How much do you know about Wheelmap?
Nov 12th, 2018 by m01
Within the European FP7 project “CAP4Access“, we studied the usage of crowdsourced geographic information (and more specifically OpenStreetMap data) for improving accessibility in selected European regions. This 3 year research study led to several implementations and extensions of Open Source GI solutions with respect to OSM data quality assessment as well as wheelchair routing and navigation. In previous blog posts we have already introduced the Wheelchair extension of OpenRouteService and also wrote about the navigation app for Openrouteservice.
Furthermore, during the piloting activities we organised several mapping events to use these apps in action and learn how they can be improved to provide better service. Wheelmap, an already existing platform developed by our project partner SozialHelden was also used and improved throughout this project.
One of the outcomes of the events was to learn from target groups that less people were aware of the availability of this software, especially young researchers who have the interest and knowledge to adapt it in their work and even further extend it. Therefore, together with colleagues at SozialHelden we present a software article entitled “Wheelmap: the wheelchair accessibility crowdsourcing platform” where you can find more technical details and information about how to use or extend this in your project. Wheelmap is an ongoing project. So, in case you are interested and have an idea on how to extend Wheelmap, kindly get in touch with the authors of this article for collaboration!
A map showing POIs in four different colours (accessibility levels) in Wheelmap
Further reading:
Mobasheri, A., Deister, J., Dieterich, H. (2017). Wheelmap: The Wheelchair Accessibility Crowdsourcing Platform . Journal of Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards, 2: 27, doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40965-017-0040-5
Relevant Publications on this topic:
- Mobasheri A., Huang H., Degrossi L.C. and A. Zipf (2018): Enrichment of OpenStreetMap Data Completeness with Sidewalk Geometries Using Data Mining Techniques. Sensors 2018, 18(2), 509; doi:10.3390/s18020509
- Mobasheri, A. (2017). A rule-based spatial reasoning approach for OpenStreetMap Data quality enrichment; Case study of routing and navigation. Sensors, 17(11), 2498.
- Zipf, A., Mobasheri, A., Rousell, A. ,Hahmann, S. (2016): Crowdsourcing for individual needs - the case of routing and navigation for mobility-impaired persons. In: Capineri, C, Haklay, M, Huang, H, Antoniou, V, Kettunen, J, Ostermann, F and Purves, R. (eds.) European Handbook of Crowdsourced Geographic Information, p. 325–337. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.5334/bax.x
- Rousell A. and Zipf A. (2017): Towards a landmark based pedestrian navigation service using OSM data. International Journal of Geo-Information, ISPRS IJGI, 6(3): 64.
- Miksch, J., Hahmann, S., Resch, B., Lauer, J., Zipf, A. (2017): Routing Through Open Spaces - A Performance Comparison Of Algorithms. Geo-Spatial information Science, 2017. Taylor & Francis. Geo-Spatial information Science, 2017. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.1080/10095020.2017.1399675
- John, S., Hahmann, S., Rousell, A., Loewner, M., Zipf, A. (2016). Deriving incline values for street networks from voluntarily collected GPS traces. Cartography and Geographic Information Science (CaGIS). Taylor & Francis. DOI:10.1080/15230406.2016.1190300
- Neis, P. & Zipf, A (2008): OpenRouteService.org is three times “Open”: Combining OpenSource, OpenLS and OpenStreetMaps. GIS Research UK (GISRUK 08). Manchester.
- Novack, T., Wang, Z., Zipf, A. (2018): A System for Generating Customized Pleasant Pedestrian Routes Based on OpenStreetMap Data. Sensors 2018, 18, 3794. https://doi.org/10.3390/s18113794
- Müller, A., Neis, P. & Zipf, A. (2010): Ein Routenplaner für Rollstuhlfahrer auf der Basis von OpenStreetMap-Daten. Konzeption, Realisierung und Perspektiven. AGIT 2010. Symposium für Angewandte Geoinformatik. Salzburg. Austria.