From OpenStreetMap to Power BI: Visualizing Wild Swimming Locations

2026-04-15 · Source: Towards Data Science · Field: Technology & Digital — Data Science & Analytics, Software Development & Engineering · Depth: Intermediate, long

Summary

This article details a project to visualize wild swimming locations from OpenStreetMap (OSM) data using Power BI, addressing the common lack of photos for many spots. It explains how to leverage the Overpass API and Overpass Query Language (QL) to extract specific OSM data, such as "leisure=bathing_place" and "leisure=swimming_area" tags, along with name, description, image, latitude, and longitude for locations in Portugal and Spain, outputting the results in CSV format. The guide then demonstrates importing this data into Power BI, transforming it, adding a custom "photo status" column, and creating an interactive Azure Maps visual with a custom tooltip page to display associated images and details upon hover. Finally, the author illustrates how to contribute new photos back to OSM by updating the "image" tag, thereby enhancing the Power BI dashboard's utility for discovering and enriching wild swimming spots.

Key takeaway

Learn to integrate OpenStreetMap (OSM) data into Power BI for dynamic visualization of specific geographic features, such as wild swimming spots in Portugal and Spain. The process details using Overpass API with Overpass QL to extract `leisure=bathing_place` and `leisure=swimming_area` tags, then transforming this CSV output in Power Query for an Azure Maps visual with interactive image tooltips. This enables users to identify data gaps, like missing photos, and contribute directly to OSM, enhancing community-driven mapping efforts.

Topics

• OpenStreetMap
• Overpass API
• Overpass QL
• Power BI
• Azure Maps

Code references

• claudiotereso/OpenStreetMapInPowerBI

Best for: Data Analyst, Software Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Towards Data Science.