Data Sources: Catalogue and Assessment¶
Status: research of 2026-11-01. Focus: Kiel and Schleswig-Holstein (SH), then Germany-wide.
Related: ml-feasibility.md (can ML fill the gaps?), data-flow.md (what is implemented), references.bib (literature).
Legend - Step: M1 hydrant locations · M2 siting and regulation · M3 water quality · M4 demand and gap - Verified: ✔ page or metadata opened directly during research · ~ inferred from search results or catalogues; check before use - Status: in use · candidate (open, worth integrating) · on request · not available
1. Key findings¶
- There is no public hydrant register for Kiel. Neither Stadtwerke Kiel / SWKiel Netz nor the fire brigade publishes hydrant data. Nothing is in the Kiel open data catalogue or on GovData. Utilities usually treat network data as critical infrastructure (KRITIS). In Germany, only a few small Brandenburg municipalities and Berlin's 2014 street survey publish hydrants as open data. The realistic route to complete data is a data-sharing agreement with Stadtwerke Kiel. They have to approve any fountain connection anyway.
- B-Pläne (development plans) don't contain hydrants. The planning-symbol ordinance (PlanZV) only has a symbol for main supply lines. B-Pläne are still useful as context: public traffic areas and pedestrian zones.
- SH publishes strong base data under CC BY 4.0: ALKIS land use, ATKIS, LoD2 buildings, terrain models and the TrueDOP20 orthophotos. That is enough for siting context (street space, footways, squares). It has no curb lines or sidewalk widths. Kiel's detailed city base map (Stadtgrundkarte 1:500) costs money.
- Kiel has no official list of drinking fountains. The best open supplement to OSM is the Refill Deutschland / Karte von morgen API (ODbL, so compatible with OSM).
- Kiel has no citywide climate analysis or published heat action plan. The only heat product is the web map "Kühle Orte" (Landsat surface temperature 2014–2018), which can be reproduced from Landsat.
- Water quality: Stadtwerke Kiel publishes PDF lab reports for each of its 4 waterworks and supply zones. That gives context for M3, but nothing at hydrant level.
2. Hydrant locations and attributes (M1)¶
| Source | Provider | Access | License | Coverage | Status | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OpenStreetMap emergency=fire_hydrant |
OSM community | Overpass, Geofabrik | ODbL | Kiel: 2,207 hydrants, very complete tags | in use | ✔ |
| Hydrant register (GIS) | Stadtwerke Kiel / SWKiel Netz, Feuerwehr Kiel | – | not public | Kiel | on request (data-sharing agreement) | ✔ absent from open portals |
| Leitungsauskunft (utility line information) | SWKiel Netz, lineregister.swkiel-netz.de (power, gas); water by phone 0431 594-2795 | Request per construction site | Restricted to excavation and planning | Per site | on request, per site only | ✔ portal, ~ eligibility |
Mapillary map features object--fire-hydrant, object--water-valve, object--manhole |
Mapillary (Meta) | API | CC BY-SA; OSM use permitted | Kiel coverage not checked | candidate | ✔ API docs |
| Panoramax street-level imagery | OSM-France / community instances | API | Open (CC BY-SA / etree) | German instance exists, URL unclear; Kiel coverage unknown | candidate | ~ |
| Open hydrant data of Brandenburg municipalities (Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), Beelitz, …) | Municipalities, GovData | WFS/WMS | dl-de/by-2.0 | Brandenburg only | benchmark (estimate how complete OSM is elsewhere) | ✔ |
| Berlin "Straßenbefahrung 2014" (vehicle street survey) | Berlin | WFS (FIS-Broker) | dl-de/by-2.0 | Berlin, 2014 | benchmark | ~ |
