Assessment of OpenStreetMap (OSM) Data: The Case of Abu Dhabi City, United Arab Emirates

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data are crucial for many applications such as disaster response, damage assessment, and recovery efforts. The 2010 Haiti earthquake destroyed buildings where GIS data were stored and many of the relief organizations ultimately depended on data retrieved from outside the country to do their work. The lesson learnt from this experience is that open access data is necessary in assisting tasks in such situations and therefore the evaluation of such data for its quality is important. This research evaluates OpenStreetMap (OSM) data that can be and is used by various organizations. The methodology followed is based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Geographic Information-Quality Principles (ISO19113). According to the ISO19113 standard, the data quality elements are: completeness, logical consistency, positional accuracy, thematic accuracy, and temporal accuracy. The first four elements noted above were tested in this study. OSM data was compared with official data from Abu Dhabi city. Results show that the positional accuracy of OSM data meets the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) standards for 1:20,000-scale maps. This indicates that OSM data could be used for many applications, taking into account the hurdles in GIS data acquisition, cost, availability, licensing, distribution policies, and documentation. The article concludes with a call for incorporation of geospatial data services and data quality initiatives in libraries.