[Tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - shrubbery

[Peter Neale]

Thank you, @Bert Araali,

I agree that consumers are unlikely to look for "shrubbery", but that "shrubs" could be a useful value for landcover=*.
FWIW, I disagree with the contention by @Vincent that a "shrubbery" MUST contain a path.  He cites wikipedia as his source, but IMHO wikipedia is not infallible.  I could envisage a garden containing a lawn (managed grass), with a collection of planted and managed shrubs beyond it, which would be called a "shrubbery".  I also see little point in mapping an area in OSM to say that "in this area are some tended plants and some paths", but not mapping the paths.
It is unfortunate that "scrub" and "shrub" differ by only one letter, but we manage to distinguish between a "car" and a "cat" ;-) 
Regards,Peter

    On Monday, 22 February 2021, 15:37:59 GMT, Bert -Araali- Van Opstal <bert.araali.afritastic at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
  
Not in my opinion Vincent, I would even say that it makes it more clear if accompanied with a good definition.  I would say shrubbery creates more confusion, as it refers specifically to a gardening concept where it says it should contain a path.  It is also not a common term used in common language in most English speaking countries.  I even doubt, since it's British cultural history, it has an equivalent in any other language, which might cause translation issues for our wiki pages.
 
This in my opinion is not the case for shrub.  To my research scrub is more commonly used to describe biomes and mostly in the scientific world.  
 Since it long history and common use it existed in OSM, and due to the lack of an alternative shrubs it was used also to map the shrubs as you describe in your proposal.
 Last year the UN started a very large project with the UN mappers to map natural features in the DRC and some neighbouring countries.  This will give us landcover, or natural mapping as you wish, to cover nearly 1/3th of the continent.  Scrub is used in that project consistently to map all land with scrub and shrubs, even in villages.  Urbanised areas are mapped using landuse=residential.  This project aims at mapping large areas.  There was still a gap for detailed mapping in regard to urban areas and villages. So also in this context I see your proposal as a valuable and justified addition, but I think no one in these projects will go and search for a "shrubbery" tag.
 In my opinion, if not perfect, the best term seen so far with the least objections, we should go for it.
 

 
 
Greetings,
 

 
 Bert Araali On 22/02/2021 17:57, Vincent van Duijnhoven wrote:
  
 
 But is shrubs not too confusing with the existing tags "scrub" and "shrub"?  Shrubbery does not have that problem.   Van: Bert -Araali- Van Opstal <bert.araali.afritastic at gmail.com>
 Verzonden: maandag 22 februari 2021 14:55
 Aan: Tag discussion, strategy and related tools <tagging at openstreetmap.org>
 Onderwerp: Re: [Tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - shrubbery     
Well noticed Vincent and appreciated correction.  Let's name it natural=shrubs. Sounds perfect to me and fits in the overall tagging scheme. Sorry for the confusion.
 

 
 
Greetings,
 

 
 
Bert Araali
 

 
 On 22/02/2021 16:33, Vincent van Duijnhoven wrote:
  
  Thanks for the reply.  
   According to wiki, natural=shrub already exists to map individual shrubs (just like natural=tree): https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:natural=shrub . So, if at all shrubbery should be renamed, it should be renamed to natural=shrubs in my opinion.  
   About the definition, I didn't knew a better way to define the tag. This definition by you seems also fine to me:  "a group of shrubs or bushes, characterized by stems with mostly a woody appearance and branches appearing at or close to the ground. In some cases the stem(s) are not woody like f.i. in most cacti and some low growing bamboos.". I personally wouldn't add exact height definitions in the definition. I would prefer to supply some images and text on which the mapper can decide whether something is heath, shrubs|shrubbery or tree|forest|wood.  
   Kind regards,  Vincent  
  
 
  
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