Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content

News


#ValidationFriday Campaign and Mappy Hour

In February 2025, UN Mappers have adopted the #ValidationFriday campaign. As the name implies, the campaign is about focusing on verifying features mapped in our active projects every Friday. We communicate the #ValidationFriday call through our community channels (Discourse, Slack and social media) and through messaging our Validator's team via the HOT Tasking Manager.
 
For two weeks in a row, four (4) mapping projects has been completely mapped and validated by our volunteer validators. Huge shoutout to our top validators: Frans S and KingVik!
 
In 7 March, Friday, we hosted a #ValidationFriday Mappy Hour where we meet expert mappers and aspiring ones to share best practices, tips and tricks, and challenges when mapping and validating roads in OSM. During the session, we acknowledged how different it is to map roads in OSM as there are different tagging conventions depending on the region and place, and low resolution imagery. The validators gained alignment on which tags to use when mapping roads:
 
1. highway = unclassified
These are roads that link villages and small towns. It is important to zoom out and gain a broaded view of a road as some mapping projects' area may be smaller than the full extent of an unclassified road.
 
2. highway = track
These roads are used to to reach agricultural and forestry areas (including bushes and hedges),, and can be passable by cars and vehicles and  often unpaved.
 
3. highway = path 
These roads are non-motorized tracks or smaller and less passable by cars.
 
We also discussed about riverbeds which can be seasonally used by roads and shared opinions on how map and tag them.
 
It was initially scheduled for one hour, but the discussions were very engaging so we extended for about 15 more minutes. Moving forward, we plan to include a validators breakout room in our monthly Mappy Hour, and agreed to have another #ValidationFriday Mappy Hour on the first Friday of each month.
 
For upcoming events and registration, please visit out event page.
 
Do you have any collaboration proposals and invitations? Email us at un.mappers@un.org.
 
#ValidationFriday Campaign and Mappy Hour
Our Mapper of the Month for September is Włodzimierz Bartczak (Cristoffs in OSM), from Poland.  Włodzimierz distinguished himself during the UN Mappers Mapping Championship held on the occasion…
Our Mapper of the Month for August 2024 is Taichi Furuhashi, MAPconcierge on OSM, professor at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan. Driven by a passion for using mapping to support and empower…
On the occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, we are offering our volunteers a truly exceptional competition: the UN Mappers Mapping Championship! Test your mapping skills, map with us, and climb…
We are excited to announce the completion of our project to fix disconnected roads in Somalia, a testimonial to the dedication and hard work of the vibrant UN mapping community. 
Our Mapper of the Month for July 2024 is Sami Skhab, a cartographer with extensive experience in GIS and Remote sensing from Tunisia. Passionate about using mapping for global good, Sami joined UN…
The UN Maps project (initially called Unite Maps) was born in 2019, and the following year included training activities aimed at educating or empowering OSM communities to subsequently support the…

Follow UN Maps and UN Mappers on Social Media