[OSM-dev] determining the boundaries of cities?

[Peter Wendorff]

Am 31.05.2012 02:58, schrieb Paul Norman:
>> From: Ákos Maróy [mailto:akos at maroy.hu]
>> Subject: [OSM-dev] determining the boundaries of cities?
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I wonder what is the best way to determine city boundaries based on the
>> OSM dataset. What I want to do is simply to have each city colored in
>> light yellow (uniformly), with a black outline at the edge of each city.w
>> I'm not concerned about the streets inside the cities, etc.
>>
>> I looked at the OSM data for Hungary, and of course at the OSM Wiki, but
>> I'm still yet to be able to determine the best way to achieve the above.
>>
>> One possibility seemed to be to go with:
>>
>> boundary = administrative&&  admin_level = 8
>>
>>
>> but this will actually create a full tiling of the map - the edges of
>> these areas not the edges of the cities themselves, but they 'fill up
>> the space' up to the neighboring such areas. basically the 'rural area'
>> between the cities is filled up
> In many places this is correct. Frequently there is no land between cities -
> all the land is in a city. For example, in Greater Vancouver all the land
> belongs to one city or another, including the farmland.
I think, that's legally correct, but probably not, what is needed here.
Even if legally every location is legally assigned to a city and legally 
part of it, it's not what a map should show in every case.
A map that should show cities may be targeted on the city as a social, 
cultural entity, not as a legal one.
Therefore perhaps the area with continuous cover of buildings is the 
target, which corresponds to the reality in the sense of "realizing" it 
if you go out.

regards
Peter