OpenStreetMap: Emergency Services

Saturday, October 20. 2012

OpenStreetMap: Emergency Services

This is a project I've been thinking about since I started seriously reviewing the map of Albany, NY in OpenStreetMap this summer. This blog posting is based on my lightning talk at SOTM US 2012, but expands on some things. Also, there has been some change since I gave that talk a week ago and those changes are reflected here.
I was working through the Pine Hills neighborhood and it occurred to me that responding to a fire call in Albany could be pretty challenging. There were some pretty significant issues in the Tiger 2005 data. After finding and correcting issues I discovered on the road, I would in some cases go find the corresponding area in Google Maps, and could see that they'd found and fixed some problems and not others. A good example is Helderberg Avenue. This first link is my corrected map as reflected in OpenStreetMap: Helderberg Avenue in OSM. In Tiger 2005, Helderburg Avenue is shown as one continous street, and my correction to it consists of breaking the street to reflect the two pedestrian only sections. The second link is to Google Maps; as of 10/20/2012 the Google Maps data has partially corrected Tiger 2005 -- it has one of the pedestrian only sections, but not the other: Helderberg Avenue in Google Maps.
My review of the Garmin map of Albany suggest that the Navteq data being used by Garmin is a bit better, but still imperfect. But I've seen Garmin take 2 years to pick up on significant changes to the road grid; they didn't have the new bridge over the railroad yard in Rensselaer for quite some time after it was completed and opened, and that was a major alteration to traffic patterns.
So the gist of my first argument is that commercial map vendors don't really seem to have the precise maps needed by first responders.
The question then becomes this: Can OpenStreetMap provide such maps?

There are a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to make the answer yes.

Good address Data
We should be able to get this from Enhanced 911 address files, if the County GIS department will let us have it

Importing the data
We need some tools that will allow us to detect duplicates so that we can look for conflicts and resolve them

Validating the map
This is both for our confidence and for the confidence of any First Responders that might be looking to use our map. I propose that every morning, the calls from the previous day are used as test data to review routes and accuracy. This should be done until everyone is confident in the GPS map.

Hardware issues
This gets a lot easier with support from a vendor. There is at least one GPS vendor that might assist, but it's by no means certain. I'm a little queasy about depending on the reverse engineered Garmin format.

Hardware issues part 2
Fire truck drivers are not going to sit and wait for a GPS to acquire lock. They just won't. We have to deal with this

Different maps for different classes of equipment
It's harder to get a Hook-and-Ladder truck to some places than it is a Pumper

Change detection.
We need to spot problems (mistakes/vandalism) before we generate GPS maps.

All of this can be addressed. The only technical issues that are a concern come from not having any real support from a GPS vendor.
The other issues are political and funding. We have to persuade some elected officials and some management in emergency services departments that they want to do this, and we need to develop funding. I'm nearly done correcting the Albany street grid, which means I'm at the point where it changes from a hobby horse to something I need to really focus on.
There will be other issues -- for example, long term maintenance. Hopefully it will be the case that some firemen get caught up in this and start maintaining the map of their area. Another issue has to do with the fact that this is a very different model from municipal government norms. The County GIS department will want to know why they don't own this map, for example. They will want to know why they can't simply dump everything and substitute their own data. The education issues are non-trivial.
I have started meeting with actual firemen in order to talk through this and understand their issues. It's been illuminating, and I may write about it another time. But the politics of the situation suggest I probably can't include everything I've heard about the current state of first response in Albany.

Posted by Richard Welty in Maps at 20:52 | Comments (11) | Trackback (1)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

OSM Emergency Services project: indemnification
Some recent discussion on the OSM tagging mailing list brought something to my attention that has to be a part of the Emergency Services Mapping project. The additional component is indemnification. OSM and the cadre of Volunteer Mappers have no resource

Weblog: This Side Up
Tracked: Nov 22, 16:41

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

The Nexus 7 tablet acquires a GPS sync in a few seconds consistently. It's a reasonably sized touch screen. Runs OSMAnd like a champ, and OSMAnd is open source. And it's only $200. Doesn't use the cell network, so there are no fees.

