Several years ago, Esri made its World Imagery map accessible through OSM editors such as iD and JOSM. The goal of this was to give OSM mappers some additional options for high-res imagery when creating and editing features in OSM.

The Esri World Imagery map is compiled from multiple sources, including Maxar satellite imagery as well as aerial imagery from various GIS organizations (e.g. cities, counties, states/provinces, etc.). In general, the World Imagery map is curated to feature the most recent imagery we have available for a given area, though we do retain some older imagery for a while if it is better in other respects (e.g. currency, clarity).

The World Imagery map is updated every few weeks with the latest imagery that we’ve assembled and processed. During a release, we replace the current set of image tiles with a new set of image tile for several areas where we have updates. For example, in our most recent update, we updated the imagery in Western Europe with the latest Maxar imagery.

For most users and use cases, these updates are a good thing because they provide access to more current imagery. In some cases, however, it may be less desirable. The latest imagery may be more current, but it may also be more cloudy for a specific location, or the imagery might have shifted a few meters relative to existing features in the OSM data. In these cases, the previous or even older imagery may be preferred for editing. The older imagery may include the features you are editing with better clarity or relative accuracy. This is why many of us compare imagery background layers when editing OSM data for a given area.

World Imagery Wayback

A few years ago, Esri introduced World Imagery Wayback to our collection of World Imagery offerings. Wayback Imagery is a digital archive of the World Imagery map that enables users to access over 120 versions of World Imagery published over the past 7+ years, starting February 2014. Users can browse and select any one of the versions of World Imagery (e.g. the version released on YYYY-MM-DD) and access the imagery that existed in the World Imagery map starting at that time.

The best way to explore this imagery is through the World Imagery Wayback app. The app is fairly self-explanatory but there are some steps described in this blog post for how to use the Wayback app, and browse the Wayback archive. Once you familiarize yourself with that info, you can follow the steps below to use Wayback imagery in OSM editors such as iD or RapiD.

Use Wayback Imagery in iD

An OSM mapper recently contacted Esri (osm@esri.com) about whether it was possible to access the previous version of World Imagery in iD because they preferred the previous imagery for an area they were mapping, and they were delighted to learn that it was possible to access in iD. I was delighted too because I hadn’t actually tried it previously myself!

Below are suggested steps for adding a specific Wayback layer to iD:

1. Discover Specific Layer in Wayback App
   1. open the Wayback app
   2. search for a place (e.g. Riverside, CA)
   3. zoom in to a specific area (e.g. The Mission Inn)
   4. check “Only versions with local changes” option
   5. explore the different options available and select one
   6. copy the version number of selected layer (e.g. 2015-07-08)
2. Find Selected Layer in Wayback Archive
   1. open the Wayback Imagery group
   2. paste the version number into ‘search group content’ box
   3. click the title of the WMTS layer item (hint: it’s the one with dynamic thumbnail)
   4. scroll down to the URL in lower right of page and click the Copy button to copy URL
   5. paste the URL into a new browser tab and find the unique ID number for the layer after /tile/ (e.g. 31144)
   6. make a note of ID number for the next step
3. Add Custom Background Layer in iD
   1. log in to openstreeetmap.org and click Edit button
   2. click the Background Settings (layers icon), as shown above
   3. select Custom option and click Edit custom background (…)
   4. paste in the URL below using the ID number for the layer you selected previously, as shown below https://wayback.maptiles.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/world_imagery/wmts/1.0.0/default028mm/mapserver/tile/31144/{zoom}/{y}/{x}
   5. click OK button
   6. boom! … you should see the Wayback imagery

You can now use the Wayback imagery as your custom background layer during your editing. You can toggle between the custom layer and the current Esri World Imagery, or other available backgrounds such as Bing aerial imagery, as you see fit.

Happy mapping!

During the Esri User Conference, Esri and Facebook today announced the availability of ArcGIS datasets in updated versions of two OSM editors, RapiD and JOSM. You can check out the Esri blog post and Facebook blog post for details, but I also wanted to provide a little more context and contact info for the OSM community.

In addition to the local knowledge and field surveys of OSM contributors, another source of OSM data is government data that has been released with appropriate licenses. Many government agencies in the United States and around the world are Esri customers, and they use ArcGIS software to create, publish, and share their GIS data.

Esri would like to help OSM mappers by providing more convenient access to this type of data where it would be useful in OSM and it can be provided with an appropriate license. Esri is encouraging our ArcGIS user community to share their data as open data, preferably with licenses that are compatible with OSM.

In the past few months, Esri has identified some open data (e.g. building footprints and address points) that can be used in OSM and processed that data so that it is more ready-to-use in OSM. To enable access to this data for OSM mappers, Esri has worked with developers at Facebook to expose this data in OSM editors through a new version of RapiD and an updated Map With AI plugin for JOSM.

As described in the Esri blog post, these tools will enable OSM mappers to choose a dataset they’d like to use for mapping, select a feature in the dataset that does not currently exist in OSM, review the geometry and available fields (tags) for the feature (such as below) and make adjustments based on local knowledge or other appropriate sources as needed, and then upload their changes to OSM.

ArcGIS Datasets

Esri has identified several GIS datasets that contain data we believe would be useful additions to OSM and which are compatible with the OSM license. For those datasets, we have processed them into a more OSM-ready format (e.g. converting field names and values to those expected by local OSM community), and then published and shared them for access by OSM editors.

You can view the datasets in this Esri-curated group in ArcGIS Online, and get additional details on the datasets and plans for using them in this ArcGIS Datasets page on the OSM wiki. As described above and in the dataset pages, the intent is for OSM mappers to access and uses these datasets while doing manual editing in OSM editors such as RapiD and JOSM, and not to use them for bulk imports.

Going forward, Esri intends to assemble more types of data (e.g. roads, parks, POIs) that would be useful additions to OSM and make them available to OSM mappers. One of the primary ways we will do this is through the new data sharing option in the Esri Community Maps program, which will explicitly permit use of this data in OSM.

Many of us at Esri in the U.S. and around the world are OSM mappers and enjoy contributing to the project, both personally and professionally. We hope the availability of these ArcGIS datasets will be helpful to other OSM mappers and will help enhance OSM data for everyone.

How to Reach the Team

If you have questions on specific ArcGIS datasets, or suggestions for additional datasets, you can add them to the discussion on the respective ArcGIS Datasets wiki pages or send an email to osm@esri.com. If you have questions or suggestions on the new tools in RapiD and JOSM, you can tweet @MapWithAI or find the team in the #mapwithai_feedback channel of the OSM US Slack: OSM US Slack. To submit an issue, you may do so here for RapiD or here for the MapWithAI plugin for JOSM.