[Tagging] Defining amenity=coast_guard

[Graeme Fitzpatrick]

On Mon, 30 Nov 2020 at 23:29, Mateusz Konieczny via Tagging <
tagging at openstreetmap.org> wrote:

> I run into https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dcoast_guard
> and despite that I have basically zero experience with such objects
> I am pretty sure that this description (and an old proposal) has a
> problematic definition
>

Yep.

Of a lot of interest to me, because I'm a member of a volunteer Marine
Rescue ("Coast Guard") unit.

I remember this being discussed previously with the same dilemma - Coast
Guard means different things in different places, from an armed military
force (that also has a rescue function) to a strictly volunteer Marine
Rescue unit, with no official powers of any sort.

Maybe the existing amenity=coast_guard & emergency =coast_guard tags both
need to be deprecated in favour of two new tags:

landuse=military + military=coast_guard: Base for a military /
para-military force intended for protection of a country's coastal waters
against enemy military forces, smugglers, terrorists etc, & which usually
also has a marine rescue function. eg United States Coast Guard, Australian
Border Force (& others). This would render as the standard military area; &

emergency=marine_rescue: Base for a group, frequently non-Government /
volunteer only, dedicated to the rescue of vessels / sailors at sea. eg
British RNLI, Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, Volunteer Marine Rescue (&
others). A good render would be a simple "SOS"! Alternatively, these could
be mapped under the existing amenity=rescue_station tag, but that tag
itself should come under the emergency= heading.

There's currently about 150 x amenity=coast_guard, & only ~25 x
emergency=coast_guard, tags in use, so not a major problem to go through &
correct them. There are a *lot* more rescue bases that should be tagged
though, in the order of 300 in Australia alone!

Thanks

Graeme
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