Maria Popova: “Some first learned about OpenStreetMap due to the fact that they marked hogweed on the map”

Maria Popova is an artist and founder of the public movement “Antiboroshevik”. Not so long ago, she transferred the map of her project to the uMap service, which works with OpenStreetMap cards. Why she did this, how quickly she mastered uMap and why she was struggling with hogweed - she told all this in an interview.

- How and when did you meet the OpenStreetMap project?

- I heard about it for the first time last fall when I was looking for a service, preferably free, with which you could make an online map where anyone, even inexperienced in IT people, could mark the place where the cow parsnip was grown, and not just a point, but it is a landfill.

It’s impossible to plan the work by points and understand, even approximately, the area occupied by the cow parsnip: either there are two umbrellas at the curb, or several square kilometers of thickets. If the area is known, then all this greatly simplifies, especially when interacting with the authorities: it is clear how much resources will be required, and it is clear what exactly to ask from them. The more specific the situation is described, the more likely it is to get a positive reaction.

That is why for a long time I was looking for a map where you can draw polygons. With dots, there have long been maps of scientists: RIVR and iNaturalist (it’s not only for hogweed, but in general for observing nature). These cards are in order to watch the distribution area.

I was pestering with my question everyone who was somehow connected with the cards. As a result, one of my acquaintances - Sergey Myshlyakov - suggested that I look towards OSM. I did this, I even visited the “ Circuitry ” - this is such a meeting of OSM lovers in Moscow, where I met some of them.

- Found what you were looking for?

- Yes! On the OSM forum, they recommended me the uMap service. It turned out to be simple and functional. Even an unprepared user can work with it. Therefore, I transferred our card , where we marked the hogweed, from Yandex to it.

- What caused this?

- The map is a very important tool for our social movement. And the number of participants who will be able to pass on their findings to us, and therefore help us in the fight against cow parsnip, depends on how convenient it is to work with it. Therefore, it was important for us that the solution was simple and clear even for those who are little friends with technology, and also that it works with a smartphone.

At some point, we realized that Yandex was clearly not enough for us. Firstly, there is no such feature - co-editing. Secondly, you cannot edit the map for those who do not have an account in Yandex services. Thirdly, it is impossible to import data from a file into an existing map. In general, import is possible, but only at the stage of creating the map. Fourth, which is very critical, it is inconvenient to work with the card from a mobile.

We somehow tried to get out, to invent something, but nothing came of it. Google has almost everything you need, but this option had to be rejected, as there are certain limitations. Therefore, we began to look for an alternative. And finally found. It is doubly nice that this is both what we need and open source. Of course, you can also find fault with uMap, it has its own “features”. But while I think, this is still the most optimal option for us, because it is very simple.

I note separately so that no one is afraid that in OSM now there will be hogweed everywhere, we do not enter data into OSM itself, we draw on top of the substrate, which is made based on its data in the uMap service.

- What exactly do you need a card for?

- Firstly, as I already said, in order to collect information about where and in what volumes the hogweed in Russia grows. Anyone can go to our map and mark their observations there.

Secondly, the map is a convenient and visual aid both during negotiations with local authorities and for coordinating the efforts of our volunteers. It’s one thing to verbally explain that the hogweed has grown in a wasteland, 50 meters northwest of an abandoned farm, and it’s quite another to simply drop a link to a map on which the desired territory is marked with a polygon. And if in the description there is still some additional information and a link to the photo - this is generally super, everything is immediately clear.




Examples of using the map to indicate the places where hogweed has grown

- Can you tell us briefly why and why you need to fight against cow parsnip?

- Sosnovsky’s hogweed is not just a weed, as many people think, but an invasive species, that is, a species that was brought into one ecosystem from another, and it behaved extremely aggressively towards local species. The hogweed was brought in the Soviet era, they thought to use this plant from the high mountains of the Caucasus as a silage: to feed them animals. Due to the fact that he is very unpretentious and tenacious, and most importantly, he does not have natural enemies in our latitudes (nobody eats him), he has filled all the places where his seeds got: fields, meadows, etc. And the worst thing is, that this process continues at a tremendous speed.

Unlike other plants, it grows quite early and quickly in the spring. In addition, it is tall, obscures other species and does not allow them to grow. In a temperate climate in a predominantly forest zone, if you do not cultivate the field, then it will gradually begin to overgrow with forest in 20-30 years, but this does not happen because of the cow parsnip: dozens of years pass, and the cow parsnip has been and remains the owner of the land. It crowds out our local wildlife. This is the main danger and the reason why you need to deal with it.


To the left and to the right of the road a hogweed

- I heard something about burns ...

- Burns in this story are secondary. There are many dangers in the wild. For example, pale toadstools. But we are not fighting them because it is a poisonous mushroom? We don’t eat them and do not touch them, therefore we are saved. That's all. It would also be possible with a hogweed (it is enough not to grab it with bare hands), if not for his aggressiveness towards our nature. The danger is that if you don’t do anything with him now, then after a while he will be almost everywhere. There are no natural limiting factors in the middle lane for him.


Acid-green patches with a touch of white - this is hogweed

- How were you met in the OSM community? How did the communication go? How would you characterize it?

