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Improving road names in Cymraeg mapping in Cymru

Plugging the gap

A key objective of the Mapio Cymru project is to help increase the amount of names in Cymraeg (Welsh language) held by OpenStreetMap as open data, as a resource to support mapping apps and services available in Cymraeg in the future.

The biggest single gap in name data in OpenStreetMap in Cymru (Wales) is road names that should be used in Cymraeg. This data is held by all local authorities and passed to GeoPlace who use the data in the National Street Gazetteer. GeoPlace also supply the data to Ordnance Survey for inclusion in relevant products.

OS Open Roads and the National Street Gazetteer

The OS Open Roads dataset contains name data and is coded to provide the appropriate name in English and Cymraeg. When examining this product the Mapio Cymru team has been concerned to see inconsistencies in the data and what seem like data quality issues compared with on-the ground signage. For this reason we resisted using OS Open Roads as a source until we could understand these inconsistencies and judge whether they were significant.

The authoritative dataset for road names should be the National Street Gazetteer (NSG). This is available to public bodies under the PSGA but it is not easily available to third parties to view or to re-use.

Comparing OS Open Roads to the National Street Gazetteer

We signed a sub-contractor agreement with Welsh Government and they obtained a version of the NSG for Wales. They supplied us with a simple CSV consisting of Unique Street Reference Number (USRN), name in Cymraeg and name in English.

We joined this dataset to the OS Open Roads product and this gave us the opportunity to compare name data between the datasets.

For all of Cymru, where a name value appears in OS Open Roads  it is an exact match for the values in the NSG 66% of the time.

On the face of it this is a worrying error rate. To dig into this we filtered the data to include only Powys roads.

In Powys, where a name appears in OS Open Roads it is an exact match for the values in the NSG 73% of the time.

Of the cases where a name appears in OS Open Roads but is not an exact match for the values in the NSG:

  • 32% are simply different names and it is difficult to infer any reason for the difference
  • in 27% of cases the NSG contains a description rather than a name.
    For example: USRN 85320327 appears as “PRIVATE STREET MAES MAESMAENDU TO MAES-Y-FFYNNON LINK ROAD” in Cymraeg in NSG and “HEOL Y FFYNNON” in OS. The OS dataset does seem to contain street names that appear on physical signs but don’t appear in the NSG. Presumably this is down to OS surveyors adding the on-the ground data.
  • in 18% of cases it appears as if there are data quality issues on the OS Open Roads side. We can’t be sure, of course, but this is an educated guess
    For example: USRN 85318006 appears as “CLOS BURGESS” in Cymraeg in NSG and “BURGESS CLOSE” in OS Open Roads
  • in 14% of cases the difference between the NSG and OS Open Roads is down to different application of spaces, hyphens, apostrophes etc
    For example: USRN 85319893 appears as “DAN Y CASTELL” in Cymraeg in NSG and “DAN-Y-CASTELL” in OS Open Roads
  • The remaining 8% of cases were a mix of various other issues.

OS Open Roads is good enough

Having broken down these various differences we concluded that the OS Open Roads dataset is a good enough source for human editing. An editor reasonably familiar with road names in Cymraeg would be able to detect many of the problems and resolve them correctly.

To demonstrate this we used OS Open Roads as a source to add Cymraeg names to roads in Aberhonddu, Powys.

This is what our map looked like before we started:

Screenshot from the Mapio Cymru website. It shows north Brecon with many un-labelled roads.

And this is what it looked like once we had added Cymraeg names:

Screenshot from Mapio Cymru website of a map of the north of Brecon. Almost all roads now have a label on them.

Lots more road names.

One of the potentially jarring things about this process is that it adds a lot of English-language names to the map. Which, on the face of it, seems odd if we’re trying to improve a Cymraeg map.

The truth is that many English-language names are used in Cymraeg. When we generate our Cymraeg map (which we do every day!) we label features with the name by which they are known in Cymraeg.

If we compare our map to the same view on the openstreetmap.org server which, in Cymru, tends to show the names used in English. We see that many road names are the same but not all.

Screenshot of openstreetmap.org. A map of the north of Brecon. Most of the roads have labels and most of the labels are the same as the names in the Welsh-language map.

Notably Lôn Bupren appears on the Cymraeg map but appears as Peppercorn Lane on the English-language map. The other road names remain the same because they have the same name in Cymraeg and English.

This year we will be putting some effort into improving road name labels in OpenStreetMap.

If you are an OpenStreetMap editor please help us.

