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Relation:Multipolygon- single boundary with multiple joined lines

I notice that on the OSM wiki Relation:multipolygon says that any area that has an outline consisting of several ways joined together requires a multipolygon relation.
And also states "Mainly in Germany type=multipolygon has also been used instead of type=boundary for boundary relations. This method was not widely accepted and should be considered deprecated."

This is confusing to me.
This is a boundary with several ways joined together that I mapped. boundary=national_park, type=boundary
This is another with boundary=protected_area, type=multipolygon

Each consisted of a single enclosed area with multiple joined lines.

Which is correct? type=boundary or type=multipolygon

Does The OSM Inspector tell me that it should be type=multipolygon?

boundary tag relation multipolygon

asked 14 Feb '16, 06:34

nevw
9.8k●26●90●178
accept rate: 9%

edited 14 Feb '16, 06:41

One Answer:

Both are ok and there's no reason to re-tag one or the other.

The OSM inspector has a layer that highlights all type=boundary polygons but frankly, that comes from a time when there was still a debate whether type=multipolygon or type=boundary should be used and the makers of OSM inspector - among them, me - were in favour of type=multipolygon. But that ship has sailed, and at least for administrative boundaries, type=boundary outnumbers type=multipolygon by about 50:1.

answered 14 Feb '16, 10:09

Frederik Ramm ♦
82.5k●92●720●1273
accept rate: 23%

Thanks Frederik,
I do prefer to use the type=boundary tags for multi-lined single polygons and reserve the type=multipolygon tags for those with multiple polygons. I'm quite pleased that either way is ok too.

(14 Feb '16, 10:39) nevw