Lynchburg VA Area Import

---

Lynchburg VA Area Address Import is a proposed one-time import of Virginia Address Points, covering the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, excluding Lynchburg City as address data is mostly complete, and excluding Appomattox County for purposes of scale.

Goals

To improve the area around Lynchburg and surrounding counties by filling missing address data for the purpose of navigation. Previous imports of this dataset have been carried out in neighboring counties such as the Rockbridge County, Virginia Address Import and this import will follow similar standards for data processing for cohesion in the geographical area.

Schedule

Background

Proposal started: 2024-09-12

Data formatting complete: 2024-09-20

Import began: 2024-09-25

Import completed: 2024-11-07

Import Data

Virginia Address Points: https://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/VGIN::virginia-address-points/about
Type of license: Public Domain

The quality of this dataset in the counties of interest is high, and no significant modifications to the data will be necessary aside from field conversion to OSM standards. This includes converting road names out of uppercase, and expanding abbreviations.

Import Type

One Time Import for the first three counties, with possible second round for Appomattox County and other adjacent counties.

Status

The data is split in 400 batches of approximately 2-5 square mile clusters, generated with QGIS k-means clustering. The batches have a mean size of 217 addresses and a median size of 115 addresses, although the maximum batch size is 1,783 address points due to the density near Lynchburg city.

Data Preparation

The processed batches can be found at this Google Drive folder, including a map of each batch's ID and approximate size.

Tagging Plans

Tag	Example Data
addr:housenumber	14
addr:street	Riverview Lane
addr:city	Concord
addr:state	VA
addr:postcode	24430
addr:unit	Contains unit identifier
Key:addr:unit:label	Contains unit designator

A dedicated user account, shared between verified contributors to the import, will be used to carry out this import. Lynchburg MSA Address Import

Data formatting

The latest .txt file of the VGIN dataset was downloaded 2024-09-11 from [[1]]. This file was processed with an already-existing python script by @tekim created for the Rockbridge import. The script used can be found in this Dropbox data folder hosted by user @pmfox. The counties of interest were extracted as .csv files, which were then converted to .geojson and processed using QGIS to split the data into manageable batches.

Data Merge Workflow

Plugin requirements: BuildingsTools, Conflation, Colored Streets map style, MapWithAI for QA validation

Each batch will be processed as follows:

1. Open the relevant batch_id_###.geojson file using JOSM.
2. Open the Virginia Imagery Service - Most Recent imagery layer.
3. Select all points, and remove the batch_id field.
4. Onto a new layer, download from OSM to use as the merge layer.
5. Using the search string < "addr:housenumber" | amenity=* | shop=* | office=* | building=* > on the downloaded layer, then open the Conflation plugin and FREEZE the Subject layer. (This string should catch all existing addresses, buildings, and amenities such as churches that were imported through GNIS- be aware it also picks up parking lots!)
6. Select all address nodes on the import layer, then open the Conflation plugin and FREEZE the Reference layer.
7. Resolve matches and conflicts on a case-by-case basis. Add a fixme tag when unsure.
8. Select all entries in the "Reference only" tab and press Conflate.
9. Using the Colored Streets map style in JOSM, visually verify addresses are the same color and name as their associated street. If there is a discrepancy between the street and the address, check for typos and cross reference with official VGIN sources, as many roads in this area have not been updated since the TIGER import and are incorrect. Update the street name as necessary. Road geometry and TIGER tag cleanup is out of the scope of this import.
10. For apartment buildings, this dataset frequently separates every unit into its own address. Merge these nodes into a single node for the building, with the Key:addr:flats field containing all unit numbers (can be expressed as a range or series of ranges according to the wiki page).
11. On the downloaded layer, select buildings and address nodes in a small working area and use the Merge Address Points function of BuildingsTools. Do not select all on the layer, as this process requires manual verification- occasionally address nodes are misaligned to building footprints and require an adjustment before merging. If multiple addresses exist in one building footprint, leave the addresses as nodes.
12. Use JOSM's validator with MapWithAI installed at time of upload and resolve any errors or warnings related to addresses.
13. Upload using the dedicated import account with the changeset comment "Lynchburg VA area address import - batch ###" and place the resulting changeset link in the table above for coordination.

Discussion

https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/proposed-import-lynchburg-virginia-area-addresses/118681

QA

JOSM and MapWithAI's QA functionality will be used to validate each changeset.