 

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Events podcast Projects

Croeso / Welcome to Bryngwran

Arwydd newydd : it's a (new) sign!
Arwydd newydd : it's a (new) sign!

Dyma Phil Blake yn esbonio tarddiad enw Bryngwran, a thipyn o hanes Tafarn yr Iorwerth hefyd.
/
Hear Phil Blake discussing the etymology of Bryngwran, and the history of The Iorwerth Arms.
(This is a Welsh-language interview)

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Sylwebaeth

NaPTAN in Welsh: list of transport points now in Cymraeg

Do you take a keen interest in bus stops, railway stations, ferry ports, and other transport ‘nodes’?

Perhaps you are building a transport app or service, or looking into the provision and accessibility of transport in an area. Or perhaps you’re just a curious person.

What is NaPTAN?

If you’re still reading then let me tell you about NaPTAN which is a huge list of transport access points. The list includes bus stops, railway stations, tram stops, metro, underground, air and ferry, and includes locality information.

NaPTAN stands for National Public Transport Access Nodes, although it covers Wales, England, and Scotland. It is held by the Department for Transport of the UK government, who collect the data from various authorities, and publish it all as open data under the Open Government Licence (OGL).

Ble mae’r Gymraeg?

Just recently we’ve been alerted to a change in NaPTAN. The news is that it now includes place names in Welsh. Previously these were patchy or non-existent.

Check out the XML version of the data. You can download the data from the NaPTAN site or via the API. Look for the xml:lang=”cy” attribute, where “cy” or “CY” is the ISO 639-1 language code for Cymraeg. Here’s an example:

<StopPoint CreationDateTime="2000-01-01T00:00:00" ModificationDateTime="2024-05-02T09:51:14" Modification="revise" RevisionNumber="5" Status="active">
<AtcoCode>5810AWC51266</AtcoCode>
<NaptanCode>swajgpd</NaptanCode>
<Descriptor>
<CommonName>Morriston Library</CommonName>
<ShortCommonName>Library</ShortCommonName>
<Landmark>Morriston Library</Landmark>
<Street>Pentrepoeth Road</Street>
<Crossing>Treharne Road</Crossing>
<Indicator>o/s</Indicator>
</Descriptor>
<AlternativeDescriptors>
<Descriptor CreationDateTime="2024-05-02T09:51:15" ModificationDateTime="2024-05-02T09:51:15" Modification="new">
<CommonName xml:lang="CY">Llyfrgell Treforys</CommonName>
</Descriptor>
</AlternativeDescriptors>
<Place>
<NptgLocalityRef>E0054717</NptgLocalityRef>
<LocalityCentre>true</LocalityCentre>
<Location>
<Translation>
<GridType>UKOS</GridType>
<Easting>266970</Easting>
<Northing>198253</Northing>
<Longitude>-3.924981045</Longitude>
<Latitude>51.667255647</Latitude>
</Translation>
</Location>
</Place>
<StopClassification>
<StopType>BCT</StopType>
<OnStreet>
<Bus>
<BusStopType>MKD</BusStopType>
<TimingStatus>OTH</TimingStatus>
<MarkedPoint>
<Bearing>
<CompassPoint>NW</CompassPoint>
</Bearing>
</MarkedPoint>
</Bus>
</OnStreet>
</StopClassification>
<AdministrativeAreaRef>056</AdministrativeAreaRef>
<PlusbusZones>
<PlusbusZoneRef CreationDateTime="2000-01-01T00:00:00" ModificationDateTime="2012-07-06T00:00:00" Modification="new" RevisionNumber="0" Status="active">SWANSEA</PlusbusZoneRef>
</PlusbusZones>
</StopPoint>

At the time of writing there’s a total of 24633 data fields that include Welsh-language data. Most of these are names of nodes. At a glance these range from “Canolfan Iechyd Blaendulais” (bus stop) to “Gorsaf reilffordd Penarlag” (railway station) and brand names which transcend language like “Tesco” (several bus stops).

You’ll also see “gd” or “GD” language code for Scottish Gaelic data.

It currently seems as though coverage for Welsh-language names varies by local authority area.

By all means let us know if you do anything with the data.

Difference in the CSV

For some reason the CSV version on offer does not include names marked as being in Welsh. Its CommonName field usually gives the name used in English (but there are some exceptions). Hopefully the CSV will be updated by DfT to include all the names and other data in Welsh, in the appropriate fields.

