Mapping my hometown: Jorhat

[Jorhat] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorhat) is a small town in Upper Assam and is known as the cultural capital of Assam. A small town at it’s heart but one of the major centers of education and commerce in the state of Assam. Jorhat also has historical significance in that it was one of the erst-while capitals of the Ahom dynasty, which ruled Assam for close to six centuries before the colonial rule. Surrounded by lush and verdant tea gardens and numerous wetlands and rivers, it is the only place which tells me I am home. Logically this was the place from which I would like to start my mapping.

Here is what the city looked like before I started mapping:

Though some initial mapping had been done in the city, the city was still missing a majority of the roads, streets and the numerous institutions that make Jorhat such an integral part of Assamese culture. The major streets in the town were still to be mapped, the iconic institutions in the town were not yet mapped and also the most of the road network were still missing.

I was intended on making the most detailed map available of Jorhat. I did this by paying extra attention to details like:

1. Tracing and tagging missing streets and roads which were familiar to me, I did this by referring the Indian Roads Classification Tags.

2. Mapping features like bus stops, schools, colleges, playgrounds,universities, airports and railway stations in my town were made easy by using the map features guide.

3. Mapping the major shops, buildings, man made structures, railway lines, railway crossings, golf courses, airports and runways, railway yards, water bodies using the predefined presets in JOSM. The JOSM presets feature is a fun way to start mapping, as it makes things really interesting and easy. All the educational institutions, major public institutions, major commercial places and major transport hubs in your town can be tagged using the Preset tool. If required we can even generate our very own Presets according to our necessity.

4. Aligning and correcting any roads previously traced which were not correctly aligned. Tracing details like various suburbs and localities in and around the city using place=tags and assigning landuse categories to these localities/ neighbourhoods using the Landuse tags from the OSM wiki. These helped me make the map more informative.

Outcomes of me mapping my Hometown:

1. Majority of the minor streets and roads were tagged and mapped.
2. Most of the localities and neighborhoods were mapped along with intricate information.
3. Airports, hospitals, shops, railway stations, schools and man made structures were also mapped.

I contributed to the most detailed map of my city!

• The screenshot of overall changes made to Jorhat:

What I intend to do next

• Map the suburbs/localities/neighbourhoods in more detail. Though I have tried mapping the larger areas using place=tag there is a need to subdivide those areas and make the map more detailed.

• Map all the rural roads and minor streets in Jorhat, many of which are still missing.

• Adding names to most of the roads, advantage of being a local.