[Tagging] Proposed features / landuse=open_defecation

[Joseph Eisenberg]

Thanks for working on this, Bob,

Check out the page "Proposal_process" and in particular
Proposal_process#Creating_a_proposal_page to help improve the
formatting and make sure you've included important information.

Please clarify exactly what should be mapped with this new tag. Is
going to be added to whole villages, as suggested in the section about
"open_defecation=yes?

"It would have its own sign and could be used as a node or area.
Although it may be added to small villages to indicate if it is their
primary source of human waste disposal."

This would not be a good idea, since it's not possible for mappers to
confirm that every house or a majority of houses in a village lack
latrines or toilet. But the rest of the page suggests that this tag is
supposed to be applied to areas where there are visible signs, in
other words, there's human feces exposed on the ground?

There are a couple of problems with the proposed subtags. It's not
best practice to use abbreviations or uppercase letters in tags, so
instead of "ODA_" it should be "open_defecation_" or
"open_defecation:", if need.

"ODA_Radius_.." "ODA_area_size..." - The first two subtags are not
needed - the area can be mapped instead, and this provides the shape
and size just from the position of the nodes in the database.

"ODA_survey_date=" - there is already a tag for this, survey:date=* or
source:date=* , but it is recommended to add such information to the
changeset rather than to individual OSM objects.

"ODA_responsibility=" is unclear. What would this mean, and how would
a local mapper in confirm this information?

"ODA_proposed_solution=" - Unfortunately, this is not appropriate for
Openstreetmap. We map real, current features, not opinions, reviews or
suggestions, because such information is too subjective for individual
mappers to maintain.

"ODA_abandoned=yes/no" - generally features in Openstreetmap should be
current, so if an area that was used for open defecation in the past
has now been abandoned, and there are no signs "on the ground", then
it should be removed from the database. Some mappers use a prefix
"abandoned:" like "abandoned:landuse=open_defecation".

However, if the area is "disused" - not currently in use, but there
are still signs that it was recently used, and perhaps it's still a
health hazard because of the presence of decomposing human waste, this
could be tagged with "disused=yes".

ODA_survey_hazardous materials_data_weblink= - I'm not sure what is
intended by this tag. Perhaps the existing tag url=* would be
sufficient?

(I've also left these comments on the Talk page of the proposal, so we
can continue discussion there)

-Joseph Eisenberg

On 9/12/19, Bob Kerr via Tagging <tagging at openstreetmap.org> wrote:
> I have created a proposal page for landuse=open defecation.
>
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/landuse%3Dopen_defecation
>
> Please review it, my wiki page editing skills have suffered from lack of use
> so it could do with a little tidy if anyone wants to.
>
> Please discuss your thoughts here. The most controversial area is I am using
> the landuse tag rather than open_defication = yes. Please let me know which
> you would prefer.
>
> All the best
>
> Bob