[Tagging] Areas of bare soil (clay, silt, loam) such as badlands?

[Warin]

On 20/10/19 11:19, Joseph Eisenberg wrote:
> How should areas of bare soil, such as badlands, be tagged?
>
> Currently there are documented tags for dry areas of bedrock, stones and sand:
>
> natural=bare_rock, natural=shingle,  natural=scree, and natural=sand
>
> For tidal areas, beaches and wetlands there's also natural=beach,
> natural=shoal and wetland=mud
>
> However, there's no documented, common tag for dry areas of exposed
> clay, silt or mixed soil.
>
> natural=badlands has been used 5 times, but this is rather specific
> and may not be well-known outside of North America:
> https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/natural=badlands
>
> natural=desert is common, but includes all kinds of vegetated and
> unvegetated arid areas; many of these can be tagged with natural=
> grassland, heath, scrub, sand, scree etc.

Desert is a climate, not a land cover nor a land form. Some deserts include 'lakes'.

The key natural has climate, land form and land cover all in the one tagging scheme, I don't think is is a good scheme and would be better separated into the individual things it is trying to tag.

>
> natural=clay has been used twice:
> https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/natural=clay
>
> natural=earth has been used 20 times:
> https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/natural=earth
>
> natural=bare_earth has 23 uses:
> https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/natural=bare_earth
>
> There's also natural=pebbles with 67 uses
> (https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/natural=pebbles)
> and natural=gravel 90 times -
> https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/natural=gravel
>
> But most of those could be scree or shingle, which would be more specific.
>
> Would it be best to describe the type of soil, like natural=clay,
> =silt, =earth, =pebbles, =gravel?

Better to tag specific things rather than a group.

>
> Should mappers use surface=* without another top-level tag?

No.

>
> Should natural=bare_earth be used in general for clay and other bare soils?
>
> Or is natural=badlands best to describe the specific feature of an
> arid area where the bare soil is exposed due to erosion?

I have no idea of what 'badlands' are .. from your information it is not single land cover nor a land form.
So it is a climate? A climate that causes erosion to a bare surface? No vegetation?