Hi,

As GIS technology and research keep advancing rapidly, we want to slow down a few times a year to give you a closer look behind the scenes. This is why we are launching our Point of Interest newsletter, with a rotating spotlight section on one of the major focus topics at HeiGIT. Our first spotlight takes a look at the latest evolution of openrouteservice, its newest developments for humanitarian use, and where we are heading next.

With that, we are excited to share with you the very first Point of Interest newsletter. Happy reading!

You may have noticed some changes around openrouteservice recently, and there is more to come. Our journey already spans over a decade of developing open-source code and providing GIS- and mobility-related APIs to over 300 thousand users. Knowing that our efforts have supported thousands of projects makes us incredibly proud. That is why we recently took a step back to focus on bringing fresh innovation to our users and the broader ecosystem.

We have been working closely with our partners to integrate critical and dynamic mission data into routing, turning our openrouteservice ecosystem into a smart tool for humanitarian logistics. Closer to home, we launched a shaded openrouteservice to find the quickest and most shaded route. It is already available in over 80 major German cities and is steadily growing. We hope this serves as a scientifically grounded basis for public actors and civil society to have informed discussions about heat readiness in our cities. Additionally, as public transit data has become more accessible and scalable on the technical side, we believe it is the perfect moment to extend our free API ecosystem with public transport routing.

Of course, these advancements require space and resources to grow. That´s why we will soon begin deprecating some of our older clients, services, or features. While it will not be a strict one-to-one replacement, we will replace essential functionalities with new alternatives that will provide a much better overall experience. We will announce these changes across all our channels well in advance so you have plenty of time to adapt your projects.

In the HAMM-Dar project, researchers from the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Heidelberg work together to address the growing heat exposure faced by pedestrians in Dar es Salaam by creating a Heat-Mobility Digital Twin.

The project combines satellite data with on-the-ground climate measurements to map how heat affects pedestrians across the city. The tool enables scenario planning, allowing city officials to simulate the cooling impact of specific interventions (such as adding trees or shade structures) before they are implemented.

Thank you for reading.

Do you have feedback, or would you like to see your user story featured in the next issue? Write us at communications@heigit.org.

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