[talk-au] Mapping tracks from Strava heatmap

[Little Maps]

On 27 Feb 2023, at 9:05 am, Tom Brennan <website at ozultimate.com> wrote:
> 
> Sounds like the general consensus is:
> - Strava heatmap is good for aligning *existing* tracks
> - Strava shouldn't be used for the creation of new tracks without some ground truthing.

Hi all, nice discussion. I agree but would broaden the 2nd point. The focus for the thread was walking tracks (paths etc in OSM). For vehicle tracks (fire trails etc), there’s not always a need to compare Strava against ground truthing (great though this would be) and careful inspection of imagery may often suffice. OSM’s vehicle tracks / fire trails are incomplete (or absent) in many areas, and Strava’s heat map is a great way to prioritise mapping of well used tracks using imagery, using the same care as all other mapping from imagery. So, I’d suggest broadening the 2nd point to ‘… without ground truthing or careful inspection of imagery, where appropriate”.  Cheers Ian