Feedback

It’s worth noting that this looks to be a work in progress and that the names and the precise locations of stops may be subject to review or change. If you have any feedback on the data itself then you should send it to feedbacktraveline@tfw.wales

Diolch

Thanks to our contacts at Transport for Wales and Welsh Government who’ve brought this change to our attention, and for all their support and work towards Welsh-language mapping services.

Categories
Milestones Events Projects

Put Your Pub on the Map!

Arfbais Môn

Put Your Pub on the Map!

Welsh Gov’s Welsh map can be edited by You…

If you believe that your local is the best local, or that the new extension-on-the-extension of your pub needs to be on the map, this is your opportunity to make sure it’s there for all to see.  OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of the mapping world, and a Welsh project is now eager for people in Wales to put their pub on their Welsh version of the map.  One of the first pubs to be added already is Tafarn yr Iorwerth on Ynys Môn…

Saturday 9th March saw Welsh Government’s ‘Mapio Cymru’ [Mapping Wales] project organise a day of sharing good practice and conversation in Tafarn yr Iorwerth (previously known as the Iorwerth Arms) in Bryngwran on Sir Fôn.  The location was chosen as it recently had its Welsh name added to Mapio Cymru’s openstreetmap.cymru, the official Welsh-language online map of Wales, an important part of the national Data Map Wales project.

‘Mapio Môn’ was an opportunity for mapping enthusiasts to meet up to see what can be done to improve the provision of Welsh-language names on maps.  Experts from the Welsh Place-name Society, Transport for Wales and from the community-run pub Iorwerth Arms itself shared ideas which could support the long-terms aim of Mapio Cymru – i.e. to make Welsh-language data equal in quality and quantity to the English-language data already available for Wales.  This data could then be used freely in future mapping apps and services from any provider; across education, tourism, fitness, gaming, sustainability, and public services.

Welsh place-names have been a hot potato in Welsh-language heartlands, however Ordnance Survey use the official Welsh-language names too, as Steve Roddick, Welsh Place-name Society member Steve Roddick explained on Saturday:

“The Cable Bay name will be recorded, but it’s in the metadata of the digital map, hidden away from the eye but visible to the computer…so if you were sitting at the end of a 999 call and you carried out an enquiry, the name would come up, you’d know the location you need to send the ambulance to… For the paper map, the one the public use, the Welsh name is always recorded in preference…[Cable Bay] is a sort of a nickname, and generally nick-names aren’t visible on the Ordnance Survey map.”

Welsh-language names of historical importance can be kept in the public eye on Cymru / Wales’ official online Welsh-language map https://openstreetmap.cymru via osm.org.  For further details on how to add local pubs and other features, follow #mapioCymru on social media or email mapiocymru@dailingual.com.  Audio highlights from the bilingual discussions will be shared online soon on mapio.cymru.

 

Mapio Cymru is a Welsh Government-sponsored project by Data Orchard.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Guides

How to use Mapio Cymru as a Welsh-language base map on your system

A couple of people have asked me how to use Mapio Cymru as a base map on their websites, apps, and other systems. This is a good way of providing visitors to your website with a map of Wales in the Welsh language.

In other words you can show our map tiles, which are the PNG images available through openstreetmap.cymru.

Then you can do whatever your system allows such as panning, zooming, and perhaps putting pins, shapes, images and other things on the map.

Embed

Before we press ahead, everything that follows is aimed at somebody who is comfortable coding, maintaining a system, or using GIS software.

If you DON’T want to work directly with the base map it’s possible to embed Mapio Cymru on a website. This is probably the fastest and simplest method. It’s very similar to how you would embed video players etc (using an iframe).

Go to openstreetmap.cymru and click Rhannu/Share for details on how to do this. You can get an HTML embed code or alternatively a direct link to a specific view of the map.

Which systems?

The rest of this blog post will describe how to use Mapio Cymru as a base map, for people who want to be a bit more technical.

There are quite a few systems that offer to set a base map of your choice, such as things that run Leaflet.js, e.g. Overpass Turbo.

For example there are a few WordPress plugins that allow you to show maps on your website – such as Leaflet Maps Marker, WP Go Maps, and others.

If you have the skills you could create a website from scratch with Leaflet.js and use Mapio Cymru as a base map. Unfortunately the details on how to do this go beyond this little guide today, but there are guides on the web!

There is also desktop software that uses base maps of your choice such as QGIS.

For those interested Mapio Cymru’s CORS headers now allow direct use of tiles. Please note that some content management systems may show a security warning about cross-site scripting.

The all-important settings

Use the address below as the base map:

https://openstreetmap.cymru/osm_tiles/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Also if you have to give levels of zoom, put 3 as the minimum and 16 as the maximum.