Even if it proves to take too long to get a GPS lock, the solution to that is to keep power to it all the time.

This is an awesome idea. We can get these departments online, which will get people to fixing the map in their area so the emergency services can find their house.

#1 Russ Nelson on 2012-10-21 13:35 (Reply)

Russ,

Until the county starts transmitting 911 call info to our cell phones, what I really need is a simple printed map of our district with house numbers scattered along the roadside.. Just enough numbers to determine odd/even side, approximately how far down a road to go and/or which way to turn onto a cross street. I don't need all the house locations..

Can OSM generate such a map? I'm willing to drive around and gps mark exact locations if that's needed..

#1.1 Brad Clements on 2012-10-28 18:29 (Reply)

one of the current weakness of OSM is address data. this project has a number of purposes, and one of the secondary ones is to get e911 addressing data into OSM. there are a lot of reasons why we want to do that.

#1.1.1 Richard Welty on 2012-10-28 21:53 (Reply)

if you're willing to enter address info into OSM, you can get this result easily enough:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=42.61885&lon=-73.5841&zoom=17&layers=M
This view shows house numbers; the dashed lines represent address interpolations. the interpolations are mostly overkill, but are handy if new homes get built as they'll handle approximate location for addresses not in the map.

#1.1.2 Richard Welty on 2012-10-29 19:21 (Reply)

Thanks, that's interesting. But when I 'zoom out', I'd still like to see some of the labels. Obviously they won't all fit.

I can't see how to get osm to intelligently show whatever labels will fit on the map at the current zoom level

#1.1.2.1 Brad Clements on 2012-10-30 02:07 (Reply)

you can't tweak that in an osm view on the website because tiles are pre-rendered. if you want them to show up, you would need to customize the stylesheet and render tiles yourself (or persuade someone else to do it for you.) what is the actual use case here (that is, why do you want this specific variant of the map)?

#1.1.2.1.1 Richard Welty on 2012-10-30 02:25 (Reply)

I would like to generate a 911 address map of our fire district.

Just enough "house-numbers" to determine which direction to turn at cross streets, odd/even sides and approximate distance.

I don't need to show a number for every house.

#1.1.2.1.1.1 Brad Clements on 2012-10-30 02:28 (Reply)

this is the sort of work that can be done in the framework of the proposed project. what state are you in? i know that the New York State enhanced 911 address data is more accurate and complete than what you're asking for, but i don't know the situation in other states.

#1.1.2.1.1.1.1 Richard Welty on 2012-10-30 02:58 (Reply)

I am in NY, in St. Law County.

I think GIS falls under real-property dept in this county. They, and their IT folks are (last I knew) overwhelmed and unable to assist area departments. I have asked for GIS data from real property and told "Sorry, I am too busy".

#1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1 Brad Clements on 2012-10-30 03:16 (Reply)

that's a dynamic that we can change. needs the right lever, and that's what i'm working to supply. my goals in albany county are to improve emergency response, but also to provide a template for opening up GIS data throughout the state.

#1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1 Richard Welty on 2012-10-30 03:29 (Reply)

I've imported a LOT of street addresses in SLC, Brad, but this was from the Ag data that you got me, which doesn't include any villages.

I think that "Sorry, I am too busy" is not an acceptable answer to an FOIL request.

The standard OSM slippy map is designed for general purposes. Sounds like emergency responders need a special rendering which emphasizes addresses at corners. OSMAnd will do street address routing, if the data exists, and you take the time to enter it. OSMAnd also has a style sheet, but I haven't looked into it at all.

#1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.2 Russ Nelson (Homepage) on 2012-11-22 17:39 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To leave a comment you must approve it via e-mail, which will be sent to your address after submission. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry