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Islands vs. coastlines

0

Hi. Sorry about all the questions. I have been touching up small islands around Baranof Island. 57, -135.

So far I mostly just make the islands less jaggedy. Well my question is, is there ever a time to make the area an Island? Vs. a coastline?

Baranof itself is a 100-mile long island. It has many little islands around it.

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asked 20 Sep '13, 20:42

Jfact0ry's gravatar image

Jfact0ry
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accept rate: 0%


One Answer:

5

I am not quite sure what exactly you are asking here. I'll try to answer anyway. :-)

You always have to tag all ways forming the coastline as natural=coastline. You may add other tags, but, because coastlines are handled special, no other tag is ever handled quite in the same way. Some people add place=island tags to the coastline ways, some like to put place=island on a node in the middle of an island. Sometimes an island is completely covered in forest and you can put landuse=forest on the way, too. But you always need the natural=coastline tag!

answered 21 Sep '13, 08:22

Jochen%20Topf's gravatar image

Jochen Topf
5.2k55074
accept rate: 31%

1

If the island has a name, then it is helpful to tag it with place=island plus the name. Either on a node in the middle, or preferably a way around the island (or a multipolygon for larger islands). This makes it clear what the name tag refers to.

(21 Sep '13, 12:27) Vclaw
1

Note that there is also a place=islet tag for very small islands.

(21 Sep '13, 13:15) scai ♦

Thank you. Every one of those comments helps. I didn't understand that the place=island tag was additional to natural=coastline tag.

(21 Sep '13, 19:00) Jfact0ry

Source code available on GitHub .