Here is an attribution or credit you should give, to fulfil the open licensing conditions of OpenStreetMap data. Here’s the HTML version:

Defnyddiwch <a href=”https://www.openstreetmap.cymru” target=”_blank”>openstreetmap.cymru</a>. Data ar y map &#x24BD Cyfranwyr <a href=”https://openstreetmap.org” target=”_blank”>osm.org</a>

Alternatively here’s the plain text version:

Defnyddiwch openstreetmap.cymru. Data ar y map © Cyfranwyr osm.org

Get in touch

If you have managed to get the map on your website or system, please leave a comment with the method you used – and a link to the specific page on your website if possible.

Terms

Please be respectful and reasonable with your use of the Mapio Cymru server. Get in touch if you want to discuss ‘heavy’ use, especially if you are an organisation, service, or project of significant size.

We’ll have to review how things go if demand grows.

Categories
Milestones

FixMyStreet are now using our map!

FixMyStreet is now available in Welsh

 

Welsh-speaking users of FixMyStreet, the national reporting service for local street and environmental problems, can now make reports using a Welsh-language map provided by Mapio Cymru.

 

Broken street lights, fly-tipping, potholes and other local, place-based issues in Wales can now be reported to the correct authority by citizens in Welsh as well as in English via FixMyStreet, the long-running reporting service for street and environmental problems provided by civic technology charity mySociety.

 

FixMyStreet is a progressive web app that enables citizens across the UK to report local problems to the authority responsible for fixing them, even if they do not know who that is. For the first time since its launch in 2007, users in Wales wanting to make reports in Welsh will be able to view a Welsh-language version of the website and app, including a Welsh-language map provided by Mapio Cymru.

 

Over half a million people in Wales speak Welsh and the Welsh Government aims to double this by 2050. Having digital services that work as well in Welsh as they do in English is key to achieving this growth in the language. Launched in 2019, Mapio Cymru is a project that aims to ensure mapping services are as good in Welsh as they are in English. Using open data sources Mapio Cymru provides a Welsh-only map of Wales. It also works with organisations across Wales to improve mapping services in the Welsh language.

 

Louise Crow, Chief Executive at mySociety, said: “FixMyStreet was built to make it easier for citizens to report problems in their communities. We are delighted to be able to make the service accessible to Welsh-speaking citizens, with a fully translated reporting process and a Welsh-language map, enabling users to select the street names and locations with which they are familiar. We look forward to seeing the Welsh-language version of the service put to good use by more citizens who care about improving where they live.”

 

Ben Proctor, Innovation Director at Data Orchard CIC which runs the Mapio Cymru project, said: “Digital mapping technology is really powerful and easy for organisations like mySociety to use in English. Sadly it’s not the same in Welsh. We aim to make it easier for organisations to  deliver services on the highest quality Welsh-language mapping available.”

 

Welsh-speaking users can start using the Welsh-language version of FixMyStreet straight away by heading to cy.fixmystreet.com or downloading the FixMyStreet app from the relevant app store.

 

There are gaps in Mapio Cymru’s Welsh language map because the project relies on volunteers and public bodies to contribute definitive Welsh names. Volunteers can help to plug the gaps by adding the Welsh names for features on the map (buildings, roads, mountains, fields and so on). Public bodies can help to plug the gaps by publishing the Welsh names that they hold for features under an open licence. The Mapio Cymru team is available to advise on these issues. Just visit mapio.cymru.

About FixMyStreet

FixMyStreet is an independent, free-to-use progressive web app, built by the charity mySociety to enable UK citizens to report, view and discuss local problems.

 

All reports made via FixMyStreet are sent directly to the authority responsible for fixing the problem, who can then reply to the report-maker to update them on the status of its resolution. Reports and their responses are also displayed publicly on the map to increase transparency within a community.

 

The software is available open source for use globally (see fixmystreet.org), or there is a fully hosted and integrated Pro version for which councils or other public authorities can pay an annual fee provided by the charity’s wholly owned subsidiary SocietyWorks (see societyworks.org).

 

About mySociety

mySociety is a non-profit organisation seeking to repower democracy, putting more power into more people’s hands through the creation of digital technologies and data. Visit mysociety.org for more information.

 

About Data Orchard CIC
Data Orchard CIC is a social enterprise helping organisations use data for better decisions and greater impact. Data Orchard CIC combines specialist skills in research, statistics and data with a passion for making the world a better place socially, economically and environmentally.  Visit dataorchard.org.uk for more information

 

Mapio Cymru is a Data Orchard CIC project. Visit mapio.cymru for more information.

