Also interesing one can find places like https://openinframap.org/#18.27/49.995951/18.966733 where 220kV line is just above a house.
I wonder how easy it would be to prepare a query in osm to find all such cases.
Open Infrastructure Map
41–50 of 96 posts
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s really interesting how perception of openness changes over time. During cold war publishing this information would send one directly to gulag.
With the recent blackout in Berlin, I've heard requests to hide these information.
Because obscurity works against insider threats and OSint /s
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#43This is a bad idea in terms of security in war
Berlin, Germany just had a blackout because a left from centre organisation decided to set an electric exchange on fire. Right over new years and at a very cold time of year. Apparently the data on where the exchange was and how it would affect the surrounding neighbourhoods was openly available. The neighbourhoods affect were largely affluent. It’s probably also the reason why this is being reshared.
The location of the recent blackout is here: https://openinframap.org/#12.98/52.43214/13.26948
One can see easily make out the power station Lichterfelde and the affected substation inside of it. The area to the east of the power station was without power between Saturday and Thursday morning.
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#44The map for Australia is interesting. Is this missing data? See no infrastructure for Alice Springs in the interior of Australia.
Australia is miniscule by global standards and Alice Springs is miniscule by Australian standards. Alice Springs isn't connected to the grid servicing most of Australia's population crammed up along the East coast and doesn't have much in the way of heavy industrial users nearby. The difficulty for OSM mappers is the low-capacity above-ground power lines in Alice Springs have no more pixels as the trunk of any 20 year old tree so at satellite imagery resolutions of >30cm you may need to find an image taken at sunrise or sunset where the long shadow of a pole is visible on the ground. I also think it is preferred in remote locations such as Alice Springs to run lines underground (particularly along roads) due to decreased total cost of ownership of not having to worry about bushfire and flood damage to infrastructure.
The ACT government provides ~10cm aerial imagery of Canberra and surrounds a few times a year and from this imagery, unless a minor power pole is obscured by trees or a building, it is generally easy to identify most poles. Evoenergy (distribution operator for the ACT) also publicly provide detailed maps of poles and lines no matter how minor they are. The reason this detail won't be mapped in OSM is lack of interest and availability of mappers to micro-map every minor power pole from aerial imagery, and OSM's very conservative approach to importing datasets, particularly from a licensing perspective (e.g. attempting to apply European database directive concerns in countries like Australia which don't have equivalent laws, and even have opposing case law precedents).
Australia is one of the most open countries when it comes to supplying electrical grid data. Even underground conduit locations are available publicly for most distributors, as well as designed summer/winter constraints for each transmission line (e.g. maximum kA per line). See [1] for some links to maps and other data that is made publicly available.
[1] https://query.wikidata.org/#SELECT%20%3Foperator%20%3Foperat...
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#45One can nicely see the bridge across the river that was burned in the recent attack in Berlin. https://openinframap.org/#15.16/52.425587/13.307235
Everything on the left thereof was then without power for multiple days as this was a single point of failure.
See thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487404
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#46Nothing in Alaska?
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#47I find this site so fascinating, seeing how all the massive power lines are hooked up to far-away power plants and gradually have their voltage stepped down as they connect to consumers. All the undersea cables and pipelines I didn't know about.
Me too. I particularly recommend looking at the wind farms East of the UK and North of the Northern coast of Europe, and their connections back to land by power lines. Not something you think about when you imagine those seas looking at a regular map. https://openinframap.org/#5.48/54.077/2.676
First thing that caught my eye. Apparently the reason is to make use of stronger, more consistent winds on open sea.
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#48In New Zealand at least, a lot of this data seems to come from imagery; it's quite outdated, the cables are all missing and the voltages are pretty hit and miss. Cool project though.
If you want more up-to-date/accurate data on NZ transmission infrastructure there is also the following "Point" geometry tagged per OSM conventions:
[1] Transpower pylons: https://alltheplaces-data.openaddresses.io/map.html?show=htt...
[2] Transpower substations: https://alltheplaces-data.openaddresses.io/map.html?show=htt...
The public source of this data (ArcGIS Feature Server account of Transpower) shows data last modified by Transpower in October 2025 for pylons and February 2025 for substations. At the rate of development of NZ, you wouldn't expect major changes to any of this data unless it's a major transmission upgrade project identified years in advance in hundreds of public announcements and documents.
For distribution, the largest distributor in NZ (Vector) provides "Line" geometry at https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?url=https:/... (note: not included in AllThePlaces due to ATP not currently collecting geometry other than points)
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s a double edged sword - secrecy leads to accidental damage by fishermen & anchors, so generally you want your cables and pipes charted. There are cables not on this map that are uncharted for things like acoustic monitoring & finger printing of vessels.
I have license for boat and use nautical maps. They show me a cable, but not the hierarchy of the infrastructure. I see a cable, but can’t evaluate if half of town stays without electricity or only an island with dozen houses if I damage it. However the available maps do not stop russian ships regularly dropping anchors on European infrastructure in Baltic see. Obviously charting them does not help. Maybe they should…
Would you feel comfortable making a decision on putting an anchor down on a cable if you knew it would only take out a few hundred houses worth of power.
I would imagine that any body that issues you a license should inform you to not anchor in proximity to cables, regardless of size / spec etc. if you put an anchor down on a charted cable, and the cable is where it should be, I think you’d be responsible for the cost of damage.
Re: Open Infrastructure Map
#50Telecom just seems to show data centers? Was hoping to see where cable/fiber lines.