[Tagging] trees and waterways

[David Groom]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nathan Edgars II" <neroute2 at gmail.com>
To: "Tag discussion, strategy and related tools" <tagging at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Tagging] trees and waterways


>
> On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 5:08 PM, Pierre-Alain Dorange <pdorange at mac.com> 
> wrote:
>> ... Perhaps have you a proposition. But for my part, it seems "natural"
>> to use the natural flow of the way has the natural flow of the river.
>
> It may be natural once one knows that you're supposed to represent the
> direction. But I've come across many waterways that were mapped
> without regard for the direction. Three examples, mapped by three
> different people:
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/71760642 Eight Mile Canal:
> flows west into the St. Johns River
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/44644481 Canal L-406: flows
> south into Canal L-405
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/7044872 Venetian Canal: flows
> north into Lake Maitland (I believe)
>
>

It is quite possible that the persons who mapped those waterways did not 
know the direction of the flow when mapping them.  They may have felt it was 
best to at least map the fact the river existed, and then hope that someone 
with greater knowledge would later come along and check / correct the 
direction of flow.  Alternatively they may not have realised they were 
supposed to map the waterway so its direction was the same as the river 
flow.  We do have many people of different OSM experience contributing to 
the map.  Maybe you could politely ask the people who mapped these rivers if 
there are aware of the preferred way of drawing them.  In that way they are 
less likely to make the same mistake again.

The mapping of many features added to OSM are over time refined and 
improved, in this way the crowd makes a better map.  You have noted the 
direction of the ways ware wrong, and are thus able to correct them and 
improve the OSM data.

David