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I've used man_made=water for a small marina on the Thames here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/58900582

It seems osm.org doesn't render man_made=water as a water body. (I know one shouldn't necessarily take account of the renderer when mapping and tagging, but still).

It's certainly man made; but it seems all the best practice in the wiki for water bodies is natural=water. Should I change to natural=water, even though it is man made?

asked 22 May '18, 17:58

spiregrain's gravatar image

spiregrain
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accept rate: 0%


Given we've managed to almost double CO2 levels in the earth's atmosphere, I am waiting for someone to draw a rectangle in Web Mercator around the entire earth, and tag it man_made=air... ;-)

No, seriously, please stick to conventional tagging practices and use your editor's presets. Keys and tags are just a way to classify something, the exact names are only of secondary importance. Even if a key may not feel "natural", please still use it if it is the documented key for the feature.

In your case:

  • natural=water
  • leisure=marina

would be a good start.

This way, consumers and renderers of the data, don't have to check every possible exotic alternative tag.

Last remark, in this specific case, the fact that it is "man made" is already reflected in the leisure=marina tag. Marinas are by definition man made, even if just marked out by buoys instead of dug, so no need for additional tags.

permanent link

answered 22 May '18, 18:30

mboeringa's gravatar image

mboeringa
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accept rate: 9%

edited 22 May '18, 18:44

Note. We may think rivers are natural but most rivers in highly populated areas have had quite a lot of "man made" over many years, staunches, locks, weirs, navigation channels, mill streams and mill pools, bank reinforcement, cattle drinks and official bathing places are some that i can think of.

(22 May '18, 22:39) andy mackey

Long sections of rivers in Denmark were straightened in the past to make farming etc more efficient and then in recent years a lot of effort has been put into recreating more natural flows (because admittedly perfectly straight rivers are BORING). In most cases it's no longer possible to tell what's "natural" or not, but we still tag them as rivers.

(23 May '18, 09:33) Hjart
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question asked: 22 May '18, 17:58

question was seen: 1,691 times

last updated: 23 May '18, 09:33

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