[Talk-in] [Press] Crowdsourcing to map road network in Kerala

Naveen Francis naveenpf at gmail.com
Sat May 23 11:57:53 UTC 2015


http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/crowdsourcing-to-map-road-network-in-kerala/article7238824.ece
Crowdsourcing to map road network in Kerala T. Nandakumar
    To monitor movement of school buses, LPG tankers, taxis, and
autorickshaws

Aid agencies and volunteers deployed in Nepal after the devastating
earthquake on April 25 depended on a community-driven mapping initiative
for crisis response and relief work. Thousands of OpenStreetMap (OSM)
volunteers from across India and other parts of the world helped provide
detailed and accurate maps of roads, villages, and buildings in the
affected areas to help relief organisations locate people at risk and
deliver goods and services to the needy.

This crowdsourced mapping project will soon be used to track vehicles on
the roads in Kerala. The International Centre for Free and Open Source
Software (ICFOSS) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
(CDAC) are embarking on a project commissioned by the Transport Department
to map the road network in Kerala using OSM.

“In the first phase, the OSM maps will be used to track 16,000 private
buses plying the road network,” says Transport Commissioner R. Sreelekha.
The system will enable officials manning a master control room in
Thiruvananthapuram to detect speeding and time and route violations. The
vehicles will be fitted with a GPS locator-cum-communication device. “We
have plans to monitor the movement of school buses, LPG tankers, taxis, and
autorickshaws in a phased manner,” Ms. Sreelekha said.

OSM involves crowdsourcing to create data for mapping. The field data
generated by volunteers including students will be supplemented with
satellite imagery to create detailed maps. The OSM allows free downloading
of all data and permits free use under a FOSS licence.

The pilot project will be implemented in Kozhikode where the district
administration has already taken up a crowdsourced initiative to map
waterbodies and garbage disposal sites. While most of the PWD roads in
Kerala have been mapped, secondary roads are not yet charted.

“We need basic mapping information for the whole State for a variety of
applications. Commercial service providers charge heavily for the data
while the OSM approach is cost effective,” explains P.M. Sasi, Associate
Director, CDAC.

“The OSM initiative has the potential to provide accurate, updated
information, once the network of volunteers is in place,” says Satish Babu,
Director, ICFOSS. “The data created under the project will be available
under a Free Data licence, making it the foundation for numerous
development initiatives and disaster response plans. In that sense, it will
be a sustainable investment for the future,” he said.
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