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I have a couple of water retention swales that I tagged as waterway:ditch for now. The problem is, they do NOT move water. They function like widely spread-out water retention basins that capture runoff from heavy rains and let it soak into the soil, replenishing the aquifer etc. Is there a better way to tag them, or would it be possible to add a new tag?

asked 13 Jul '22, 10:03

AlmaTlust's gravatar image

AlmaTlust
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Is that the same as an infiltration basin which quotes wikipedia: "It is essentially a shallow artificial pond that is designed to infiltrate stormwater though permeable soils into the groundwater aquifer. Infiltration basins do not discharge to a surface water body under most storm conditions, but are designed with overflow structures (pipes, weirs, etc.) that operate during flood conditions."

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answered 13 Jul '22, 11:18

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EdLoach ♦
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Yes, but it is a 450m long trench used for letting water seep into the ground. These are a popular technique in permaculture and used around the world. That's why I don't know how to tag it. It is like an infiltration basin, but it's a trench... ;-)

(13 Jul '22, 13:23) AlmaTlust

I don't believe that we have finely tuned the mapping of this type of feature in OSM, but the various basin tags are a start. They are becoming very common in cities to deal with surface grey water, so at some stage this will be needed.

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answered 13 Jul '22, 20:05

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SK53 ♦
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Well, there is a tag for waterway:ditch that says "infiltration", so this might work as well. The only thing is that waterways are for running water, so maybe basin would be better as this is for still water...

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answered 14 Jul '22, 14:16

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AlmaTlust
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Well it runs towards where ever it infiltrates, I would think. waterway seems ok to me.

(15 Jul '22, 11:46) andy mackey

Another problem is that a basin has to be an area (connected ends), whereas this is a trench (so basically a line).

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answered 14 Jul '22, 14:29

AlmaTlust's gravatar image

AlmaTlust
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I wouldn't worry too much about what the wiki says regarding ways or areas. For example the only two current examples of ditch=swale are on areas. https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/ditch=swale https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/402060142

(14 Jul '22, 16:51) EdLoach ♦

If the ditch or basin has some width, say as wide as a road, for example I would draw a polygon and use basin. But If only 3 metre wide I would just draw a way and tag it as a ditch.

(15 Jul '22, 11:50) andy mackey

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question asked: 13 Jul '22, 10:03

question was seen: 1,348 times

last updated: 15 Jul '22, 11:51

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