Created by volunteers since 2004, OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a global geographic
database available under an open access license and currently used by a
multitude of actors worldwide. This chapter describes the role played by OSM
during the early months (from January to July 2020) of the ongoing COVID-19
pandemic, which - in contrast to past disasters and epidemics - is a global
event impacting both developed and developing countries. A large number of
COVID-19-related OSM use cases were collected and grouped into a number of
research frameworks which are analyzed separately: dashboards and services
simply using OSM as a basemap, applications using raw OSM data, initiatives to
collect new OSM data, imports of authoritative data into OSM, and traditional
academic research on OSM in the COVID-19 response. The wealth of examples
provided in the chapter, including an analysis of OSM tile usage in two
countries (Italy and China) deeply affected in the earliest months of 2020,
prove that OSM has been and still is heavily used to address the COVID-19
crisis, although with types and mechanisms that are often different depending
on the affected area or country and the related communities.