| Zürich hydrant register | Wasserversorgung Zürich | data.stadt-zuerich.ch | Open | Zürich | benchmark / training data | ✔ |
| Hydrantenfinder (app for fire brigades; Digital Evangelists, Hamburg) | Shows OSM hydrants through its own undocumented API (/api/public/hydrants); addresses via Nominatim |
No public API, no license or terms | – | DACH | not needed: same OSM data. A test in Kiel returned the same 6 hydrants with the same OSM node IDs as our extract | ✔ (2026-11-01) |
3. Street space and siting (M2)¶
| Source | Provider | Access | License | What it provides | Status | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALKIS (without owner data): parcels, actual land use (Straßenverkehr, Weg, Platz, …) | LVermGeo SH, Open-GBD download | NAS / Shape, EPSG:25832 | CC BY 4.0, "© GeoBasis-DE/LVermGeo SH/CC BY 4.0" | Is the hydrant on public traffic land, a square or green space? | candidate | ✔ |
| ALKIS WFS "vereinfacht" (simplified) | LVermGeo SH | WFS | apparently CC BY-SA 4.0 (differs from above) | as above | candidate, check license | ~ |
| ATKIS Basis-DLM | LVermGeo SH | Open-GBD | CC BY 4.0 | Road network, road classes | candidate | ✔ |
| TrueDOP20 orthophotos (20 cm, RGBI; about half of SH reflown each year) | LVermGeo SH, ATOM feed service.gdi-sh.de/SH_OpenGBD/feeds/DOP20/DOP20.xml |
GeoTIFF, WMS/WMTS | CC BY 4.0. Use for OSM editing is disputed | Curbs, sidewalk width, parking, tree canopy (by segmentation) | candidate | ✔ / ~ |
| LoD2 buildings, DGM1 terrain model | LVermGeo SH | CityGML, GeoTIFF | CC BY 4.0 | Building edges, shade, slope | candidate | ✔ |
B-Plan layers SH (XPlanung) BP_StrassenVerkehrsFlaeche, BP_VerkehrsflaecheBesondererZweckbestimmung, BP_GruenFlaeche, BP_VerEntsorgung |
GDI-SH, WMS_SH_PLANUNG; WFS "Planungsdaten SH" (XPlanGML) | WMS / WFS | dl-de/by-2.0, "© GDI-SH" | Planned traffic areas and pedestrian zones, no hydrants | candidate; how much of Kiel is covered is unverified | ✔ GetCapabilities |
| Kiel B-Pläne | Stadtplanungsamt Kiel, PDFs ims.kiel.de/extern/bplaene/<nr>.pdf, Online-Stadtplan |
PDF, web map; new plans in XPlanung | not stated | Legally binding land use per plan | context only | ~ |
| Stadtgrundkarte 1:500 / Stadtkarte 1:5,000 | Kiel, Amt für Bauordnung, Vermessung und Geoinformation | Purchase | paid | Probably the best curb-line source | on request / purchase | ✔ exists, ~ content |
| Straßenkataster / sidewalk widths | Tiefbauamt Kiel | – | not public | Sidewalk polygons and widths | on request | ~ |
OSM highway=footway + footway=sidewalk, sidewalk=*, kerb=*, width=* |
OSM | Overpass | ODbL | Sidewalk geometry (completeness in Kiel unknown) | candidate | ✔ |
4. Water quality and network (M3)¶
| Source | Provider | Access | License | What it provides | Status | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drinking-water analyses per waterworks (Schulensee, Schwentinental, Pries, Wik) with the districts each supplies | Stadtwerke Kiel, stadtwerke-kiel.de/wasser/qualitaet | PDF lab reports | copyright | Water quality per supply zone, not per hydrant | candidate (map supply zones by hand) | ✔ |
| "Stadtwerke Kiel (Strom, Wasser, Wärme)" statistics | Kiel open data | CSV | DL-DE Zero 2.0 | Aggregate consumption | context | ✔ |
| Water network geometry (mains, dead ends) | SWKiel Netz | – | not public | Dead-end mains, pipe age, material | on request | ✔ absent |
Gap: no public source shows dead-end mains or how long water stands at a hydrant. That data exists only in the utility's network GIS.
