OpenStreetMap features evolution in time

The historical development of OSM data can be accessed through the ohsome Dashboard. This webpage generates accurate statistics about the evolution of OSM data for custom or predefined regions worldwide.

For example, we can have a look at the temporal evolution of OSM building data in the area of Prešov (Slovakia) by applying the following filters in the ohsome Dashboard interface (figure 7): (1) Choose the study area by selecting the administrative boundaries of Prešov in the interactive map. (2) Choose the tags of interest by typing “building” as the Key and “yes” as Value. (3) Specify all three OSM types, i.e., “node”, “way”, and “relation”. (4) Specify as Measure type “count”. (5) Define the result grouping as “none”. (6) Keep the default period (start date: 2007-10-08, end date: current day) and temporal aggregation, i.e., “monthly”. (7) Finally, press Send Request to query the database.

The result will be displayed in the Result Log section, below the Filter section. Specifically, a summary of the request filters is displayed (8) as well as a graph representing the evolution of the OSM building count (9). Finally, there is the possibility to export the result in CSV and Ohsome JSON formats (10).

Fig. 7: Ohsome dashboard interface