2025-10-03 –, Workshops
Turn OpenStreetMap data into routing insights with openrouteservice and QGIS, no servers, no sign-ups, no code.
In this 90-minute hands-on session for newcomers and intermediates, you’ll:
- See how OSM tags become a routable network and why popular routing engines offer directions, isochrones & matrices per default and what they do.
- Connect the ORS-Tools QGIS-plugin with the public openrouteservice API with API-keys we hand out on the spot.
- Build multiprofile routes around the SotM venue, calculate hospital service areas in Manila, and solve a medicine delivery to every of those hospitals with the help of easy to access vehicle optimisation.
You’ll walk away with a reusable QGIS project, a tutorial, and the confidence and knowledge to repeat the workflow anywhere, anytime.
This 90-minute workshop is a hands-on session for newcomers and intermediates to learn how to do routing and mobility analysis with OSM data and openrouteservice in QGIS.
We start with a fast-but-thorough introduction with the basics for the new ones:
- How are OSM tags converted into routable networks;
- How do you access OSM data for mobility analysis;
- The three core services of routing engines: directions, isochrones, matrix.
During the hands-on part, you'll learn how to use the ORS-Tools QGIS-plugin for rapid prototyping, and how it brings all of this power of mobility analysis straight into QGIS without any server setup or complicated requirements.
More specific you will:
- connect the ORS-Tools plugin to the public ORS API using workshop API-keys we provide – no signup needed;
- build turn-by-turn routes around the SotM 2025 venue;
- calculate X-minute hospital isochrones in Manila and count the residents they cover;
- solve a travelling-salesman problem to deliver medicine to every of those hospitals in the most efficient way.
You’ll leave with a ready-to-reuse QGIS project and the know-how to repeat every step anywhere and anytime. The participants can always set up openrouteservice as self-hosted or acquire individual access to our hosted servers for free afterwards.
Internet access required for live public-API calls.
Projector.
Own computers or laptops are advised. However, we will conduct the workshop assignments together with the projector.
University of Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT, Non-profit)
Benjamin Herfort is researcher at HeiGIT and Heidelberg University. In his PhD he has investigated questions of representation and data quality in OpenStreetMap from the perspectives of humanitarian and machine learning-assisted mapping in order to map what is not mapped. In his research and work he is furthermore dealing with the temporal evolution of OpenStreetMap data, MapSwipe and information from social media.
Benjamin works as a product owner at HeiGIT where he is developing open source tools and methods that incorporate geographic information systems for disaster management, humanitarian aid and climate action.
Hi, I'm Julian. Currently, I am the Product Owner for the Smart Mobility Research Area at the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT) and a proud new member of the OSM community in Germany.
Mobility research and development for humanitarian aid distribution and last-mile delivery are a passion for me and, together with a great Team, I have the privilege of managing and growing the open-source routing ecosystem openrouteservice.