[OSM-talk] US County and State Borders Was: Re: TIGER, which states next?

Adam Schreiber sadam at clemson.edu
Thu Dec 6 21:10:36 GMT 2007


On Dec 6, 2007 1:59 PM, Ted Mielczarek <ted.mielczarek at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll tell you what I did, and I'll upload the state boundary OSM files
> I have to save you some time.
>
> I took the TIGER state boundary files from here:
> http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/st2000.html, ran them through
> ogr2ogr to get GML, and then used a quick hack of a Python script
> (which I can make available if anyone is interested, but it's pretty
> hackish) to turn them into OSM files.  (The script makes ways of 250
> points max.)
>
> I then opened the OSM files in JOSM and hand-edited the boundaries to
> delete overlapping sections of neighboring states, and tag them with
> left:state and right:state tags as appropriate.  This is sort of
> tedious, but the overlapping sections are pretty large, so it's not
> terrible.
>
> Once I had done a bunch of states, I combined them into one large OSM
> file and used the bulk uploader to upload the result.  Overall not the
> best process, but it's workable for this data set.  If someone wanted
> to do the county data they'd definitely need to automate the process.
>
> Anyway, my state border OSM files are available at:
> http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/osm/state-osm/, and I've included the
> Python converter script there as well.

Thank you! This has been very helpful.  I'm in the process of
uploading borders for NC, SC, TN, GA, FL, AL, MS and the western
border of KY.  I left the northern and eastern borders off because it
looks like you've already uploaded parts of OH and Indiana's next.  I
will continue working my way west along the southern half of the
country.

Cheers,

Adam




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