Quality assessment of volunteered geographic information for outdoor activities: an analysis of OpenStreetMap data for names of peaks in Japan

Abstract

Geographical studies of outdoor activities have increased in recent years with the rise in popularity of these activities worldwide, including in Japan. Volunteered geographic information (VGI) is a key tool for organizing outdoor activities as it offers a means to determine the locational information and names of places. To evaluate the quality of VGI, geospatial data generated by land survey agencies and other VGI are often utilized as reference data. However, since these reference data may not be available, other methods are necessary to assure the quality of VGI. In this study, we examined five trust indicators based on the inherent characteristics of VGI through an empirical case study. We used mountain names extracted from OpenStreetMap in Japan as data because there were almost no other VGI in the vicinity. As a result, we isolated three trust indicators, namely versions, users, and tag corrections, to examine the thematic accuracy of VGI because these were the only statistically significant indicators. However, we found that the prediction rate of thematic accuracy was very low. To improve thematic accuracy, this study recommends using the most accurate versions, applying correctly given tags, and considering the motivations and characteristics of the VGI contributors.

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