Categories
Guides

Command-line tools for you to create an OpenStreetMap-derived base map in the Welsh language

All the custom code which we use for the Mapio Cymru Welsh-language map server is now available in a repository.

This will be of particular interest if you want to provision your own server which produces map tiles in the Welsh language (or perhaps a different language of your preference). All code is licensed under GPL, allowing you to run it for any purpose, modify it, and redistribute it.

Please note that a basic knowledge of how to use the Linux command line is assumed.

The main tool is a Lua script called cartonamecy2name.lua which is run when importing data. It determines the name to be stored in the database, for any given entity on the map. OSM data is the main source for Mapio Cymru, particularly the name:cy and name tags, and also Wikidata name information via OSM’s wikidata tag. In editing these sources we also refer to open data from the Welsh Language Commissioner.

Many more details are given in the README file in the repository, including step-by-step instructions for use.

If you just want to use a Welsh-language map which already exists, ignore the above and head to openstreetmap.cymru!

Categories
Events

Mapio Cymru at FOSS4G: Using Switch2OSM tools to build a map in Welsh

It was a pleasure to take part in the FOSS4G conference today in Cardiff.

Here’s the recording of my talk about provisioning the Mapio Cymru server along with the slides.

This presentation will be of interest to people who want to advance mapping in lesser-resourced languages around the world. Then again, anybody with an interest in the overall growth of OpenStreetMap would do well to pay attention to the multilingual aspects of the project – in my view.

Thanks to the organisers and all participants for an insightful day at FOSS4G!

Categories
Events

Mapio Cymru talk at the FOSS4G conference

Jurys Inn Cardiff Exterior

If you’re interested in the server software and data aspects of Mapio Cymru and OpenStreetMap, come to my talk at FOSS4G.

FOSS4G is the international Free and Open Source Software Conference for Geospatial. This year it is happening on Thursday 17th November simultaneously over several physical sites around Wales, Scotland, and England – including Cardiff where I will be.

As Mapio Cymru we’ve shared our learnings and enthusiasm at several events and organised a few of our own events, variously through the medium of Welsh and English. This time my talk will be through the medium of English. I am going to focus on the more technical side – what happens on the servers, plus some context about the Welsh language situation for those who might need it.

I’ll be discussing how we’ve built a map of Wales in Welsh, what technical and other challenges we’ve overcome, what the next steps will be, and share our overall vision for bringing mapping in Welsh to all.

Hopefully somebody out there will be inspired to contribute to mapping in the Welsh language or OpenStreetMap as a wider project, or start their own initiative – perhaps for another lesser-resourced language.

At the time of writing this I’ve just heard that the allocation of tickets for the Cardiff branch of the event is now running low. If you’re unable to get a ticket you can still watch the recording afterwards.

Categories
Milestones

New experimental map from Mapio Cymru to help you share more place names in Welsh

Mapio Cymru now has an experimental map you can browse, as a counterpart to the main map.

This map currently looks fairly similar to the main map, but it’s running on a separate server which I’ve provisioned for it:

pwlltywod.mapio.cymru

Look closely and you’ll see that all the place names are subtly different.

Why do this? The main purpose is to spot gaps in the data for names in Welsh. There are a few means by which a name can find its way to the main map. The map takes data from OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and then processes it. We at the Mapio Cymru project wanted to convey the data source of each name on a map, but separately from the main map.

At the moment there are four potential sources noted in the experimental map’s key:

  • From the name:cy field (OpenStreetMap)
  • From the name field (OpenStreetMap) – while not labelled as being in Welsh the name looks as if it could be in Welsh, according to certain criteria. I need to blog about these criteria soon.
  • From Wikidata
  • No suitable name found (at the moment)

Please note that this key could change in future. Please refer to the map and its own key for details.

You won’t be able to do all the things that you can do with the main map, like search and easy embedding.

What you can do is browse the experimental map to find deficiencies and then edit OSM to enter names, in instances where the data is incomplete.

Your changes will appear on the main map and the experimental map.

Ultimately the place name you enter could then appear in a multitude of apps and projects, thanks to its licensing status as open data. I am very glad to offer this resource as a means of helping anybody who wants to share place names in Welsh. Thanks again to the Welsh Government for supporting this work.

The experimental map server is called the Pwll Tywod, or sand pit. This is denoted by the sandy coloured border. Our use of this term is to convey that we are playing with how it appears. Please excuse any occasional tech glitches you might see on the experimental map – but that’s the point.