OSM update for Durmitor region

OpenStreetMap (EIGHT) is a virtual community project with the goal of creating a free, accessible map that everyone can edit themselves. Today, numerous navigation applications use data from the OSM database and maps generated from this database as their basis. OSM can also be used in Garmin navigation devices, and an additional convenience is the possibility of exporting OSM in a high-quality vector format that can be freely used for creating tourist information boards, printed guides, and the like. Due to their free license and easy updating, OSM has an advantage over other commercial GIS platforms, and they are almost irreplaceable, if they are well processed, for outdoor activities. Due to their high-quality topographic features, numerous mountain rescue services from the USA and the EU use applications based on these maps for their regular activities.

Unfortunately, the OSM community in Montenegro is small and weakly active, and therefore until almost all regions of Montenegro were poorly or not at all processed, which, in a practical sense, made OSM unusable when it comes to our country. As a socially responsible organization, the outdoor club The Northern Way from Beran, in 2015 took on this big and technically demanding job, and through volunteer work, the wider region of Bjelasica, Komovo and Prokletije was updated in detail. Based on that work, in addition to navigation and orientation possibilities using modern IT technologies, OSM was implemented in this region through tourism projects for the first time in Montenegro. printed tourist materials and on tourist info boards which solved problems with copyrights or expensive licenses when it comes to maps and reduced costs.

Local tourist organization Žabljak she immediately recognized the importance of these activities and in cooperation with the outdoor club The Northern Way through the project "OSM update for Durmitor region", which she supported National Tourist Organization of Montenegro, identical activities were transferred to the Durmitor region, which covered in detail the territory of the municipality of Žabljak, and to a greater or lesser extent the municipalities of Plužine, Šavnik, Nikšić, Kolašin, Mojkovac, Pljevlja and Bijelo Polje.

Through this project, which has just ended after several months of work, the following goals were achieved:

  • Popular mobile navigation applications or web platforms are enabled for use in the treated region (Ourx Maps, Motion X, Eight Amd, View Ranger, Runtastic Mountain Bike, Wikiloc, Peak Finder, Open Cycle Map, Waymarked Trails, numerous AR applications, etc.), which use OSM maps as their base.
  • Based on the updated OSM database, they were prepared compatible maps for specialized Garmin navigation devices with a separate cycling map on which there are marked paths of all cycling paths in Montenegro.
  • A vector topographic map was created, which LTO Žabljak will use in the future for its own needs, or will share it with other actors in tourism who need to prepare various printed tourist materials.
  • The conditions have been created for LTO Žabljak to encourage the owners of numerous tourist facilities to mark their facilities and services on OSM, and they will be actively assisted by the outdoor club The Northern Way and the outdoor portal. www.pedalaj.me. By marking facilities that offer services to tourists, such facilities will be promoted in a certain way, they will be more accessible to guests, which will affect the easier work of business entities active in the tourism sector.
  • The region of Durmitor and Sinjajevina is connected with the region of Bjelasica, Komovo and Prokletije, thus the greater part of the north of Montenegro is well mapped.

[su_button url=”http://tozabljak.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/LOGO-TO-Zabljak.zip” style=”flat” background=”#649B49” size=”6” wide=”yes ”]COMPLETE MATERIAL CREATED THROUGH THE PROJECT[/su_button]