Dynamically Integrating OSM Data into a Borderland Database

Spatial data are fundamental for borderland analyses of geography, natural resources, demography, politics, economy, and culture. As the spatial data used in borderland research usually cover the borderland regions of several neighboring countries, it is difficult for anyone research institution of government to collect them. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is a highly successful method for acquiring timely and detailed global spatial data at a very low cost. Therefore, VGI is a reasonable source of borderland spatial data. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is known as the most successful VGI resource. However, OSM's data model is far different from the traditional geographic information model. Thus, the OSM data must be converted in the scientist’s customized data model. Because the real world changes rapidly, the converted data must be updated incrementally. Therefore, this paper presents a method used to dynamically integrate OSM data into the borderland database. In this method, a basic transformation rule base is formed by comparing the OSM Map Feature description document and the destination model definitions. Using the basic rules, the main features can be automatically converted to the destination model. A human-computer interaction model transformation and a rule/automatic-remember mechanism are developed to interactively transfer the unusual features that cannot be transferred by the basic rules to the target model and to remember the reusable rules automatically. To keep the borderland database current, the global OsmChange daily diff file is used to extract the change-only information for the research region. To extract the changed objects in the region under study, the relationship between the changed object and the research region is analyzed considering the evolution of the involved objects. In addition, five rules are determined to select the objects and integrate the changed objects with multi-versions over time. The objects’ change-type evolution is analyzed, and seven rules are used to determine the change-type of the changed objects. Based on these rules and algorithms, we programmed an automatic (or semi-automatic) integrating and updating prototype system for the borderland database. The developed system was intensively tested using OSM data for Vietnam and Pakistan as the experimental data.