Between September 2024 and August 2025, we conducted a comprehensive street-level survey of Milano, Italy, capturing approximately one million 360° panoramic images using a monopod-mounted camera setup. These images were uploaded to Mapillary, contributing to open-access urban geospatial data. This presentation shares practical insights into continuous data collection methods and analyzes urban characteristics discernible from the imagery, such as graffiti prevalence, urban greenery distribution, and the potential of these visuals as foundational data for 3D digital twin models. I will discuss the current capabilities and limitations of using crowdsourced street-level imagery for urban analysis and planning.

Since 2020, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has led Project PLATEAU, releasing 3D city models in CityGML format. By 2025, over 236 municipalities have published building datasets compatible with the Open Database License (ODbL), suitable for integration into OpenStreetMap (OSM).

Since 2022, OpenStreetMap Japan volunteers have imported PLATEAU’s Level of Detail 1 (LOD1) building data into OSM, completing imports for 13 cities as of May 2025. Despite these efforts, only about 62% of Japan’s estimated 38 million building polygons are mapped in OSM.

This presentation proposes a roadmap to complete Japan’s building mapping within one year, focusing on optimizing PLATEAU data imports, ensuring data consistency, and strengthening community collaboration.