City Dashboards: Territory Analysis with OpenStreetMap

A city dashboard is a panel that transforms geographic data into understandable metrics. How many schools are in the area? What's the public transit stop density? How green is the neighborhood? OpenStreetMap contains answers to all these questions — you just need to extract and visualize them correctly.

What Is a City Dashboard

It's an interactive page with a map and a set of metrics for a specific territory. On osm2cdr.ru, such dashboards are available for 300+ cities worldwide. Each dashboard includes:

• Territory map with thematic layer overlays
• Scoring metrics — numerical ratings from 0 to 100
• Infrastructure statistics — object counts by category
• Comparative charts — neighborhood vs city vs country

10 Scoring Engines

Each scoring engine analyzes a specific aspect of the territory and returns a score from 0 to 100.

Walk Score — Walkability

Evaluates how many everyday facilities are accessible on foot. Considers 13 categories: shops, schools, hospitals, banks, restaurants, parks. Facilities within 400 m give maximum score, beyond 1.5 km — zero.

• 90-100: "Walker's paradise" (major city center)
• 50-69: "Somewhat walkable" (residential areas near transit)
• 0-24: "Car-dependent" (suburbs, rural areas)

Green Score — Greenery

Calculates the share of green areas within a 1 km radius: parks, squares, forests, botanical gardens. Considers not just area but accessibility — a park across a highway is less valuable than one across a local road.

Transit Score — Transit Access

Analyzes public transit stops: metro, buses, trams, commuter rail. More routes and greater variety mean a higher score.

Safety Score — Safety

Evaluates the presence of safety-related facilities: police stations, fire stations, surveillance cameras. Also accounts for street lighting.

Education Score — Education

Counts schools, kindergartens, universities, libraries. Weighted by type: a university contributes more than a single kindergarten, but a network of 5 kindergartens is also highly valued.

Health Score — Healthcare

Assesses medical infrastructure availability: hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, dental offices. A hospital within 500 m matters more than a pharmacy at 100 m.

Commerce Score — Commerce

Density of shops, malls, markets, service points. Shows the economic activity of the territory.

Culture Score — Culture

Museums, theaters, cinemas, galleries, monuments. A high Culture Score means a rich cultural life in the area.

Connectivity Score — Connectivity

Analyzes the road network: intersection density, bike paths, pedestrian zones, bridges. High connectivity means the area is easy to traverse in any direction.

Livability Index — Overall Score

A composite index of 9 components with weights. Provides a single "quality of life" rating for the territory. Weights are adjustable — for families with children, Education and Safety matter more than Commerce.

Where the Data Comes From

All data is extracted from OpenStreetMap via PostGIS. The database contains the entire planet — over 8 billion objects. For each request:

1. Territory bbox is determined — a coordinate rectangle
2. SQL queries to PostGIS — object counts by category through materialized views
3. Distance calculations — KNN search for nearest objects (ST_DWithin, ST_Distance)
4. Normalization — raw counts become 0-100 scores accounting for territory area

Key SQL functions:

• ST_DWithin(geom, center, radius) — objects within radius
• ST_Area(geom::geography) — territory area in square meters
• ST_Distance(geom::geography, point) — distance in meters

Example: Berlin Dashboard

Berlin's city dashboard shows:

Statistics:

• 2,847 restaurants and cafes
• 1,234 shops
• 412 schools and kindergartens
• 89 metro stations (U-Bahn + S-Bahn)
• 2,100+ hectares of parks

Who Benefits from This

Developers and Builders

Before purchasing a plot, a developer opens the dashboard and sees the infrastructure profile. A low Education Score near a residential complex is a risk for selling to family buyers.

City Administrations

Dashboards reveal "blind spots" — areas with low Transit Score or Green Score. This provides justification for planning new routes or parks.

Property Buyers

Objective comparison of neighborhoods across 10 parameters. Not "I think it's nice here," but "Walk Score 85, Green Score 42 — shops nearby, but parks are lacking."

Researchers

Comparative city analysis, correlation between scoring metrics and real estate prices, assessment of territory development over time.

How to Create Your Own Dashboard

On osm2cdr.ru, dashboards are generated automatically for any location worldwide:

1. Open a city page or enter coordinates
2. The dashboard loads with pre-calculated metrics (for popular cities — under 0.3 seconds)
3. For new locations, calculation takes 5-30 seconds depending on area

Data can be exported via API in JSON for integration into your systems:

curl "https://osm2cdr.ru/api/v2/stats/area?bbox=13.08,52.34,13.76,52.68&lang=en"

The bbox order is min_lon,min_lat,max_lon,max_lat. The response is a single summary object for the area: area_km2, buildings (count, built-up area, coverage share), roads (total length plus a breakdown by type), poi (total and by category), green and water (area and coverage share).

Limitations

City dashboards are a powerful tool, but with caveats:

• Data depends on OSM completeness. Coverage is excellent in Europe and North America, incomplete in Africa and parts of Asia.
• Scoring doesn't account for quality. A school's presence doesn't mean it's a good school. Infrastructure coverage is evaluated, not service quality.
• Area matters. Scoring is more accurate for 1 km2 than for an entire country.

Despite limitations, city dashboards are one of the most practical ways to objectively evaluate a territory. OpenStreetMap provides the data, PostGIS calculates metrics, and scoring engines transform numbers into understandable ratings.