Assessing the readiness of volunteered geographic information as geospatial information technology infrastructure for urban information systems: an ISO/IEC 25012-based evaluation of OpenStreetMap in Libya (2010–2024)

Abstract

Volunteered geographic information (VGI), exemplified by OpenStreetMap (OSM), is increasingly treated as a pragmatic geospatial data source for urban information systems in resource-constrained settings. Whether such data are formally ready to function as an information technology (IT) infrastructure component—when judged against information systems data quality standards rather than cartographic quality frameworks—remains largely untested, particularly in post-conflict states. This study presents what is, to our knowledge, the first systematic evaluation of VGI readiness grounded in ISO/IEC 25012, applied to Libya, where the collapse of national mapping capacity after 2011 coincided with the growth of one of North Africa's more active OSM contributor communities. Fourteen years of contribution history (2010–2024) extracted through the ohsomeAPI, element-level attributes obtained via the Overpass API, and WorldPop population grids are combined to compute six quality dimensions—Accuracy, Completeness, Currentness, Consistency, Credibility and Operational Attribute Coverage—which are aggregated, using Analytic Hierarchy Process weights, into a composite VGI Readiness Index (VRI) for Libya's 22 administrative districts. Spatial autoregressive regression and structural change-point analysis support four findings. OSM Libya falls below the IT-integration threshold (VRI < 0.50) in 14 of 22 districts (63.6%), and operational attribute coverage (national mean = 0.15) is the binding constraint for service-directory applications. Contributor numbers, urbanization and conflict exposure correlate most strongly with district-level VRI, although these associations are observational rather than causal. Three structural breaks in contribution dynamics coincide with the 2011, 2014 and 2023 political shocks (permutation test, p = 0.018). The 2023 Derna humanitarian activation raised completeness while degrading credibility and leaving attribute coverage essentially unchanged. The VRI offers IT planners a replicable pre-assessment tool for VGI integration in data-scarce environments.