[Tagging] Flat area in the mountains

[Brad Haack]

Thinking about this some more, I can think of a few examples where it is 
used as Steve described, relatively flat.  In my examples they are 
surrounded by higher and lower terrain, but not very well defined 
topographically.

Sand Flats, Utah, https://www.blm.gov/visit/sand-flats-recreation-area-0

"A high plain of slick rock domes, bowls and fins, it rises in the east 
to meet the colorful mesas and nearly 13,000 foot peaks of the La Sal 
Mountains."

'A high plain' seems like a stretch to me, but I'm not a geographer.   
It isn't even very flat on the micro level, probably 40% slopes over 100 
meters

Oil Well Flats, Colorado, and Turkey Flats Colorado.   Both relatively 
flat, surrounded by much steeper terrain.

If these didn't have a defined recreation area associated with them, it 
would be difficult to place a boundary to define a natural=* area.

Sometimes place=locality makes sense.


On 4/23/22 17:14, stevea wrote:
> On Apr 23, 2022, at 2:55 PM, Graeme Fitzpatrick <graemefitz1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sat, 23 Apr 2022 at 20:42, solitone <solitone at mail.com> wrote:
>> I would opt for something like natural=flat, since flat seem to be the english term used for this kind of feature [4]. Unfortunately I’m not a native speaker!
>>
>> I am, & have never heard of it being used for a spot in the mountains, only for tidal-flats & other flat areas, usually in the desert or similar e.g. salt flats.
>>
>> I think I'd go with your suggestion of natural=plateau.
> And, that's OK.  I'll offer a US English perspective that I HAVE heard "flat" used in this way.  At one of my visits to Burning Man (1997?) the entirety of Black Rock City was moved from "the playa" (a very, VERY flat alkali dry lake bed in a desert) to Hualapai Flat, a relatively "level" area in a slightly-hilly area.  Also, there is a place in a coastal hilly area near me where people go mountain biking, and partly at the crest of some of those hills and partly what makes a sort of natural "saddle" area or maybe "bowl-like" topography, this is called "Sandy Flat" by all the mountain bikers in the area, to identify where a bunch of trails come together in a kind of confusing way (but we have all the trails and a node with place=locality, name=Sandy Flat in OSM, thankfully, so nobody gets lost).
>
> So, "flat" IS used in (some forms of) English, denoting a "more flat than it is usually around here" kind of area.  Whether that extends in OSM to natural=flat, I'm not sure, but I would nod my head if I saw something tagged like that, meaning "ah, I understand what is meant here."  YMMV.
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