[Tagging] Drain vs ditch

Hufkratzer hufkratzer at gmail.com
Sat Feb 23 17:18:12 UTC 2019


On 23.02.2019 00:09, Graeme Fitzpatrick wrote:
 > [...]
 > =drain: Use waterway=drain for artificial waterways, typically lined 
with concrete or similar, usually used to carry water for drainage or 
irrigation purposes.
 > [...]

Irrigate with drains? This was the original question of the whole ditch 
vs. drain discussion (see 
(https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2019-January/042047.html). 
It seems to be a contradiction to what wikipedia explains (and therefore 
is difficult to remember):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage: "Drainage is the natural or 
artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an 
area with excess of water..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditch: "A ditch is a small to moderate 
depression created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, 
to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to 
channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation..."

And we already have irrigation mentioned on the OSM wiki page for ditch 
and not on the OSM wiki page for drain. I think these current 
definitions should be changed as little as possible.



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