[Tagging] Tagging of topographic areas with a name

[Friedrich Volkmann]

On 06.08.2013 15:51, Yuri D'Elia wrote:
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/45.2466/6.0866
>
> which has been tagged with a multipoligon relation.
> Unfortunately, the relation has some problems:
>
> - not rendered anywhere?

This is a super-relation, with other relations as members. This is not 
allowed for multipolygon relations. It should rather be a type=collection 
relation. This is how water areas such as riverbanks use to be joined, and I 
use collection relations for sets of rocks etc. too. Don't expect dumb 
renderers like Mapnik to render superrelations, though.

> It seems to me that the closest tagging scheme might be a loose area
> with place=locality. Would that be a good idea?

That depends on what the name belongs to. If it's the name of a lake, 
forest, or other "physical" feature, place=* would be just wrong.

> I saw several proposed tags in the wiki:
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relations/Proposed/Region
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Valley
>
> but not really an official tagging scheme. Valley names are very
> important features for a topographic map.

These proposals are somewhat obsolete, as natural=* has widely been accepted 
as the key for all geomorphological features. See 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:natural, group 3. A valley is just 
the complement of a ridge or arete. Just draw a line along the valley and 
tag it with natural=valley.

> Similarly, we have areas for entire mountain groups, which are
> fundamental for a topographic map in the alps. Again, the boundaries of
> such areas are not so important, but it's mostly used as an indication
> for the name placement.

natural=mountain_range is already in use for the Alps. The mountain groups 
within the Eastern Alps are tagged place=region, see the members of relation 
2113486.

-- 
Friedrich K. Volkmann       http://www.volki.at/
Adr.: Davidgasse 76-80/14/10, 1100 Wien, Austria