Occasionally, I simply scroll through the map on openstreetsmap.org. A year ago, I became aware of the area around Sa Pobla, a Spanish town on the Balearic island of Mallorca. I noticed that, apart from the basic infrastructure, relatively few landcover features had been mapped. Since I had little experience with this and wanted to learn about basic things like fields and tracks in OSM, I started mapping everything that could be seen in the aerial imagery south of Sa Pobla: farmland, water ponds, tracks, roads, buildingy, orchards, etc.

I always tackle a small area that is bounded by surrounding roads. So I mapped my way clockwise around the town, extending the area northwards to the motorway. Then I planned to map the town of Búger and all its houses and began mapping my way towards it. It was rewarding and motivating to be able to see the area I had mapped in much greater detail rendered on openstreetmap.org the next day. Last year, I even had the opportunity to visit Sa Pobla on vacation!

Over the last quarter of a year, I have mapped my way further east to the large wetland area Parc Natural de s’Albufera de Mallorca.

I have left the town of Sa Pobla out for the time being, as mapping buildings in densely built-up areas has not really fulfilled me so far. It is not easy to identify the clear boundaries between houses using aerial imagery, and it is very time-consuming.

Speaking of which, I mostly use Bing, as it has the best aerial imagery available for this area. If I need a different exposure for details, I switch to Mapbox or ESRI. It is a little unsatisfactory that large areas of the town of Sa Pobla, which is at the center of my activity, are not mapped for now. But that will take some time…