A multilevel stratified spatial sampling approach based on terrain knowledge for the quality assessment of OpenStreetMap dataset in Hong Kong

Abstract

AbstractWith the development of Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) data, the OpenStreetMap has high research value in terms of project activity, social influence, urban development, application scope, and historical richness and the number of buildings or roads is increasing every day. However, how to evaluate the quality of a large amount OpenStreetMaps efficiently and accurately is still not fully understood. This article presents the development of an approach regarding multilevel stratified spatial sampling based on slope knowledge and official 1:1000 thematic maps as the reference dataset for OpenStreetMap data quality inspection of Hong Kong. This multilevel stratified spatial sampling plan is as follows: (1) The terrain characteristics of Hong Kong are fully considered by dividing grids into quality estimate strata based on the slope information; (2) Spatial sampling for the selection of grids or objects is used; (3) A more reliable sampling subset is made, regarding the representation of the entire OpenStreetMap dataset of Hong Kong. This sampling plan displays a 10% higher sampling accuracy, but without increasing the sample size, particularly as regards building completeness inspection compared with simple random sampling and systematic random sampling. This research promotes further applications of the Open‐Street‐Map dataset, thus enabling us to have a better understanding of the OpenStreetMap data quality in urban areas.