[Tagging] intermittent vs seasonal

Mateusz Konieczny matkoniecz at gmail.com
Thu Oct 1 07:51:36 UTC 2015


On Thu, 1 Oct 2015 10:16:12 +1000
Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Does 'intermittent' still apply to a 50 or 100 year cycle ?
> 
> I would say YES!
> 
> I think the OSM wiki is wrong in putting the word "seasonal" as a 
> qualifier to the tag intermittent!
> Seasonal things should be tagged with the tag seasonal!
> In fact I'll be brave and remove the  word! It was looks to be added
> by Chrabros <http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Chrabros>  in
> April 2014.. So I have removed the word seasonal from the meaning of
> intermittent and added a 'common mistakes' section for seasonal
> things... And added my comments to its discussion page.

According to what I found "intermittent" is not excluding regular
changes - see for example "Intermittent streams flow seasonally in
response to snowmelt and/or elevated groundwater tables resulting from
increased periods of precipitation and/or decreased
evapotranspiration." from "Temporary streams" by Margaret Palmer, or
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_stream " "Perennial" streams
are contrasted with "intermittent" streams which normally cease flowing
for weeks or months each year, and with "ephemeral" channels that flow
only for hours or days following rainfall." or
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream#Intermittent_and_ephemeral_streams . 

There is nothing wrong with adding both intermittent=yes and
seasonal=yes. Also, there is no good reason to break data consumers by
removing popular and correct intermittent=yes and adding a new tag
(seasonal=yes).



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