Post

Last summer I imported 16,000+ USGS gaging stations into OpenStreetMap. Not content with a one-time import, I built a tool to keep the data up-to-date going forward. I've published a writeup of the project over on my portfolio: waysidemapping.org/projects/usg...

Quincy Morgan

@waysidemapping.org

USGS's streamgages provide critical public data about the state of our lakes and rivers. They're also used by paddlers to plan safe, enjoyable trips. Mapping them accurately in OpenStreetMap allows any app using OSM to easily incorporate gage information

20/8/25, 7:40 pm0 reposts0 likes

Quincy Morgan

@waysidemapping.org

20 Aug 2025

To complete the import, I wrote a series of open source scripts to fetch and conflate USGS data into OSM. These can be re-run at any time to keep the data in sync without overwriting hand-mapped data

Quincy Morgan

@waysidemapping.org

20 Aug 2025

Following the import, OSM mappers immediately started improving the gages' locations, which could be off by as much as few hundreds yards. In effect, OpenStreetMap now has more accurate geometry for USGS monitoring stations than does USGS :)