Assessing OpenStreetMap roads fitness-for-use for disaster risk assessment in developing countries: The case of Burundi

Abstract

Abstract Evidence shows how disasters caused by extreme weather events are surely becoming more frequent at all latitudes, and are definitely representing an ever-growing risk in the floods- and landslides-prone territory of Burundi. The still present inequalities of its society and the vulnerable economy make this African country a very relevant and particularly complex case for hazards risk management. A fundamental step in this task is to correctly map the so-called exposure elements to risk, which most notably comprise the population and households, the critical infrastructure, and the transportation network. In this article, we assess the quality of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) roads database in Burundi at national level, with a perspective in its fitness-for-use in the assistance for disaster risk mitigation purposes, which were adopted in the context of a recent multi-hazards risk assessment and mapping exercise on behalf of the International Organisation for Migration. Despite not touching all aspects of volunteered geographic information data quality that are commonly found in literature for a comprehensive assessment, we believe the information provided in this study can be of help for stakeholders in their decision to use the OSM dataset in an otherwise data-scarce area.