Open Street Map Change Tracker

Overview

The Open Street Map Change Tracker is an Apify Actor that extracts location and amenity data from OpenStreetMap using the Overpass API. Provide a bounding box, area name, and amenity keywords, and the Open Street Map Change Tracker returns structured records including OSM IDs, coordinates, types, and full tag metadata. Whether you're building location databases, tracking amenity changes, or conducting geospatial research, the Open Street Map Change Tracker delivers accurate OpenStreetMap data efficiently.

With multi-server failover across three Overpass API mirrors, the Open Street Map Change Tracker ensures reliable data extraction even when individual servers are unavailable or rate-limited.

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Features

• Keyword-Based Amenity Search – Query OpenStreetMap for any amenity type (e.g., cafe, restaurant, hospital, school).
• Bounding Box Filtering – Restrict Open Street Map Change Tracker results to a specific geographic area using latitude/longitude bounds.
• Multi-Server Failover – Automatically tries 3 different Overpass API mirrors if one fails, ensuring high Open Street Map Change Tracker availability.
• Retry Logic – Retries up to 3 times per server with escalating delays to handle 504 timeouts gracefully.
• Node, Way & Relation Support – Fetches all OpenStreetMap element types (nodes, ways, relations) for complete Open Street Map Change Tracker coverage.
• Full Tag Metadata – Returns all OSM tags for each element for rich Open Street Map Change Tracker data.
• Proxy Support – Configures Apify residential proxies (used for future extensibility; Overpass public API does not require proxy).
• Error Handling – Logs errors per server and pushes error status to dataset if all servers fail.
• Dataset Integration – Automatically pushes all Open Street Map Change Tracker results to your Apify dataset for easy export.

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How It Works

1. Input – Provide amenity keywords, a bounding box, and an optional area name.
2. Overpass Query – The actor builds an Overpass QL query targeting nodes, ways, and relations matching the keywords within the bounding box.
3. Multi-Server Fetch – It tries each of 3 Overpass API mirrors with up to 3 retries each.
4. Filter & Structure – Extracts OSM ID, type, coordinates, and tags for each element.
5. Build Output – Packages all Open Street Map Change Tracker results into a single structured record and pushes it to the dataset.

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
keywords	String	"cafe,restaurant"	Comma-separated list of OSM amenity keywords to search for.
bbox	Object	London bounding box	Bounding box with min_lat, min_lon, max_lat, max_lon.
area_name	String	"London"	Human-readable name of the search area (used for labeling output).
useApifyProxy	Boolean	true	Whether to configure Apify proxy (informational; not passed to Overpass).
apifyProxyGroups	Array	["RESIDENTIAL"]	Proxy groups to configure.

Example input:

{
  "keywords": "cafe,restaurant,bar",
  "bbox": {
    "min_lat": 51.28,
    "min_lon": -0.489,
    "max_lat": 51.686,
    "max_lon": 0.236
  },
  "area_name": "London",
  "useApifyProxy": true,
  "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
}

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Output

The Open Street Map Change Tracker pushes a single structured record to the dataset containing all matched elements:

Field	Type	Description
osm_elements	Array	List of all matched OSM elements (see element structure below).
total_elements	Integer	Total number of Open Street Map Change Tracker elements found.
keywords	Array	List of keywords used in the Open Street Map Change Tracker search.
area	String	Name of the searched area.
bbox	Object	Bounding box used for the Open Street Map Change Tracker query.
last_updated	String	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of when the Open Street Map Change Tracker ran.
status	String	"success" or "error".

Each element inside osm_elements includes:

Field	Type	Description
osm_id	Integer	Unique OpenStreetMap element ID.
type	String	Element type: "node", "way", or "relation".
lat	Float	Latitude coordinate (or center latitude for ways).
lon	Float	Longitude coordinate (or center longitude for ways).
tags	Object	All OSM tags for the element (name, address, hours, etc.)

Example output (success):

{
  "osm_elements": [
    {
      "osm_id": 123456789,
      "type": "node",
      "lat": 51.5074,
      "lon": -0.1278,
      "tags": {
        "amenity": "cafe",
        "name": "The Coffee House",
        "opening_hours": "Mo-Fr 08:00-18:00",
        "addr:street": "Baker Street"
      }
    }
  ],
  "total_elements": 1842,
  "keywords": ["cafe", "restaurant", "bar"],
  "area": "London",
  "bbox": {
    "min_lat": 51.28,
    "min_lon": -0.489,
    "max_lat": 51.686,
    "max_lon": 0.236
  },
  "last_updated": "2025-03-22T12:34:56Z",
  "status": "success"
}

Example output (error):

{
  "status": "error",
  "message": "All Overpass API servers failed. Please try again later."
}

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Overpass API Mirrors Used

The Open Street Map Change Tracker automatically tries the following servers in order:

Mirror	URL
Main	overpass-api.de
Mail.ru	maps.mail.ru/osm/tools/overpass
Kumi Systems	overpass.kumi.systems

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Use Cases

• Location Databases – Build structured databases of cafes, restaurants, hospitals, or any OSM amenity type.
• Geospatial Analysis – Analyze amenity density and distribution across cities and regions.
• Urban Planning Research – Track and compare Open Street Map Change Tracker data across neighborhoods.
• Business Intelligence – Identify competitor locations or service gaps in a geographic area.
• Map Applications – Power custom map apps with live OpenStreetMap amenity data.
• Academic Research – Collect structured geospatial data for urban studies and data science.
• Change Monitoring – Periodically run the Open Street Map Change Tracker to detect additions or removals of amenities.

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Quick Start

1. Open on Apify – Visit the actor page and click Try for free.
2. Set Keywords – Enter comma-separated amenity keywords (e.g., "school,hospital,pharmacy").
3. Set Bounding Box – Define your geographic area using min_lat, min_lon, max_lat, max_lon.
4. Set Area Name – Add a human-readable label for the area (e.g., "New York").
5. Run the Actor – Start the run and monitor progress in the logs.
6. Download Results – Export the Open Street Map Change Tracker dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

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Technical Stack

• Data Source – OpenStreetMap via Overpass API
• Query Language – Overpass QL (nodes, ways, relations)
• HTTP Client – aiohttp with async requests and timeout handling
• Failover – 3 Overpass API mirrors with 3 retries each
• Platform – Apify Actor — serverless, scalable, integrated with Dataset and Key-Value Store

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Changelog

v1.0.0 – Initial Release

• Keyword-based OpenStreetMap amenity search via Overpass API
• Bounding box geographic filtering
• Multi-server failover across 3 Overpass mirrors
• Retry logic with escalating delays for 504 timeouts
• Node, way, and relation element support
• Full OSM tag metadata extraction
• Proxy configuration support
• Dataset integration with error handling

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Pricing

• Free for basic usage on Apify (up to certain compute limits).
• Paid plans available for higher volume, priority support, and longer runs.

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Support & Feedback

• Issues & Ideas – Open a ticket on the Apify Actor issue tracker.
• Documentation – Visit Apify Docs for platform guides.
• API Notes – The Open Street Map Change Tracker uses the public Overpass API. Avoid very large bounding boxes to prevent query timeouts.

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Disclaimer: This actor accesses publicly available data from OpenStreetMap via the Overpass API. OpenStreetMap data is available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Please attribute OpenStreetMap contributors when using this data. This actor is intended for research and informational purposes only.