{"id":2093,"date":"2025-06-30T05:15:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geonatives.org\/?p=2093"},"modified":"2025-06-30T05:15:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T04:15:45","slug":"blatten-reloaded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geonatives.org\/?p=2093","title":{"rendered":"Blatten reloaded"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(3 min read)<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nature acts in a wide speed range. If we focus on our planet and our core subject geodata we see our data getting outdated by activity that lies somewhere between continental drift and volcanic eruptions. One recent event that made the existing geodata of almost an entire village obsolete was a big landslide in Blatten, Switzerland, on May 28, 2025. Fortunately, geologists had been able to predict this event, and the village was evacuated well before being covered by millions of cubic meters of rock and ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reality check<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After such an event it\u2019s time to redraw the maps of the region. We were wondering who is doing this at what speed. A check of publicly available maps a month after the landslide gave quite different results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, a picture of the real situation, downloaded from the website of SwissTopo<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blatten after the landslide (image by SwissTopo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now for the (alternative) realities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple maps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything looks great on the mobile phone, and we even get a chance to see beautiful pictures of the gone village that would make us want to book a vacation there (hotel names are still shown if you zoom in). The only thing that might be an indication of trouble is that you cannot create a route with the destination Blatten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot Apple Maps on iPhone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Screenshot Apple Maps on iPhone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Google Maps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same situation. Nothing unusual on the map or on the satellite image. But planning a route is impossible, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot Google Maps in Safari browser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Screenshot Google Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HERE maps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost the same as with Apple and Google but on top of it you can still plan a route:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot HERE maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Screenshot HERE maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

OpenStreetMap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only when it comes to crowd sourcing do we see a good example of swarm intelligence: OpenStreeMap shows the new situation with the full extent of the landslide area and even with the small lake that formed in the north-east of the former village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blatten including landslide data (OSM screenshot by Marius Dupuis)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Routing is possible, but only to the nearest accessible point, no longer to the village itself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Road to nowhere (OSM screenshot by Marius Dupuis)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Update rates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now the question is how long we should expect changes to become visible in the geodata to which we as civilians have access. We asked the usual AI-assisted search engines (in this case: Bing) and got some interesting results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Google Maps <\/strong>updates its data with the following frequency:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Urban Areas<\/em><\/strong>: Every 1-3 years<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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