- Over the years of social activity, I’ve got used to everything and was ready for any negativity, but I was pleasantly surprised by the civilized communication and work spirit, no one even sent me a foul language. I described the problem that I want to solve, told what difficulties I encountered on other platforms. We all culturally and constructively discussed. They gave me directions - you need uMap. And they answered the questions that arose. And, indeed, this turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks to the guys from RU-OSM for their help! I am extremely grateful and glad. We will test uMap this season. I hope he helps us in our struggle, because with a card it is much better than without it.

- Let's talk about the uMap service. How quickly did you learn it? What do your comrades in the social movement say about him?

- Reviews from people about OSM and uMap are different. Most are positive. Some first learned about OpenStreetMap due to the fact that they marked hogweed on the map. One person even wrote to me and asked, and what kind of substrate for the card? He says detailed, a lot of information. Two more people just wrote that a good map. In general, people like it. Many of us were glad that we can now mark the cow parsnip directly from a mobile phone. Although the screen is small, but the very possibility is a very big plus.

But there are problems, of course, and where without them? .. Although uMap, in my opinion, is very simple, but still some people cannot draw sections. For example, the grandmother, whom the grandchildren gave the old tablet to, more or less learned to use Vkontakte, and something else is difficult for her. For her, it’s actually a feat that she even decided to poke a finger at this card, and I am very grateful to such people! However, there are different situations. Once, for example, I saw this on a map (see screenshot) without any text description and contact for feedback. It’s good that we knew each other (a very good woman, but she’s just not friends with technology). I wrote to her - figured it out, fixed it. In general, the matter of life. Everything is fixable, everything is decided. Although in such cases, I often recall the good old joke:“The mother of three programmers asks someone not psycho to teach them how to use a computer.”


Incorrectly marked area

At first I wanted to figure out how data verification was arranged in OpenStreetMap itself, then I left this venture, since there are no history of edits in uMap, and authors of edits are not known - you only have to hope for people's consciousness. In addition, if something is complicated, very few people will celebrate. For example, they noted much less before, because it was much more difficult to do, and when I transferred the map to uMap, new territories immediately began to appear on the map. That is, simplicity is super important.

To make life easier for fellow supporters, I wrote detailed instructions for working with uMap in relation to our map, there is also a video version in two parts ( 1 , 2 ).

- Are there statistics on your map? How much did people use it? Which area made the most marks?

- How much you took advantage - it's hard to say, since such statistics are not kept. But most of the places where hogweed was grown were noted in the Moscow and Leningrad regions. Someone even wrote to me that, it seems, judging by your card, it turns out that it was Muscovites across the country who delivered the hogweed. To which I replied that they incorrectly interpreted this phenomenon: at this stage, according to the activity on the map, we can only say that the inhabitants of one region are more active in this matter than in others. And no more.

- Do you yourself edit the map in OSM?

- At the forum I was discouraged from directly contributing hogweed to OSM. Although one plot still contributed. Just see how it works. I don’t have time for any other activity yet. It all goes to work, family and social activities - the fight against cow parsnip. I have already managed to appreciate all the advantages of OSM. This is a very good and correct project. If I were less busy, I would most likely also become a member of it.

“Maybe you want to tell something, which I still won’t ask you about?” The time for this has come.

- From the interesting things related to mapping of hogweed, I know that Sergey Myshlyakov, who introduced me to the OSM world, is also a member of our movement, made a map two years agogrowing hogweed in Moscow and the Moscow region. But only he did not collect data from the earth, like us, but developed an algorithm for the analysis of satellite images. And he did it. The advantage of this approach is that you can analyze a very large area in a short period of time. The downside is that not everything is visible from space. But here, data from people is useful, which I did.


Map of Sergey Myshlyakov

- What would you wish our readers to conclude?

- Save our nature without hogweed! And if you see a cow parsnip somewhere, please mark it on our map . And if you also care about this problem, then welcome to our ranks (groups on social networks are listed on the main page of the site Antiborschevik.rf).

If we talk about cards and related services, I think that they have an incredibly wide range of applications. It’s just that many people still don’t know about them or are too lazy to understand, but the thing is convenient.

On uMap, for example, it would be possible to make similar cards for other invasive species, to combat them (hogweed is not one such aggressor, unfortunately). It would be possible to plan other environmental measures. For example, patrolling the duty to prevent and extinguish forest and grass fires (who, when, in what area), planting trees, and garbage collection. In addition to ecology, maps could be useful to search teams looking for soldiers who died in World War II. In a word, almost all volunteer projects could also use cards ... Although, I think, all these guys are already using some kind of cards. You can generally collect any data from people. And what’s especially cool is to keep the data up to date, edit as something changes.

To all those who still do not work with maps: try to put - visualize - part of their activity on them, mark something, mark it. I am sure that this will show you your own work in a completely different way. And if you show others, there is a chance to find like-minded people and helpers.

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Communication of Russian OpenStreetMap participants is in the Telegram chat room and on the forum .
There are also groups on social networks VKontakte , Facebook , but they mainly publish news.

→ Join OSM!

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Previous interviews:

, , , , , , , , , wowik, SviMik, , , , , , aka BANO.notIT, , , , , .

PS At the request of adding here a link to another article on the fight against cow parsnip, which was published on Habré.