Where are the US mappers at? Contributor and Data Development in US Urbanized Areas

A recent study comparing OSM data and contributor development in urbanized areas around the world has shown that no generalized statement can be made about the data development of OSM for areas with a high population density. While some OSM datasets for urbanized areas, especially in Europe, prove to be a sophisticated source of information for a number of applications, other areas such as Los Angeles, Sydney or Seoul do not share the similar patterns. In this presentation we compare 50 urbanized areas in the US and their contributor and data development over the past six years, putting the results in perspective to the previous findings for other world regions. Additionally, socioeconomic factors such as population density and income will be taken into account to evaluate whether they can influence the success of OSM in the tested areas. The conducted analysis helps the OSM community identify areas of interest for potential future application tests, gives interested users an idea about the quality of particular urban areas and shows which areas need improvement.