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I'm just adding some postcodes to one of the Nottingham University campus sites and realise that the available Open Data for addresses within the campus means that the addresses don't fit neatly in existing OSM addressing schemas. I am sure this issue affects many large campus sites (Universities, Hospitals, Commercial sites).

Most, if not all buildings share the following address elements University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD. The latter two are OK: one is addr:city, the addr:postcode, but the former is an organisation and the latter an area, which contains many named roads. I expect that there are other organisations sited on University Park (such as the Medical Research Council Institute of Hearing Research).

It is conceivable that one could treat "University Park" as a street name, but I would regard that as highly misleading. Therefore I would like to know :

Are there viable alternative approaches to mapping addresses on campus sites?

Note: this is an example of how addresses dont fit most people's preconceptions.

(I am aware of course about addr:full, but this question is aimed at finding ways of avoiding this cop-out).

asked 03 Jun '13, 10:39

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SK53 ♦
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edited 03 Jun '13, 10:43

Have you looked at other universities in the UK?

I found Heidelberg University in germany, which is a hotspot of OSM-related research, to use the actual street names on the OSM buildings, and to not have a all-encompassing campus relation.

University: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=49.41581&lon=8.67376&zoom=16&layers=M

One building: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/69693726

(03 Jun '13, 12:17) gormo

I wonder whether this is just a case of place=neighbourhood (as an area) and name=University Park.

(03 Jun '13, 14:20) scai ♦

@gormo, older universities such as Heidelberg, Oxford, Cambridge, many parts of London tend to be in scattered buildings on named streets. Nottingham is an example of a fairly modern university which until 20 years ago was more or less entirely concentrated on one site "University Park".

Adding street names or even locality names as parts of the address would be totally incorrect. Many of the buildings, for instance the area known as Science City are not located on roads.

@scai place=neighbourhood is just another fudge because there is no way to know how to interpret it for addressing

(03 Jun '13, 19:39) SK53 ♦

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question asked: 03 Jun '13, 10:39

question was seen: 2,200 times

last updated: 03 Jun '13, 19:39

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum