Benford’s law and geographical information – the example of OpenStreetMap

Few laws about geographical information are known, partly because is inherently complex. Tobler’s first law of Geography and, to a lesser degree, also his second among the rare exceptions. In this article, we explore validity Benford’s in context example OpenStreetMap. More specifically, compare distribution several numerical features entities Benford distribution. It demonstrated that examined accordance with varying degree little variation between types entities. Spatial patterns deviation from shown be similar for some aspects but strongly differ other ones. We show many data tend deviate more than average Africa, Greenland, smaller island countries, South America. Also, scale-dependency explored. Motivated by use detect indications fraud economic and datasets, future prospects limitations systematically develop intrinsic quality measures discussed.