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

Joseph Eisenberg joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com
Sun Oct 20 05:31:21 UTC 2019


Perhaps the term “badlands” is only used in a North America. Wikipedia
has a description:

"Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and
clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. ...
They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation" and thin
soil - but not exposed bedrock, usually.

Photo examples:

1) Chinle Badlands, Utah: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chinle_Badlands.jpg
2) Badlands near Coober Pedy in central Australia:
https://www.alamy.com/the-badlands-area-near-coober-pedy-in-central-australia-image67285952.html
3) Drum Badlands, Alberta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drumbadlands.jpg
4) Las Médulas, Spain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Panorámica_de_Las_Médulas.jpg
5) Valle de la Luna, Argentina:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P1010357_1.JPG
6) Badlands National Park, South Dakota:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Badlands00503.JPG

- Joseph

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019 at 11:14 AM Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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?
>
>
>
>
>
>
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