[Tagging] waterway=wadi problem

Richard Z. ricoz.osm at gmail.com
Fri Jan 16 18:24:46 UTC 2015


On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 08:23:33AM -0800, Tod Fitch wrote:
> Since we are supposed to use British English, I decided to look up wadi in my old paper edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (can we trust that more than Wikipedia?):
> 
> "Wadi or Wady [Arabic: وادي‎ wādī] In certain Arabic speaking countries, a ravine or valley which in the rainy season becomes a watercourse; the stream or torrent running through such a ravine."
> 

also
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A

- valley. 

> So it seems it could either be the valley or the actual intermittent watercourse. In that respect the term "wash" in the U.S. southwest is more specific as it is only applied to the intermittent watercourse. My impression from Southern California is that arroyo can be the valley/ravine as well as the actual watercourse, so that might match the OED definition of wadi more than "wash" does.

I think we should look at how wadi is used in Arabic and decide if the feature is
somehow interesting - and if the "correct" usage is compatible with prevalent usage
in OSM

https://www.google.de/search?q=%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A&safe=off&hl=ar&tbm=isch&gbv=1&sei=TlS5VKm5EOia7AbVvIDYCQ

To me it looks too much like a synonym for valley, not sure if we need that.
But maybe we need natural=valley?

Richard



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