sure that I can have full local
support rather than just pinging an empty slack channel and taking
silence as a yes. I’ll publish a table of the active mappers by state on
a personal wiki page for everyone’s enjoyment as well :)
Licensing:
Any data published by a national agency in the US is required to be in
the public domain. If the HIFLD has external data published, it is
automatically in the public domain.
You can read all the information about this import, as well as a few
drafts I've written for importing certain datasets here:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/HIFLD
If you would like to help with importing, please get in touch!
Thanks,
- SherbetS (James Crawford)
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