2025-11-15 –, Way
fAIr is an open AI-assisted mapping tool developed by HOT, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Recently a new machine learning algorithm was added and OSM users can experiment with mapping buildings around the globe. How well does fAIr work and has the new addition improved this?
The idea of (semi)automatically and effortlessly mapping OSM features from satellite images by means of some AI tool is fascinating to some, and terrifying to others.
Whether you belong to the AI-skeptical or to the more accommodating side of this dispute, it will be of interest to hear the results of our research on the performance of fAIr, a burgeoning tool developed by HOT, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. The aim of fAIr is to propose a fully open source mapping workflow, from the satellite imagery to the output data, for suggesting features for OSM, currently buildings footprints. It consists of an online AI mapping platform that allows users to create their own local training dataset, train/fine-tune a pre-trained AI model, and then map into OSM with the assistance of their own local model.
The research investigates the performance of both AI computer vision models available in fAIr. One of these was already presented in a few occasions in 2024 (at SoTM scientific track in Nairobi and at Geomob in London). We build up from that research and we show (if), how and where the tool works, and where there is room for improvement.
Humanitarian mapping, open source, AI, academic research.
Affiliation:The Alan Turing Institute, Heigit
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.
Anna is a long term OSM contributor and MissingMaps volunteer, currently employed as a Research Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, London. In this role, she collaborates with HOT - the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and HeiGit - Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology, Germany, on assessing the performance of fAIr.
She is also one of the main people behind Maptcha, a cool project that hopefully will take off one day!
