[Tagging] Forest vs Wood

[Andrew Guertin]

On 08/20/2014 04:58 PM, Richard Z. wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 06:45:30PM +0100, Rob Nickerson wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Sorry to raise this issue again but it really does need resolving:
>>
>> * for ensuring good data; and
>> * to prevent forest and wood being rendered as the same thing [1]
>>
>> Currently the descriptions in the green box on the right of the wiki page
>> (and thus those that get picked up by taginfo and other software) are:
>>
>> Wood: Woodland with no forestry
>> Forest: Managed woodland or woodland plantation.
>>
>> In my eyes this is pretty clear. What am I missing / why does there seem to
>> be so much confusion?
>
> landuse/landcover/natural need resolving so I would not spend too much
> energy on partial improvements of it.

True, but this is the largest single part of what needs to be fixed 
about it all.

Personally, I think the following scheme would work well:

landcover=forest
	anywhere there's trees on the ground
landuse=managed_forest
	where logging activity occurs or the forest is otherwise closely
	tended by humans
natural=wild_forest
	forests without much human activity, either because they're
	protected or because they're far away from humans

The landuse and natural tags would be in addition to landcover. The vast 
majority of areas would have neither, because they're not cared for by 
humans but they're still too affected by human interaction.

This does get ambiguous anywhere humans decided "we want trees here, but 
other than that we don't care", like the Three-North Shelter Forest 
Program.

landuse could have crop=*, if known.

landuse=forest
	Deprecated. Consumers probably want to treat this like
	landcover=forest. Human editors should change this to a newer
	tag only if they know what is appropriate, with the hint that
	it might be a managed forest, if the original editor was paying
	close attention.
natural=wood
	Deprecated. Consumers probably want to treat this like
	landcover=forest. Human editors should change this to a newer
	tag only if they know what is appropriate, with the hint that
	it might be a wild forest, if the original editor was paying
	close attention.

--Andrew