5. Demand and existing supply (M4)¶
| Source | Provider | Access | License | What it provides | Status | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OSM amenity=drinking_water etc. |
OSM | Overpass | ODbL | Kiel: only 6 points | in use | ✔ |
| Refill Deutschland / Karte von morgen | a tip: tap e.V., api.ofdb.io | REST API (OpenAPI) | ODbL | Refill stations and fountains, Germany-wide | candidate (high priority) | ✔ backend, ~ license |
| CAU Kiel drinking-water dispensers | Kiel University | Web list (8 sites, indoors) | not stated | Campus only | context | ✔ |
| Planned fountains (Holstenstraße, Kiellinie) | City of Kiel | Press / participation | – | Planned sites | to monitor | ~ |
| Zensus 2022 population grid (100 m) | Statistische Ämter, zensus2022.de | CSV in ZIP | dl-de/by-2.0 | Population density, age | in use (pedestrian potential) | ~ license |
| Kiel open data (≈800 datasets): population by district, age groups | City of Kiel, kiel.de/opendata | CSV | mostly DL-DE Zero 2.0 | District-level statistics | candidate | ✔ |
| "Kühle Orte" surface temperature map | Kiel Grünflächenamt | Web map only | no download | Heat hotspots (Landsat 2014–2018) | reproduce from Landsat | ✔ |
| Landsat Collection 2 L2 surface temperature (30 m) | USGS | EarthExplorer, Google Earth Engine | public domain | Heat hotspots | candidate | ~ |
| Sentinel-3 SLSTR LST (1 km), ECOSTRESS (70 m) | Copernicus / NASA | Data Space, AppEEARS | free and open | Heat at coarser or different resolution | optional | ~ |
| hystreet.com pedestrian counts | hystreet GmbH | REST API, free key | terms of service, not open data | Holstenstraße (Nord), Kiel | optional (validation) | ~ |
| NAH.SH GTFS (incl. KVG Kiel) | NAH.SH, gtfs.mfdz.de | GTFS | CC BY 4.0 | Public transport stops as footfall proxy | candidate; the Germany-wide feed from gtfs.de is in use | ~ |
| DELFI Germany-wide GTFS | DELFI e.V. | GTFS, NeTEx | CC BY 4.0 | as above, Germany | for scale-up | ~ |
| Kieler Woche event areas | Kiel-Marketing | PDF site plans | no open geodata | Event sites (pop-up use case) | digitise by hand if needed | ~ |
| Municipal fountain datasets (Dortmund, Köln, Münster, Munich, Hamburg WFS, …) | Each city | CSV / GeoJSON / WFS | mostly DL-DE Zero or CC BY 4.0; Hamburg ODbL | Benchmark: fountains per inhabitant | benchmark | ✔ / ~ |
5a. Pedestrian density (research of 2026-11-01)¶
There is no measured pedestrian data for Kiel that can be published. What German cities do instead is model a "pedestrian significance map" (Bedeutungskarte Fußverkehr) from open data: Leipzig developed it, Hamburg publishes it in its geoportal. The Kiel layer Pedestrian potential follows that idea (see the layer's docs page).
| Source | What | Usable on the public map? |
|---|---|---|
| hystreet laser counters, Holstenstraße (for Kiel-Marketing) | Pedestrian counts at 1–3 sites (number unverified) | No; only with written permission. Useful as an internal check of the model |
| Kiel open data | No pedestrian counts found | – |
| Mobile network data (Telekom Motion Data, Teralytics/Telefónica) | Movement data, sold to cities on request | No; a city could buy it, not publishable |
| Destatis experimental mobility indicators | District level only, last updated 2023 | Too coarse |
| Strava Metro | Walking and cycling trips, free for public agencies and planning organisations | Publication rights unclear; bias to sporty users |
| Strava / Komoot heat maps, Google "popular times" | – | No: terms don't allow derived data |
| OSM attractors (shops, food, schools, health, culture, parks, playgrounds, sports, tourism) | Places that draw pedestrians | In use (layer Pedestrian attractors) |
| GTFS Germany (gtfs.de, data by DELFI e.V., CC BY 4.0) | Departures per stop on a typical Tuesday | In use |
| Zensus 2022 100 m population grid (Destatis) | Residents per cell | In use |
| OS-WALK-EU (ILS), GOAT (Plan4Better) | Walkability (500 m grid), accessibility | Not footfall; possible later |
Studies elsewhere found that land use plus transit plus population explain pedestrian counts well (adjusted R² ≈ 0.8–0.9 in US models), while street-network centrality alone is unreliable.
Worth asking the city / Kiel-Marketing: permission to show aggregated hystreet values; junction counts that include pedestrians; counts from the Holstenstraße redesign; Kieler Woche 2022 sensor data; whether the city would request Strava Metro data; Kiel's heat map as an open WMS; the Leipzig/Hamburg weighting tables.
5b. Other regions: population and transit (research of 2026-11-01)¶
The same study runs for other regions (see Regions compared). German regions use Zensus 2022 and GTFS Germany as above. For Switzerland and Austria:
| Region | Source | Details | License / credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zürich | BFS STATPOP 2024, population per hectare | ZIP from the BFS asset API (STATPOP2024.csv), columns E_KOORD/N_KOORD (LV95, EPSG:2056, lower-left corner), total BBTOT. Small counts are rounded up to 3. The Swiss grid is offset from the EU grid, so hectares are assigned approximately |
OPEN-BY: free use, source required ("Quelle: BFS, STATPOP 2024") |
| Zürich | GTFS Switzerland, timetable 2026 (opentransportdata.swiss) | Permalink names the timetable year: switch to the 2027 dataset after 13 Dec 2026. About 155 MB | Terms of opentransportdata.swiss; cite the source |
| Wien | Statistik Austria, population on a 100 m grid (INSPIRE, 1 Jan 2026) | GML in a ZIP (320 MB unpacked), cell ids AT_CRS3035RES100mN…E…, same EU grid as the cells. The 250 m products are paid; the 100 m INSPIRE download is free |
Free use with source ("Quelle: STATISTIK AUSTRIA") |
| Wien | GTFS Wiener Linien (data.wien.gv.at) | U-Bahn, tram, bus, Badner Bahn; no S-Bahn (ÖBB GTFS has no direct download URL) | CC BY 4.0, "Datenquelle: Stadt Wien – data.wien.gv.at" |
Official fountain registers, useful to check how complete OSM is: Zürich Brunnen (data.stadt-zuerich.ch, WFS GeoJSON, CC0, field art = public/private/emergency) and Vienna Trinkbrunnen Standorte (data.wien.gv.at, WFS, CC BY 4.0). Not used yet.
6. Licenses when combining sources¶
| License | Sources | Obligation |
|---|---|---|
| ODbL | OSM, Karte von morgen | Derived database stays ODbL; credit "© OpenStreetMap contributors" |
| CC BY 4.0 | ALKIS, DOP, LoD2, GTFS (NAH.SH, DELFI) | Credit, e.g. "© GeoBasis-DE/LVermGeo SH/CC BY 4.0" |
| dl-de/by-2.0 | B-Plan SH, Zensus, Brandenburg hydrants | Credit the provider |
| DL-DE Zero 2.0 | Kiel open data | No obligation |
| CC BY-SA 4.0 | ALKIS WFS "vereinfacht", Mapillary | Share-alike; check compatibility with ODbL output |
| Not open | Stadtgrundkarte, hystreet, Stadtwerke PDFs, utility data | Internal analysis only; do not put in public tiles without permission |
Rule for the map: only open sources go into the public PMTiles. Data from Stadtwerke or the city stays in a separate, non-public layer unless they explicitly allow publication.
7. Recommended order¶
| # | Action | Effort | Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contact Stadtwerke Kiel / SWKiel Netz and Feuerwehr Kiel: hydrant register, dead-end mains, project cooperation | Low (meetings) | Highest: complete M1, the basis for M3 |
| 2 | Add Karte von morgen (Refill) as a second fountain source; filter access / indoor |
1 day | Gap figure (M4) becomes meaningful |
| 3 | Add ALKIS land use + B-Plan pedestrian zones as siting context per hydrant | 2–4 days | Rule-based M2 attributes ("public traffic land", "pedestrian zone") |
| 4 | Mapillary map features for Kiel: compare with OSM and check image coverage | 1–2 days | Estimate of how complete OSM is (M1) |
| 5 | Add Zensus 2022 grid, GTFS stops and Landsat heat | about 1 week | Demand weighting (M4/M5) |
| 6 | ML steps (sidewalk segmentation, sign detection), see ml-feasibility.md | weeks | Sidewalk width and curb distance; hydrants missing from OSM |
8. Not verified (check before use)¶
- Contents of the SH open data portal (bot protection blocked automated access).
- Whether Kiel's B-Pläne are included in the state WMS/WFS.
- Exact Zensus 2022 license wording; current hystreet terms; direct NAH.SH GTFS download link.
- Karte von morgen license (ODbL according to the openfairdb repository).
- Mapillary and Panoramax image coverage and age in Kiel.